The Trebizond Empire

Some Byzantine rulers invaded lands far enough from Constantinople that it made sense to establish the territories as separate empires. One such was Trebizond, established in 1204 (a few weeks before Constantinople was sacked by the Fourth Crusade).

Alexios of the Comnenos dynasty (1182 - 1222) and his brother David led an expedition into the area with the help of Queen Tamar of Georgia (mother of George IV and Rusudan). Alexios set himself up as Alexios I Megas Comnenos ("Great Comnenos"). The connection between Alexios and Tamar has puzzled scholars. Alexios and David were supposedly being raised at Tamar's court. A 14th-century Trebizond chronicler referred to Tamar as Alexios' "paternal relative," but that made nothing clear; how she may have been related to Alexios' father is a complete mystery.

Although the two brothers were part of the royal family, they knew they would never be close to the throne. Creating their own kingdom was one way to improve their situation. Why Queen Tamar was willing to help them with troops is unknown. Perhaps she felt having allies in Trebizond would be a helpful buffer state on one side of Georgia.

Situated around the coastline of the Black Sea (the green areas in the illustration), Trebizond started as a prominent Greek colony that mined silver and copper. It was sufficiently distant from Rome and Constantinople that it was not affected by their politics, and developed its own government.

The rulers of Trebizond claimed to be the proper Roman emperors after Constantinople was taken by the Crusaders. That lasted until 1261, when Michael VIII Paleologos recaptured the area and asserted his authority. Michael also brought Trebizond "closer" to its "parent" empire by marrying one of his daughters, Eudokia Paleologina, to John II of Trebizond, a grandson of Alexios I. John II was the ruler when David Narin of Western Georgia tried unsuccessfully to join Trebizond to his part of Georgia.

Despite constant assaults from all around, Trebizond existed as largely independent until 1461, as well as civil strife. I'll relate some of those conflicts tomorrow.

Western Georgia

After King David VI Narin of Georgia took the western half of the kingdom and seceded from Georgia, he became King David I of Imereti (Western Georgia). This was a rejection of the Mongol expansion that controlled the eastern half, with David's cousin King David VII Ulu remaining firmly under the control of the Khans.

Imereti contained important seaports on the Black Sea, with trade routes and easy access to the Byzantine Empire. David I also developed friendly relations with a Mongol "offshoot" called the Golden Horde. He also was friendly to the Bahri Dynasty of Egypt, Mamluk rulers who succeeded the Ayyubids.

Relationships could be fickle, however. He offered sanctuary to Teguder, a commander under Hulagu Khan who had rebelled against Abaqa Khan, but when Teguder's men started harassing the people of Imereti, David allied with Abaqa's general who had pursued Teguder. Then Abaqa decided to bring Imereti back under Mongol control, and David's brief alliance resulted in fighting (successfully) two Mongol expeditions in the 1270s.

David had his own ideas of expansion. Around the Black Sea was the empire of Trebizond, established by a Byzantine Emperor. David decided he should take it off Constantinople's hands, and took an army there in April 1282 while its current ruler, Emperor John II Comnenos, was away in Constantinople. He managed to control a few areas, but not the empire. David did later help John's half-sister Theodora seize the crown from John. John restored himself to the throne a few months later and Theodora disappeared from the historical record in 1285. It is suggested she might have found sanctuary in Western Georgia.

At the age of 67, David died of natural causes and was interred at the Gelati Monastery (see illustration) on a hill overlooking his capital of Kutaisi. He had married twice. With his first wife he had three sons, who succeeded as kings of Georgia and Western Georgia. He had a son by his second wife, the daughter of Emperor Michael VIII Paleologos.

David's interest in expanding to Trebizond reminds me that, although it has been mentioned, readers might need more detail to understand its significance. Tomorrow we'll look at the Empire of Trebizond.

The Two Kings David

When Queen Rusudan of Georgia died in 1245, Georgia looked for a new ruler. Her son, David, had been sent to Karakoram to be recognized as heir by the Great Khan of the Mongols, Batu Khan, but no one knew how long he would be gone. Her nephew, David, by her predecessor brother King George IV, she had sent to be incarcerated at the court of her son-in-law, Kaykhusraw II, who was married to Rusudan's daughter, Tamar. (She feared her nephew would try to usurp the throne.)

