Princess Elene of Georgia


Elene was a Georgian princess royal, a daughter of Heraclius II, King of Kartli and Kakheti. She was the mother of Solomon II of Imereti, the last king to have reigned in the Georgian polities.

Biography

Elene was born in 1753 as the eldest surviving child of Heraclius II and his third wife Darejan Dadiani. The young princess had a love affair with Prince Zakaria Andronikashvili, a respected soldier, who was 13 years older. Opposing the union, King Heraclius forced Andronikashvili into retirement to the Russian Empire and in 1770 married Elene off to Archil, a younger brother of King Solomon I of Imereti. Archil died on 6 October 1775, leaving one son and two daughters behind. Heraclius, watching his daughter plunging in depression, allowed her to wed, in 1785, the love of her youth, Zakaria Andronikashvili. Elene died on 17 June 1786 soon after she gave birth to a daughter, Khoreshan.

Children and descendants

Elene had three children of her first marriage to Prince Archil of Imereti, one son and two daughters. Their son, David, went on to become king of Imereti under the name of Solomon II with the help of his grandfather Heraclius II and stepfather Prince Andronikashvili in 1789. The elder daughter, Barbare, would marry Prince David Tsulukidze and end her days in exile in Russia after the Russian conquest of Imereti in 1810. The younger daughter, Mariam, was married twice, first to Prince Levan Dadiani and then to Prince Malkhaz Andronikashvili, becoming mother of General Ivane Andronikashvili of the Crimean War fame.
Elene's daughter of the second marriage, Khoreshan, married in 1800 Prince Zurab Orbeliani. This union produced five children, among them the poet and general Grigol Orbeliani, General Ilia Orbeliani, Colonel Zakaria Orbeliani and Ephemia, mother of the popular Romanticist poet Nikoloz Baratashvili.

Ancestry