House of Mukhrani
The House of Mukhrani is a Georgian princely family that is a branch of the former royal dynasty of Bagrationi, from which it sprang early in the 16th century, receiving in appanage the domain of Mukhrani, in the Kingdom of Kartli. The family — currently the seniormost genealogical line of the entire Bagrationi dynasty[1] — has since been known as Mukhranbatoni (Georgian: მუხრანბატონი lit. 'Princes (batoni) of Mukhrani').
House of Mukhrani
An elder branch of the house of Mukhrani, now extinct, furnished five royal sovereigns of Kartli between 1658 and 1724. Its descendants bore the Imperial Russian titles of Prince Gruzinsky (Грузи́нский, გრუზინსკი) and Princes Bagration (Багратион, ბაგრატიონი). Another branch, presiding in Mukhrani as tavadi and received among the princely nobility of Russia under the name of Bagration of Mukhrani (Bagration-Mukhransky; Багратион-Мухранский; Bagration-Mukhraneli, ბაგრატიონ-მუხრანელი), still flourishes and has, since 1957, claimed to be the Royal House of Georgia by virtue of being the genealogically eldest surviving line of the Bagrationi dynasty.[1] David Bagration of Mukhrani has been the head of this house since January 16, 2008.[2][3]
Intra-dynastic marriage[edit]
Prince Nugzar's daughter, Princess Anna Bagration-Gruzinsky, a divorced teacher and journalist with two daughters, married Prince David Bagration of Mukhrani, on 8 February 2009 at the Tbilisi Sameba Cathedral. The marriage united the Gruzinsky and Mukhrani branches of the Georgian royal family, and drew a crowd of 3,000 spectators, officials, and foreign diplomats, as well as extensive coverage by the Georgian media.[7]
The dynastic significance of the wedding lay in the fact that, amidst the turmoil in political partisanship that has roiled Georgia since its independence in 1991, Patriarch Ilia II of Georgia publicly called for restoration of the monarchy as a path toward national unity in October 2007.[8] Although this led some politicians and parties to entertain the notion of a Georgian constitutional monarchy, competition arose among the old dynasty's princes and supporters, as historians and jurists debated which Bagrationi has the strongest hereditary right to a throne that has been vacant for two centuries.[7] Although some Georgian monarchists support the Gruzinsky branch's claim, others support that of the re-patriated Mukhrani branch.[8] Both branches descend in unbroken, legitimate male line from the medieval kings of Georgia down to Constantine II of Georgia who died in 1505.[1]
Whereas the Bagration-Mukhrani were a cadet branch of the former Royal House of Kartli, they became the genealogically seniormost line of the Bagrationi family in the early 20th century: yet the elder branch had lost the rule of Kartli by 1724.[1]
Meanwhile, the Bagration-Gruzinsky line, although junior to the Princes of Mukhrani genealogically, reigned over the kingdom of Kakheti, re-united the two realms in the kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti in 1762, and did not lose sovereignty until Russian annexation in 1800.[9]
The bridegroom is the only member of his branch who retains Georgian citizenship and residence since the death of his father, Prince George Bagration-Mukhrani in 2008.[9] Aside from his unmarried elder brother, Prince David is the heir male of the Bagrationi family, while the bride's father is the most senior descendant of the last Bagrationi to reign over the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti. Since Nugzar and his cousin, Prince Eugene Bagration-Gruzinsky (b. 1947, married with no children), are the last patrilineal males descended from King George XIII, their branch verges on extinction. But the marriage between Nugzar Gruzinsky's heiress and the Mukhrani heir resolves their rivalry for the claim to the throne, which has divided Georgian monarchists.[9] The son born of this marriage, prince George Bagration-Bagrationi (born on September 27, 2011) is apt to eventually become both the heir male of the House of Bagrationi and the heir general of George XIII of Kartli-Kakheti.