The nephew David was considered illegitimate by the Georgian nobles. His father had seduced a married woman of non-noble status, brought her to court, and had a son by her in 1215. George was forced to return her to her husband (sending David to Rusudan to be raised), but refused any other suggestion of marriage by his councilors. 

So far as the Georgian nobles could tell, the only available heir was the illegitimate David, since they knew where he was. He was also at that time 30 years old and able to understand his duties. He was crowned in 1245 as David VII, and known as David Ulu, "David the Senior."

A year later, Rusudan's son David returned from Karakoram with the blessing of Batu Khan. The 21-year-old became co-King with his cousin, given an earlier regnal number because of his precedence (son of the immediate previous ruler and born within wedlock) as King David VI Narin ("David the Junior").

The two managed to work together well until 1259. David VI rebelled independently against their Mongol overlords. It did not take many battles before he saw the error of his choices. Fleeing to western Georgia, where the Mongols did not have so much influence, he seceded from the rest of Georgia, being crowned in the western city of Kutaisi. (Kutaisi had been the capital of Georgia from c.1008 - 1122, when Tbilisi became the capital.)

Now, as King David I of Imereti (Western Georgia), he had control over several important ports on the Black Sea, as well as passes through the Caucasus Mountains, giving Western Georgia important trade routes.

Two years after David Narin's rebellion, David Ulu tried as well to become independent, joining his brother in Western Georgia. The two could not manage to agree on various policies, however, and David Ulu returned to Tbilisi in 1262, where he was forced to surrender to Hulagu Khan. Eastern Georgia was now a vassal, rather than an ally, of the Mongols.

Western Georgia was a different story, which will continue tomorrow.

Queen Rusudan

Yesterday's post on the hoped-for Mongol alliance with the West mentioned a Georgian queen who saved her people from the Mongols. That was Rusudan (1194 - 1245), who took the only option available to avoid total destruction.

On 18 January 1223, George IV of the Kingdom of Georgia died from complications from a wound he received fighting Mongols. His only son, David, was only eight years old and being raised by George's sister, Rusudan. David was too young to rule (and also of questionable legitimacy), and the throne passed to Rusudan.

Georgia was surrounded by Muslim and Mongol threats, and Rusudan was considered a beautiful woman whose hand in marriage was much sought after by nearby Muslim nobles. Against invasion by a group known as the Khwarezmians, she made an alliance with the neighboring Seljuk Turkish rulers, but the Khwarezmians defeated the Georgians before help could arrive. Rusudan married Ghias ad-Din, the son of a Seljuk emir, who was ordered by his father to convert to Christianity in order to marry Rusudan. They had two children, Tamar and David.

The Khwarezmian invasion and occupation was followed by the Mongols, who entered Georgia in 1235 and controlled all of Georgia within four years. The Mongol army had a simple policy: submit and pay tribute, or the Mongols would kill every living being in the occupied territory to ensure no chance of insurrection. They did not ask twice.

Queen Rusudan ordered any of her army remaining to stand down and submit to the Mongols. An annual tribute of 50,000 gold pieces was required. Georgia also had to agree to provide 80,000 soldiers to join the Mongol army on its quest to subjugate the world.

Tamar was married to a Seljuk sultan, Kaykhusraw II, and later converted from Eastern Orthodox Christianity to Islam, taking the name Gurju Khatun. Queen Rusudan, since she had her own children who might succeed her, feared that her nephew David might try to take the throne. She sent him to Kaykhusraw to be imprisoned. Meanwhile, she sent her own son to the Mongol court in Karakoram to be recognized as her heir by the Great Khan, but she died in 1245 before he returned.

In her son's absence, and since the Georgians knew where Rusudan's nephew was, George's son David was recalled and named King David VII. Then Rusudan's son returned, and a decision had to be made. Tomorrow we'll see what happened next.