Principality of Guria

გურიის სამთავრო

Client state of Kingdom of Imereti (1460s-1810), Imperial Russia (1810-1828)

1460s–1829

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Capital

Languages

Religion

Government

History

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Feudal wars in Georgia

1460s

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Annexation by Imperial Russia

September 2, 1829

Succeeded by

Russian Empire

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The Principality of Guria (Georgian: გურიის სამთავრო, translit.: guriis samtavro) was a historical state in Georgia. Centered on modern-day Guria, a southwestern region in Georgia, it was located between the Black Sea and Lesser Caucasus, and was ruled by a succession of twenty-two princes of the House of Gurieli from the 1460s to 1829. The principality emerged during the process of fragmentation of a unified Kingdom of Georgia. Its boundaries fluctuated in the course of permanent conflicts with neighboring Georgian rulers and Ottoman Empire, and the principality enjoyed various degrees of autonomy until being annexed by Imperial Russia in 1829.

Since the 13th century, Guria, one of the provinces of the Kingdom of Georgia, was administered by hereditary governors (eristavi) from the House of Vardanisdze to which the Georgian crown attached the title of Gurieli ("of Guria") c. 1362.

In the 1460s, when the power of the Bagrationi Dynasty of Georgia was on the decline, the Vardanisdze-Gurieli dynasty joined a rebellion of the great nobles of western Georgia, led by a royal kinsman, Bagrat, who refused to accept the authority of King George VIII of Georgia. In 1463, Bagrat and his allies met and defeated the king at the Battle of Chikhori. As a result, George VIII lost all the western provinces, and Bagrat was crowned king of Imereti, i.e., western Georgia. However, in return for their aid, the new monarch was obliged to create a vassal principality (samtavro) for each of his major allies, including the Gurieli family which became semi-independent rulers of Guria with their seat at Ozurgeti In 1491, Giorgi I Gurieli (1483–1512) was recognized as a sovereign prince. From this time on, the Gurieli also invested local bishops at Shemokmedi, Jumati, and Khinotsminda, nominally under the spiritual superintendence of the Georgian Orthodox Catholicos of Abkhazia. The polities of western Georgia fought one another for supremacy, particularly the Gurieli of Guria and Dadiani of Mingrelia. They forged a temporary alliance and organized, in January 1533, an ultimately disastrous expedition against the piratical tribe of Zygii in the north of Abkhazia. This setback enabled the king of Imereti to reassert his hegemony over Guria, but for a short time.

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