Rusudan of Circassia
| Rusudan of Circassia | |
|---|---|
| Queen consort of Kartli | |
| Tenure | 1703-1712 1716-1724 |
| Died | 30 December 1740 Moscow |
| Burial | Donskoy Monastery |
| Spouse | Vakhtang VI of Kartli |
| Religion | Georgian Orthodox Church |
| Signature |  |
Rusudan (Georgian: რუსუდანი; died 30 December 1740) was a daughter of a Circassian noble and a wife of Vakhtang VI, who ruled the Georgian kingdom of Kartli as a regent from 1703 to 1712 and a king (or a wali from the Iranian perspective) from 1716 to 1724. She followed her husband in his exile to the Russian Empire, where she lived for the rest of her life.
Rusudan's ancestry and family background are scarcely documented. "Rusudan" being the name given to the Circassian bride on her conversion to Christianity in Georgia, her original name is unrecorded as is her surname. The contemporary Georgian sources usually refer to the family of her origin as cherkez-batoni, that is, "the lord (batoni) of Circassians". The 19th-century French historian Marie-Félicité Brosset identified her father as the Lesser Kabardian chief Kilchiko—Kul'chuk Kilimbetov of the Russian sources—who in 1693 had tried to prevent Archil, Vakhtang's uncle, from visiting Russia. Furthermore, a Georgian document from that time mentions Vakhtang's meeting with his Kabardian in-laws, referred to as by a Georgianized surname, "Bakashvili", during the king's flight to Russia through the Circassian territory in 1724. According to Brosset's contemporary Russian author, Pyotr Buktov, Rusudan was of the Misostov clan, one of the most influential families in Greater Kabarda. Butkov also makes mention of Rusudan's other possible native clan, the Tausultanov of Lesser Kabarda.
Rusudan was initially betrothed to the young prince Bagrat, whom his father, King George XI of Kartli, had to surrender as a hostage to Shah Suleiman I in Iran, where Bagrat died c. 1692. Rusudan was not returned to her father and instead remained in Georgia. This should have offended the Circassians, prompting, as Brosset conjectured, Kilchiko to respond vigorously to the shamkhal of Tarki's call to seize George XI's brother Archil and his entourage on their way to Russia. Archil was taken captive, but soon escaped. The shamkhal, in a fury, for he wanted Archil's capture to please the shah, punished Kilchiko by ravaging the Circassian's lands.
...
Wikipedia