Andronikashvili
Encyclopedia
Georgia (country)
Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
which claimed their descent from the Byzantine
Byzantine Empire
The Byzantine Empire was the Eastern Roman Empire during the periods of Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, centred on the capital of Constantinople. Known simply as the Roman Empire or Romania to its inhabitants and neighbours, the Empire was the direct continuation of the Ancient Roman State...
Comnenid dynasty and played a prominent role in political, military and religious life of Georgia. After the Russian annexation of Georgia (1801), the Andronikashvili were confirmed in the dignity of knyaz
Knyaz
Kniaz, knyaz or knez is a Slavic title found in most Slavic languages, denoting a royal nobility rank. It is usually translated into English as either Prince or less commonly as Duke....
Andronikov in 1826.
Origin
The surname Andronikashvili, literally meaning "children [descendants] of Andronikos", is certainly attested in the sixteenth-century documents, but the oral tradition has it that the family descends from Alexios Komnenos, the illegitimate son of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I KomnenosAndronikos I Komnenos
Andronikos I Komnenos was Byzantine Emperor from 1183 to 1185). He was the son of Isaac Komnenos and grandson of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos.-Early years:...
(ruled 1183-1185) by his mistress and relative Theodora Komnene
Theodora Komnene
Theodora Komnene or Comnena was a niece of Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus, and wife of King Baldwin III of Jerusalem.-Family:Theodora was a daughter of the sebastokratōr Isaac Komnenos by his second wife, Eirene Synadene...
, Queen Dowager
Queen Dowager
A queen dowager or dowager queen is a title or status generally held by the widow of a deceased king. In the case of the widow of a deceased emperor, the title of empress dowager is used...
of Jerusalem
Kingdom of Jerusalem
The Kingdom of Jerusalem was a Catholic kingdom established in the Levant in 1099 after the First Crusade. The kingdom lasted nearly two hundred years, from 1099 until 1291 when the last remaining possession, Acre, was destroyed by the Mamluks, but its history is divided into two distinct periods....
. After the deposition and brutal murder of his father, Alexios is said to have taken refuge at the court of his relative Tamar of Georgia
Tamar of Georgia
Tamar , of the Bagrationi dynasty, was Queen Regnant of Georgia from 1184 to 1213. Tamar presided over the "Golden age" of the medieval Georgian monarchy...
who granted him a large estate in the eastern Georgian province of Kakheti
Kakheti
Kakheti is a historical province in Eastern Georgia inhabited by Kakhetians who speak a local dialect of Georgian. It is bordered by the small mountainous province of Tusheti and the Greater Caucasus mountain range to the north, Russian Federation to the Northeast, Azerbaijan to the Southeast, and...
. In spite of the extremely fragmentary nature of the early Andronikashvili pedigree, Professor Cyril Toumanoff
Cyril Toumanoff
Cyril Leo Heraclius, Prince Toumanoff was an United States-based historian and genealogist who mostly specialized in the history and genealogies of medieval Georgia, Armenia, the Byzantine Empire, and Iran...
(1976) has accepted the Komnenid version as plausible, but the evidence marshaled by Kuršankis (1977) suggests that this might have been only a legend. Toumanoff has also assumed that the line of the "provincial kings" of Alastani
Alastaneli
Alastaneli was a title of the Georgian dynastic princes ruling over the province of Javakheti from their castle at Alastani in the 13th and 14th centuries. According to traditional Georgian genealogy, this dynasty was a branch of the royal house of Bagrationi, stemming from King David VIII of...
(c. 1230—1348), known from the medieval Georgian sources and including the one named Andronike, might have belonged to the Georgian Komnenoi/Andronikashvili.
Status and possessions
Kingdom of Georgia
The Kingdom of Georgia was a medieval monarchy established in AD 978 by Bagrat III.It flourished during the 11th and 12th centuries, the so-called "golden age" of the history of Georgia. It fell to the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, but managed to re-assert sovereignty by 1327...
later in the fifteenth century. Their aboriginal appanage was known as "Saandroniko" (საანდრონიკო) or "Saendroniko" (საენდრონიკო) and comprised several villages including Melaani, Chalaubani, and Pkhoveli. In the sixteenth century, the family acquired the office of High Constable (mouravi
Mouravi
Mouravi was an administrative and military officer in early modern Georgia, normally translated into English as seneschal, bailiff, or sometimes as constable. Mouravi was an appointed royal official who had a jurisdiction over particular town or district. In towns, mouravi was assisted by a police...
) of K’iziqi which became hereditary in the main line (sometimes known as Abelashvili, აბელაშვილები). A century later, a branch (also known as Zurabashvili, ზურაბაშვილები) attained to a similar position in Martqopi.
Along with the Cholokashvili
Cholokashvili
Cholokashvili is a former noble family in Georgia. It claimed an exotic foreign lineage and first appeared in the eastern Georgian province, and later kingdom, of Kakheti in 1320...
and Abashidze
Abashidze
Abashidze is a Georgian family and a former princely house. Appearing in the 15th century, they achieved prominence in the Kingdom of Imereti in western Georgia in the late 17th century and branched out in eastern Georgian kingdoms of Kakheti and Kartli as well as the then-Ottoman-held...
families, the Andronikashvili were regarded as grandee
Grandee
Grandee is the word used to render in English the Iberic high aristocratic title Grande , used by the Spanish nobility; Portuguese nobility, and Brazilian nobility....
s of the first class of the Kingdom of Kakheti
Kingdom of Kakheti
The Kingdom of Kakheti was a late medieval/early modern monarchy in eastern Georgia, centered at the province of Kakheti, with its capital first at Gremi and then at Telavi...
