Rise of Bagrationi dynasty

The Bagrationi dynasty was the royal house that ruled Georgian lands for about a thousand years, beginning with Ashot I, a prince of Tao-Klarjeti in the southwest, who became ruler of Iberia under Byzantine recognition. The family claimed descent from the biblical King David. In the early eleventh century Bagrat III united the Georgian kingdoms into one, and the Georgian monarchy reached its height under David IV the Builder and Queen Tamar, when it dominated the Caucasus. Later the realm broke up under Mongol, Persian and Ottoman pressure into smaller kingdoms, all ruled by branches of the same house. The Russian Empire annexed the eastern Georgian kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti in the early nineteenth century.

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