Is the Georgian Dynastic Marriage Over?

  August 3, 2009 at 7:00 pm by

In February of this year Georgia celebrated what most called “wedding of the century” for the country: the dynastic marriage of Prince David Bagration-Mukhrani and Princess Anna Bagration-Gruzinsky (see this blog entry).

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The marriage was celebrated in a ceremony at the Tbilisi Sameba Cathedral and was attended by practically all members of the Bagration Family, Government officials, foreign diplomats and members of the European Royal Families. Georgian media widely covered the wedding and over 3,000 well-wishers gathered to congratulate the couple.

Less than six months later, however, it appears that not even the most important dynastic considerations can save the marriage. Georgian newspapers report that the couple separated barely a month after their marriage, and it now appears that any hopes of their reconciliation are lost.

Members of the Bagration family declined to comment on the situation in any way. Princess Anna’s mother pronounced the matter “a strictly private affair” and assured the journalists that no member of the family will share any information with the media.

Both Bagration-Mukhrani and Bagration-Gruzinsky are descended in unbroken, legitimate male line from the medieval Kings of Georgia down to 16th century. Bagration-Mukhrani were a cadet branch of the former Royal House of Kartil but became genealogically senior line of the Bagration family in the early 20th century. However, the family lost the rule over Kartil and had no reigning Monarch since the middle of the 18th century.

The Bagration-Gruzinsky line, although genealogically junior to Bagration-Mukhrani, reigned of the Kingdom of Kakheti, reunited Kartil-Kakheti in the 1762 and didn’t loose sovereignty until annexation by Russia in the 19th century.

Prince David is the Heir of the Bagration-Mukhrani family, while Princess Anna’s father, Prince Nugzar, is the most senior male Heir of the Bagration-Gruzinsky family and the last direct male-line descendant of King George XII.

Therefore, the dynastic importance of the marriage was hard to overestimate: it meant the union of two rival branches of the Bagration family. A boy from that union would be undisputed Heir to the Georgian Throne, as both his parents would eventually become sole Heirs to their respective families.

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