Chivalry Nobility Ministry

Intra-dynastic marriage of Georgian Royal Family

On 8 February 2009 the Royal wedding of Serene Prince Davit Bagrationi Mukhran Batonishvili and H.R.H. Anna Bagrationi-Gruzinsky Batonishvili celebrated at Holy Trinity Cathedral of Tbilisi by H.H. Catholicos-Patriarch Illa II. The President of Georgia attended the ceremony.

An agreement resulting from the marriage of Prince brings to an end any possibility of dynastic dispute in Georgia, as the bride is a princess of the Bagrationi-Gruzinsky Royal House, a branch of the Bagrationi family which had previously claimed a hypothetical right to be the royal house of Georgia, and the marriage reunites the two branches of the family.

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.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.Although some Georgian monarchists support the Gruzinsky branch's claim, others support that of the re-patriated Mukhrani branch. Both branches descend in unbroken, legitimate male line from the medieval kings of Georgia down to Constantine II of Georgia who died in 1505.

Whereas the Bagration-Mukhrani were a cadet branch of the former Royal House of Kartli, they became the genealogically senior most line of the Bagrationi family in the early 20th century: yet the elder branch had lost the rule of Kartli by 1724.

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.

Georgian Royal House, in particular, it should be written that the leader of Georgian Royal House is His Royal Highness Crown Prince Nugzar and not Prince David Mukhraneli.

The idea of restoration of monarchy is a most delicate issue and that is why on implementing this idea a great importance is attached to the legitimacy rule which is observed according to the international law. And legitimacy conditions observance of the rights of that one person (which is legitimate).

 Due to lack of information awareness of the Georgian society and in certain cases because of competent but unjustly partial persons there takes place violation of rights of those whom the royal throne belongs to by law. And we declare convincingly once again that the royal throne of Georgia by law belongs to His Royal Highness Prince Nugzar Bagration-Gruzinsky. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nugzar_Bagration-Gruzinsky . This is confirmed by the memorandum carried out by the whole dynasty in 2006 in which once again there was recorded superiority of Prince Nugzar’s family in the royal ancestry. The only Prince Nugzar unites in himself the blood of the baptized kings of Western and E astern Georgia. He is genetically a legal heir of Kartli, Kakheti and Imereti Kingdoms. Also the last king of the united Kingdom of Georgia, Giorgi VIII, was only his immediate ancestor in the whole dynasty. That is why he is by right called HRH and Crown Prince.

Prince Nugzar is the son of Prince Petre Bagration-Gruzinsky of Georgia (1920-1984), a prominent poet and claimant to the headship of the Georgian dynasty from 1939 until his death, and his second wife Liya Mgeladze (b. 8 August 1926). Prince Nugzar is the director of the Tbilisi theatre of cinema artists.

On 18 December 2007 Nugzar met with Kristiina Ojuland, the Vice-President of the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) at the Mariott-Tbilisi Hotel in which Ojuland "paid homage to the Bagrationi dynasty, which has made an extraordinary contribution in support of Georgia".

Prince Nugzar is the senior descendant by primogeniture in the male line of George XII, the last King of Georgia to reign. Historian Raul Chagunava, who has researched the Bagrationi family, believes Bagration-Gruzinsky is the rightful heir to the throne, while Nino Bagrationi, a 90-year-old direct descendant of King Solomon II of Imereti, also recognizes the claim of Bagration-Gruzinsky.

Since 1833, the Kartalinian-Kakhetian dynasts were accorded in Russia the title of Princes of Georgia and the style of Serene Highness (it worth mentioning that the same title was accorded by the Russian diplomacy even to the ruling Bagratide Kings). The Serene Princes of Georgia maintained the Royal tradition of the family in a private way, and made several unsuccessful efforts to have their dynastical status recognised by the Russian authorities. This branch managed to survive in the Soviet Georgia and is headed today by HSH [recte HRH] Prince Nugzar [I] of Georgia, de jure the King of Georgia (Kartalinia) and Kakhetia (born in 1950 and residing in Tbilisi). See History of the Royal Sovereign House of Geroge. http://www.czipm.org/bagratides.html

As for David Mukhraneli, in spite of the fact that he married Prince Nugzar’s daughter, Princess Anna, per grade he remains a representative of the offshoot of the princes of Mukhrani. This offshoot was formed in the XVth century. His immediate ancestors never reigned in Georgia and that is why by law it is incorrect to call David Mukhraneli HRH. He like his ancestors over the centuries had the title of Prince and served the king and was called princes of Mukhrani. 

Download the Genealogical table in which there are presented branches of lineage of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Nugzar Bagration-Gruzinsky and Prince David Mukhraneli.

Download His Royal Highness Crown Prince Nugzar Bagration-Grunisky Genealogical Table.

The newspaper of the monarchist movement "Royal Crown" the leader of which is  Princess IA Bagration-Mukhraneli  who published Prince Barbaccia´s letter of greetings to the movement for parliamentary elections of 2003.

Don  Paolo Francesco Viscardi Barbaccia supported the monarchist movement and the cause of Bagrationi in person of Prince  Bagrationi-Davitasvhvili and Princess Ia Bagrationi Mukhraneli (the same old Royal House of the new wedded prince who was born and has lived in exile in Spain, while Princess IA always lived in Georgia as well as the wedded wife Bagration Gruzinsky of the other Royal branch).

The Credentials of the Representation of the Georgian Nobility in Italy were given to Prince Paolo by the Princess that IA who is the President of the Assembly and leader of the Monarchical Movement of "Royal Crown" that together with the Catholicos Patriarch Ilia II have supported the marriage and the restoration of the Monarchy in Georgia from Soviet times when this was still at the level of science fiction. In fact, Prince Paolo has supported and popularized the idea Monarchy in Georgia and the Dynasty of Bagrationi when the world knew very little about the Royal House of Bagrationi.  

Paolo is not the spokesmen in the Royal Household, but the representative of the Georgian Nobility Assembly for Italy. While the Chancellor of the Royal House has sent two invitations to him, one for the investiture of Knight of the Eagle and the other for Marriage ceremonies.