| Battle of Gochouri | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of War of the Kingdom of Imereti (1623-1658) | |||||||
 Levan II Dadiani and George III of Imereti | |||||||
| |||||||
| Belligerents | |||||||
 Principality of Mingrelia |  Kingdom of Imereti | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
| Levan II Dadiani | George III | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| Large | Unknown | ||||||
The Battle of Gochouri was fought on December 9, 1623 between the armies of the Mingrelian Prince Levan II Dadiani and the Imeretian King George III, near Gochouri.
Levan II Dadiani raised a large army in a few months and managed to assemble troops from Guria, Mingrelia and Abkhazia, but also from the mountainous region of Svaneti and the distant Muslim province of Jiketi, by the Black Sea. [1] The princes, who controlled the entire maritime coast, imposed an economic blockade on Imereti, leading to a famine which affected Kutaisi, the royal capital. [2] Meanwhile, the high noble Paata Tsulukidze, a close ally of King George III, betrayed his overlord and joined Mingrelia, where he became the vizier of Levan II. [2]
To put an end to this rebellion, King George III in turn gathered his troops and launched an offensive against Levan in winter 1623. On December 9, the troops clashed near the village of Gochouri, where the royal forces were defeated. [3] Following his defeat, George III returned to his capital, while many Imeretians soldiers were taken hostage by the rebels until a ransom was paid by the king. [4] While a common practice amongst the Mongols and Seljuks, Levan was the first in the Caucausus to extensively take hostages for ransom, making raiding a profitable venture [5] [6] and reintroducing it on Georgian battlefields as a lucrative practice, a practice that would be used during the 17th century. [2]
Shortly after the victory of Mingrelia, Levan II Dadiani continued his military expansion by confronting his western allies, the Abkhazians. He accused his wife, Tamunia Sharvashidze, of adultery with his vizier Paata Tsulukidze and had her nose and ears cut off, before sending Tsolukidze under the supervision of the Prince of Guria. [2] With his army, Dadiani escorted Tamunia into Abkhazia and devastated the territories of his father-in-law, while imprisoning his two sons. [2]
Bagrat III (1495-1565), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a king (mepe) of Imereti from April 1, 1510, to 1565. He succeeded upon the death of his father, Alexander II, and faced repeated assaults from the Ottoman Turks as well as the conflicts with his ostensible vassal princes of Mingrelia, Guria, and Abkhazia who were frequently joining the enemy.
George II was a Georgian monarch of the Bagrationi dynasty, who reigned as king (mepe) of Imereti from 1565 to 1585.
Levan, of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a king (mepe) of Imereti from 1585 to 1588.
Rostom (1571–1605), of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a king (mepe) of Imereti in the periods of 1588–1589 and 1590–1605.
George III was a Georgian monarch of the Bagrationi dynasty, who reigned as king (mepe) of Imereti from 1605 to 1639.
Alexander III, was a Georgian king (mepe) of the Bagrationi dynasty, who reigned as king of Imereti in Western Georgia from 1639 to 1660.
Vakhtang Tchutchunashvili was a Georgian nobleman who ruled the crown of Imereti, western Georgia, in the years of 1660–1661 and 1668.
Giorgi III Gurieli, of the Georgian House of Gurieli, was Prince of Guria from 1669 to 1684 and King of Imereti from 1681 to 1683. He was energetically involved in civil wars in western Georgian polities, which he sought to bring under his sway. He was killed in battle while trying to recover the lost throne of Imereti.
Alexander IV, of the Bagrationi dynasty, was a king (mepe) of Imereti from 1683 to 1690 and again from 1691 to 1695.
George V "Gochia" was King of Imereti from 1696 to 1698. He is frequently referred to as George IV when Giorgi III Gurieli, who had reigned as George IV of Imereti from 1681 to 1683, is omitted from the list of the kings of Imereti.
Simon, of the Bagrationi dynasty, was king (mepe) of Imereti from 1699 to 1701. An illegitimate son of Alexander IV of Imereti, he was brought up at the court of Erekle I of Kartli, while Imereti was embroiled in the civil war among several claimants to the throne. In 1699, the Ottoman government sponsored a coup against King Archil of Imereti and installed Simon as king. The latter married Anika, daughter of the powerful prince Giorgi-Malakia Abashidze, but soon the prince and his second daughter Tamar expelled Simon back to Kartli. With the support of Mamia III Gurieli, prince of Guria, Simon managed to stage a comeback and married Mamia's sister. However, Prince Abashidze promised Mamia the Imeretian crown and had Simon assassinated in his palace in 1701. Simon's death and the continuing power struggle in Imereti would trigger an Ottoman invasion of western Georgia in 1703.
George VII, of the Bagrationi dynasty, was king (mepe) of Imereti in the periods of 1707–11, 1712–13, 1713–16, and 1719–1720.
The Battle of Sokhoista was fought between the Ottoman and Georgian armies at the Sokhoista field in what is now northeastern Turkey in 1545. It was the last attempt of the separate Georgian dynasts to fight as one unit against the Ottoman expansion, but ended in their decisive defeat. This might be the same battle as mentioned by Rüstem Pasha to have been fought at nearby Zivin.
Vakhtang was a Georgian prince of the Bagrationi dynasty of the Kingdom of Imereti, a younger son of King Alexander II of Imereti by his wife Tamar.
Giorgi III Dadiani was Prince of Mingrelia, of the House of Dadiani, from 1572 to 1573 and again from 1578 until his death. He was a son and successor of Levan I Dadiani.
Liparit III Dadiani was Prince of Mingrelia, of the House of Dadiani, from 1657 until being deposed in 1658.
Vameq III Dadiani was Prince of Mingrelia, of the House of Dadiani, from 1658 until being deposed in 1661. He was also briefly King of Imereti in 1661. He assumed both Mingrelian and Imeretian thrones and lost them during a messy civil war in western Georgian polities and was killed by assassins while hiding in a refuge of the mountains of Svaneti.
Giorgi IV Dadiani was Prince of Mingrelia from 1691 to 1704 and from 1710 to 1715. Giorgi's accession to rulership, following his ouster of the First House of Dadiani, inaugurated Mingrelia's second Dadiani dynasty, stemming from the Chikovani clan. Giorgi was also known as Lipartiani (ლიპარტიანი) by virtue of having Salipartiano as a fief from 1682 to 1715. Giorgi was actively involved in a series of civil wars that plagued the western Georgian polities. He was eventually deposed by his own son and placed under house arrest.
Otia Dadiani, of the House of Dadiani, was Prince of Mingrelia from 1728 until his death. Like his predecessors, Otia Dadiani was embroiled in a series of civil wars that plagued western Georgia. He spent years fighting King Alexander V of Imereti with varying fortune. In the last years of his rule, Otia reconciled and corroborated with the Imeretian monarchy.
Rostom Gurieli, of the House of Gurieli, was Prince of Guria from 1534 until his death in 1564. Alongside his royal suzerain, Bagrat III of Imereti, Rostom fought against the expanding Ottoman Empire to which he lost parts of his principality. Rostom's relations with Bagrat III subsequently deteriorated over his support to the king's defiant vassal, Levan I Dadiani.