. They held key political, diplomatic and military posts at the court and were distinguished for their particular loyalty to the royal Bagrationi dynasty
Bagrationi Dynasty
The Bagrationi dynasty was the ruling family of Georgia. Their ascendency lasted from the early Middle Ages until the early 19th century. In modern usage, this royal line is frequently referred to as the Georgian Bagratids, a Hellenized form of their dynastic name.The origin of the Bagrationi...
with which they had ties of marriage. In the 1780s, they functioned as military governors of Ganja Khanate
Ganja Khanate
The Ganja khanate was a Muslim principality mostly under the dominion of Persia that existed in the territory of Azerbaijan in 1747-1805. The principality was ruled by the dynasty of Ziyadoglu , which had ruled Ganja as governors under Nadir Shah and was of Qajar extraction...
which was briefly subjugated by King Erekle II
Erekle II
Erekle II was a Georgian monarch of the Bagrationi Dynasty, reigning as the king of Kakheti from 1744 to 1762, and of Kartli and Kakheti from 1762 until 1798. In the contemporary Persian sources he is referred to as Erekli Khan, while Russians knew him as Irakli...
to Georgian control. Several representatives of the family served also as bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
s of Bodbe
Bodbe Monastery
The Monastery of St. Nino at Bodbe is a Georgian Orthodox monastic complex and the seat of the Bishops of Bodbe located 2 km from the town of Sighnaghi, Kakheti, Georgia. Originally built in the 9th century, it has been significantly remodeled, especially in the 17th century...
, Ninotsminda, Alaverdi and Nekresi.
After the Russian annexation of Georgia (1801), the Andronikashvili were confirmed in the dignity of knyaz
Knyaz
Kniaz, knyaz or knez is a Slavic title found in most Slavic languages, denoting a royal nobility rank. It is usually translated into English as either Prince or less commonly as Duke....
in 1826 and mostly served in the Russian army.
Following the Bolshevik
Bolshevik
The Bolsheviks, originally also Bolshevists , derived from bol'shinstvo, "majority") were a faction of the Marxist Russian Social Democratic Labour Party which split apart from the Menshevik faction at the Second Party Congress in 1903....
takeover in the 1917 October Revolution
October Revolution
The October Revolution , also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution , Red October, the October Uprising or the Bolshevik Revolution, was a political revolution and a part of the Russian Revolution of 1917...
, the head of the family, Jesse Andronikashvili (Andronikov), managed to send his family to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, while himself spent several years in Soviet
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
prisons before being shot in 1937. His son, Constantin Andronikof
Constantin Andronikof
Prince Constantin Andronikof was a French theologian, interpreter and translator.He was born in a notable Georgian aristocratic family of Andronikashvili in Petrograd, Imperial Russia. During the Russian Civil War of 1917, he left Russia with his mother and grandmother. They arrived in Paris,...
(1916–1997) was a French diplomat, the Dean of St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute
St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute
The Institut de théologie orthodoxe Saint-Serge in Paris, France, or St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute is a private school of higher education in Orthodox theology, founded in 1925, in conformity with French legislation and the norms of European university education, accredited by the...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, and translator of Sergei Bulgakov
Sergei Bulgakov
Fr. Sergei Nikolaevich Bulgakov was a Russian Orthodox Christian theologian, philosopher and economist. Until 1922 he worked in Russia; afterwards in Paris.-Early life:...
's theological writings into French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
.
Family tree of the main princely line
Notable members
- Zakaria Andronikashvili (c. 1740-1800), military commander
- Zaal Andronikashvili (died 1803), military commander
- Ivane AndronikashviliIvane AndronikashviliPrince Ivane Andronikashvili , also known as Knyaz Ivan Malkhazovich Andronnikov was a Georgian noble and general in the Imperial Russian service....
(1798–1868), general in the Russian service - Alexander AndronikashviliAlexander AndronikashviliAlexander Andronikashvili also known as Andronikov was a Georgian military commander and anti-Soviet resistance leader.Of an old noble family, Andronikashvili served in the Imperial Russian army and was promoted to the rank of general in World War I. He then served for the General Staff of the...
(1892–1923), anti-Soviet guerrilla leader - Elepter AndronikashviliElepter AndronikashviliElephter Luarsabovich Andronikashvili was a Georgian physicist. He was a brother of Russian historian Irakly Andronikov.- Biography :...
(1910–1989), physicist - Irakly AndronikovIrakly AndronikovIrakly Luarsabovich Andronikov was a Russian literature historian, philologist, and media personality....
(1908–1990), historian, philologist and media personality - Constantin AndronikofConstantin AndronikofPrince Constantin Andronikof was a French theologian, interpreter and translator.He was born in a notable Georgian aristocratic family of Andronikashvili in Petrograd, Imperial Russia. During the Russian Civil War of 1917, he left Russia with his mother and grandmother. They arrived in Paris,...
(1916–1997), diplomat in the French service and a major French translator of Russian religious thought.