Jorge de Bagration - Head of The Royal House of Georgia

Head of The Royal House of Georgia

Known as "Giorgi" in Georgia, the prince became a claimant to the Headship of the Georgian royal family in exile upon the death of his father on 30 October 1977, and as such uses the style of Royal Highness. The House of Bagrationi is one of the oldest Christian dynasties in Europe, and reigned over the kingdom of Kartli and Kakheti until 1801, when Giorgi's ancestral realm was annexed to the Russian Empire by Tsar Alexander I of Russia in violation of the Treaty of Georgievsk. Many of the Bagrationi were then deported to Russia, and many fled both Georgia and Russia following the Russian Revolution of 1917. Today there is a small but politically active monarchist movement in Georgia.

Giorgi was recognised in 1991 by the Georgian government and parliament as head of the former royal family despite rival claims by other branches of the Bagrationi Dynasty. He inherited from his father the titles Duke of the Lasos, Prince of Kakhetia, Kartalia and Mukhraneli. He was also Sovereign Head and Grand Master of the Order of the Eagle of Georgia and the Tunic of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Protector Egregio of Divisa of the Old Cavalry and Devotion of San Miguel the Milagroso.

Prince Giorgi made his first visit to his ancestral homeland to bury his father's ashes in 1995. He lived in Marbella, Spain most of his life, but moved to Georgia, where his sons David and Irakli live. He died in Tbilisi on 16 January 2008 from complications of hepatitis. He was interred among his ancestors the kings of Georgia in the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta on 20 January 2008.