Giorgi II Gurieli

Giorgi II Gurieli (; died 1600), of the House of Gurieli, was Prince of Guria from 1564 to 1583 and again from 1587 to 1600. Succeeding on the death of his father Rostom Gurieli, Giorgi's rule over his small principality, located in southwest Georgia, was a period of conflict with the neighboring Dadiani of Mingrelia and increasing assertiveness of the Ottomans whom Gurieli submitted in 1581. His reign was interrupted, from 1583 to 1587, by a Mingrelian invasion, but Giorgi was able to resume the throne with Ottoman support. Accession Giorgi II Gurieli succeeded on the death of his father Rostom Gurieli in 1564. The entire length of his reign saw continuation of political strife, territorial disputes, plots and counterplots, jealousies and feuds among the rulers of a now-fragmented Georgia, occurring against the background of the expansion of the Ottoman Empire into western Georgia and the Ottoman–Safavid rivalry in the Caucasus. In modern historiography, he is sometimes assigned the regnal number "III" by virtue of his being the third Giorgi with the style of Gurieli, the first being a son of Kakhaber I Gurieli in the 14th century and the second being Giorgi Gurieli, ruling from 1483 to 1512. Conflict with Dadiani In 1568, Gurieli supported his nominal royal suzerain, King George III of Imereti, against Levan I Dadiani, who was expelled from Mingrelia. Beyond political and territorial disputes, the Gurieli–Dadiani conflict also had personal dimensions: Gurieli's pride was wounded by repudiation of his sister by her husband, Levan Dadiani's son Giorgi; Giorgi Gurieli responded by marrying and then divorcing Levan's daughter. The ousted Dadiani returned with an Ottoman force and compelled Gurieli to buy peace for 10,000 dirhams. Shortly after Levan's death in 1572, Giorgi Gurieli invaded Mingrelia and deposed Levan's successor and his former son-in-law Giorgi Dadiani in favor of Mamia IV Dadiani, whom he then gave his sister in marriage. The king of Imereti intervened in 1578 and, having extracted territorial concessions from Giorgi Dadiani, brokered a deal between the two Giorgis: the deposed Dadiani was allowed to resume his reign in exchange of paying an indemnity to Gurieli for the past offences such as his abandonment of his first wife, Gurieli's sister. As Giorgi Dadiani was short of money, he had to surrender to Gurieli Khobi until the due amount of gold was extracted in full from that town.