Irakli Bagration of Mukhrani

Irakli Bagration-Mukhraneli (Georgian: ირაკლი ბაგრატიონ-მუხრანელი; 21 March 1909 – 30 October 1977) was a Georgian prince of the Mukhrani branch of the former royal dynasty of Bagrationi.

Prince Irakli Bagrationi
ირაკლი ბაგრატიონ მუხრანელი
Prince Irakli Bagration, 1926
Born(1909-03-21)21 March 1909
Tbilisi, Georgia, Russian Empire
Died30 October 1977(1977-10-30) (aged 68)
Madrid, Spain
Burial
SpouseMaria Belaiev
(m. 19??; div. 19??)
Maria Antonietta Pasquini dei Conti di Costafiorita
(m. 1940; died 1944)

(m. 1946; died 1953)

María del Pilar Pascual y Roig, Marquesa de Carsani
(m. 1961)
IssueJorge de Bagration
Mariam de Bagration
Bagrat de Bagration
HouseBagration-Mukhrani
FatherPrince George Bagration of Mukhrani
MotherHelena Złotnicka h. Nowina
ReligionGeorgian Orthodox

Early life edit

He was born in Tbilisi, Georgia (then part of Imperial Russia), to Prince George Bagration of Mukhrani (1884–1957) and his wife Helena Sigismundovna, née Nowina Złotnicka. The 1921 Red Army invasion of Georgia forced the family to leave Georgia. Educated in Germany, Prince Irakli then settled in Italy in the 1930s.

Personal life edit

He married (first) and divorced Maria Belaiev. He married (second) Maria Antonietta née Pasquini dei Conti di Costafiorita (1911-1944) in 1940. Following her death in childbirth in 1944, Irakli, with his infant son Giorgi, moved to Spain, where he naturalized and married (third) Infanta Doña María de las Mercedes Raimunda de Baviera y Borbón (1911–1953), a niece of Alfonso XIII of Spain, in 1946 at the Castle of San Sebastian, Spain. She died in 1953, leaving the daughter Mariam (born 1947) and son Bagrat (1949-2017) behind, and Prince Irakli married (fourth) María del Pilar Pascual y Roig (d. 1994), Marquesa de Carsani, in 1961.[citation needed]

Career edit

Irakli Bagration-Mukhraneli played a prominent role in Georgian political emigration circles and, as an active royalist, remained in opposition to Soviet rule in Georgia. He restored the Order of the Eagle of Georgia and the Seamless Tunic of Our Lord Jesus Christ in 1939.[1] In April 1942 the German diplomat Friedrich-Werner von der Schulenberg attempted to unite Caucasus émigré leaders from the Northern Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia - including Irakli Bagration - at the "Adlon meeting" in Berlin; however, the émigrés failed to obtain the endorsement of Reichsleiter Alfred Rosenberg's Ostministerium for recognition of independence in return for collaboration with the Axis powers.[2] Irakli Bagration sponsored the establishment in the Northern-hemisphere autumn of 1942 of the Germany-based Union of Georgian Traditionalists, which fought to restore Georgia's sovereignty from the USSR and advocated a constitutional monarchy as a form of the government for an independent Georgia. In 1942 Georgian exiles in Rome recognised him as a pretender to the Georgian throne.[3]

Following his father's death in 1957, Prince Irakli succeeded as Head of the Princely House of Mukhrani and declared himself Head of the Royal House of Georgia, assuming the style of "His Royal Highness". He died in Madrid in 1977. His remains lay in the British Cemetery of Madrid until transferred to the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta in 1995.

Patronages edit

Honours edit

Ancestors edit

References edit

  1. ^ (in Spanish) History of the Order of the Eagle of Georgia and of the Tunic of Our Lord Jesus Christ Archived 2007-09-28 at the Wayback Machine (PDF). The official website of the Royal House of Georgia.
  2. ^ Hiroaki, Kuromiya; Mamoulia, Georges (24 April 2016). "7.4: The Expansion of War". The Eurasian Triangle: Russia, The Caucasus and Japan, 1904-1945. Warsaw: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. p. 186-187. ISBN 9783110469592. Retrieved 26 February 2023.
  3. ^ Sklyarenko, Valentina M.; Batiy, Yana A.; Vologzhina, Natal'ya I.; Pankova, Mariya A. (2013) [2006]. 50 знаменитых царственных династий 50 знаменитых царственных династий [50 famous imperial dynasties]. 100 знаменитых (in Russian). Kharkiv: Folio. ISBN 9789660343023. Retrieved 26 February 2023. [...] Ираклий Георгиевич Багратион-Мухранский [...] решил напомнить об исторических правах своего рода. В 1942 году съезд представителей грузинских эмигрантских организаций в Риме признал князя Ираклия законным претендентом на престол [...].

External links edit

Irakli Bagration of Mukhrani
Cadet branch of the Bagrationi dynasty
Born: 21 March 1909 Died: 30 October 1977
Georgian royalty
Preceded by Head of the House of Mukhrani
1957-1977
Succeeded by
Vacant
Title last held by
Alexander Bagration
Head of the House of Bagrationi
1957-1977