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Issues of 2008
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George XII: the last tsar's regalias
After the death of Irakliy II in January 1798, his son George from his second marriage with Anna Abashidze inherited the Kartli-Kakhetic throne. 52 year-old George became the 12th ruler having that name. But he is often called George the13th. The new monarch was a gallant and brave man, who could eat a whole lamb for dinner, drinking it up with a great amount of wine. However, in 1798 in the age of 52 he was burdened by illnesses and became less bellicose. He understood that it was impossible for him to stand all the intrigues and ambitious plans of royal family members, who had their own lands and were ready to look for protection at the Shah’s and Sultan’s courts.
After Aga-Mohammed-Khan’s murder in Shusha, the Iranian throne went to his nephew Baba-Khan, who took the name of Fatkh-Ali-Shah. Later he became known for his “retribution” for Alexander Griboedov’s murder — he sent to Russia a diamond named “Shah”. At that time he demanded vassals’ devotion from the Georgian tsar. A new Persian ruler and the sultan of Ottoman’s Porte asserted their claims over Georgia. George XII was planning to send special secret embassies to both sovereigns. In addition, he kept sending letters to the Georgian ambassador in Russia, Garsevan Chavchavadze, and to Georgian representatives in the Russian court with his father in law Tsitsianov in charge, asking to hurry Paul I to admit and confirm the Russian patronage over Georgia. Only on August 23, 1798 Paul I sent George XII a document in which he congratulated the new Georgian tsar with ascending the throne. He also mentioned that he was waiting for an official application of the vassal’s establishment on the throne by “the power of George treaty”. A corresponding petition was sent to St. Petersburg by the Kartalino-Kakhetic ruler in November 1798, and on December 29 the Emperor ordered to make the symbols of power for the new Georgian tsar. A crown, a scepter and a saber were urgently manufactured by Termen and goldsmith Licht. Moreover, the highest insignias of the Russian Empire made by the “emperor’s court jeweler”, Jacob Duval, were sent to George XII (he was officially admitted as the heir by Paul I), his wife and to Prince David. Tsarina Maria also received a diamond bouquet made by “Louis-David Duval and son” workshop. However, anticipating his imminent death and understanding that it would be hard for his heir to ascend the throne by peaceful means and hold it, George XII sent an embassy to the Emperor in St. Petersburg. But ambassadors had a secret decree to tell Paul I verbally about the Georgian tsar’s desire to get rid of the throne in favor of Paul I saving only the tsar’s title. Paul I signed the Manifesto of the annexation of Georgia by the Russia Empire on of December 22, 1800. The Emperor wanted to place the Maltese knights in the Caucasus and seriously considered the territories close to the Holy Sepulchre, and profits annually sent to Jerusalem to be used for the establishment of the Great Georgian priory, which would form one of the greatest Russian priories. However, the Emperor waited for the request for Russian citizenship from representatives of all Georgian social classes so the world would know that not only two or three people, but all Georgians desired to be under Russian power. That is why the Manifesto of Paul I was published on January, 18 1801 in St. Petersburg, three weeks after the death of George XII, who did not see the embassy’s return. The Emperor’s decree was announced in all Tiflisian (Tbilisian) churches on February 16 and on February 17. Members of the Georgian royal family, who wanted to rule on their own on the throne of their ancestors, did not recognize the dead predecessor’s desire. The angry lord deprived his vassals of the tsar’s title. On March 6, 1801, Paul I, preparing to meet a Georgian delegation according to the ceremony of Byzantine Emperors in dalmatic, clothes of “their previous sovereigns”, issued a decree in which the Kartl-Kakchetian kingdom was called just a Georgian province and a part of the Russian Empire. The joining of East Georgia to Russia was finally confirmed by the Manifesto signed be Alexander I on September 12, 1801. The crown and scepter of Kartl-Kakchetin tsars was added to official Russian regalia and on February 20, 1801 were sent to St.Petersburg under convoy of armed guards. In 1811 according to the order of Alexander I, they were passed to the Armory Chamber. Thus form that time Russian sovereigns received the title of Georgian tsars. Georgian crown was represented not only in the Georgian coat of arms; in 1822 it was asserted in the large coat of arms of the Russian empire, surmounting the coats of arms of the Georgian lands. The Damascus saber, scattered with precious stones, was irretrievably disappeared. In 1922, the Soviet government examined the question of national relics’ return from Russian museums, initiated by the People’s Commissariat of education. At the session on August 29, under the chairmanship of A. Enykidze, they made a decision to return all Georgian regalia and old and rare pieces kept in museums and storehouses in the Russian Socialistic Federative Soviet Republic to the Georgian Soviet Socialistic Republic. The crown left the Armory Chamber on February 6, 1923. Fortunately, the staff of the museum managed to save a drawing by F. Solntsev depicting the symbol of power of George XII, the vassal of the Russian Emperor. At last the crown appeared in the Tbilisian State museum of Georgian History and Ethnography, later renamed into Aminranashvili Georgian State Museum of Arts. At the Georgian State Historical museum named after S. Djanishia, there is a throne made in St. Petersburg, which was sent to George XII by Emperor Paul I.
However, in 1930, according to the decision of the Georgian government, the last Kartl-Kakchetian tsar’s crown strewn with diamonds and large grass-green emeralds, garnets, and blood-red and violet amethysts, was sold abroad. According to Georgian researcher Natalia Beruchashvili, the rare and unique piece was bought by Mr. Deterdink, the founder of the Royal Dutch Shell Company. After his death, his widow brought the crown of the Georgian ruler to Germany, where it was lost. Reportedly, nowadays the crown is kept in a private Dutch collection. The scepter of George XII remained in the old treasury of Moscow tsars. They did not touch it during the years of Revolution, because since the second half of the XIX century the scepter was wrongly considered regalia of Paul I. On the top of the rod in the plate at the eagle’s chest there is a monogram of Paul I, which symbolizes the power of Russian Emperor over his vassal, the tsar of Eastern Georgia. The scepter was created by the best St. Petersburg jewelers: each master completed his own part of the job, but it seems that the piece was made by a single artist. It seems that the golden trunk grows from the bunch of leaves, which surface is covered with transparent emerald-green enamel, contrasted with vermillion rubies and diamonds sparkling by all colors of a rainbow. Striking skill of gold processing, clean casting, the finest coining and engraving, enamel of amazing beauty made by brothers Pierre-Etienne and Francois-Claude Termin combined with a magnificent selection of precious stones and their skillful strengthening made by Nathanael-Gottlob Licht. In the late XVIII century, the names of the Romanovs and Bagrationi royal houses were united in the scepter. That became an amazing forerunner of their descendants’ real alliance. In 1946 Grand Duke Vladimir, son of Grand Duke Kirill (coming from the third son of Alexander II), restored the Bagrationi senior branch tsar’s title by marrying princess Leonida from Bagrationi family.
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