Kingdom of Georgia
The Kingdom of Georgia (Georgian: საქართველოს სამეფო) also known as Georgian Empire was a medieval monarchy established in 975 by Bagrat III. The kingdom reached its Golden Age of political and economic strength during the reign of King David IV the Builder and Queen Tamar the Great from 11th to 13th centuries. It fell to the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, but managed to re-assert sovereignty by the 1340s. Renewed Turco-Mongol incursions from 1386 led to the final collapse of the kingdom into anarchy by 1466 and the mutual recognition of its constituent kingdoms of Kartli, Kakheti and Imereti as independent states between 1490 and 1493. A unified Georgian state would not emerge again until 1762, when the kingdoms of Kartli and Kakheti merged to form unified Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti. In 1801 the state was annexed by the Russian Empire and remained under Russian (and later Soviet) rule until 1991 (see Georgian SSR), when present day Georgia was founded.
Origins
The ascendancy of the Bagrationi dynasty can be traced to the 8th century, when they came to rule Tao-Klarjeti. The restoration of the Georgian kingship begins in AD 888, when Adarnase IV of Iberia took the title of "King of Georgians".
The United Kingdom of Georgia was established in 1008. In this year Bagrat III, son of Gurgen II, became the ruler of the Kingdom of Western Georgia (Kingdom of Abkhazeti), including the Principalities of Imereti, Samegrelo, Abkhazeti (Abkhazia), Guria and Svaneti. Bagrat's mother was Queen Gurandukht, a daughter of George II of Abkhazia.
