Erekle II

King of Kartli-Kakheti, «Patara Kakhi»

1720–1798

Erekle II (1720–1798), nicknamed «Patara Kakhi» («the little Kakhetian»), was one of the most significant Georgian rulers of the modern era. Son of Teimuraz II, from his youth he took part in military campaigns, including service under Nader Shah, became king of Kakheti in 1744, and in 1762, after his father's death, united Kartli and Kakheti into a single eastern Georgian kingdom for the first time in three centuries.

He carried out military and administrative reforms, created a regular army, developed crafts and trade, and patronised learning and enlightenment: his court housed Georgia's first printing press, and the historian and geographer Prince Vakhushti Bagrationi worked there.

Throughout his life Erekle manoeuvred between Persia, the Ottoman Empire and Russia in search of a guarantor of independence. In 1783 he concluded the Treaty of Georgievsk, placing the kingdom under the protection of the Russian Empire in exchange for defence against external enemies.

The guarantees failed: in 1795 Agha Mohammad Khan Qajar sacked Tbilisi at the Battle of Krtsanisi, and Russian troops did not come to help. Erekle died in 1798 in Telavi without ever seeing the treaty honoured; in 1801 eastern Georgia was annexed to Russia unilaterally. His reign is called the twilight of the Georgian monarchy, a time of personal courage in the face of an impossible choice.