Georgia's first woman ruler was officially titled King
No woman had ever ruled Georgia alone when Tamar took the throne in 1184, and medieval chroniclers marked the novelty by calling her mepe, meaning King. Nobles tried to hem her in and a discarded husband tried to seize power, yet her reign became the high point of the Georgian Golden Age.
Tamar was born around 1160 or 1166 to King George III and Burdukhan, daughter of the king of Alania. Her name is Hebrew; the Bagrationi dynasty favoured biblical names because it claimed descent from King David of Israel. In 1177 rebel nobles tried to replace her father with his nephew Demna. George crushed the revolt, drove the rebel clans from power, and in 1178 crowned Tamar co-ruler to secure his line's succession, while promoting Kipchaks and men of low rank to keep the great families away from the centre.
When George died in 1184, Tamar was crowned again at Gelati cathedral near Kutaisi, this time as sole monarch. Resentment of her father's harshness, combined with doubts about a female ruler, fuelled resistance. Her aunt Rusudan and the Catholicos-Patriarch Michael IV helped legitimise her, but she paid a price: Michael became chancellor as well as head of the church, and she had to dismiss her father's low-born appointees, including the constable Kubasar.
The treasurer Qutlu Arslan then led nobles and rich townsmen in a bid to create a council, the karavi, that alone would decide policy. Tamar had him arrested and coaxed his followers into submission. Her own counter-moves were not all successful: a church synod refused to remove Michael, and the noble council, the Darbazi, claimed the right to approve royal decrees.
Her first marriage, to Yury Bogolyubsky of Vladimir-Suzdal, lasted from 1185 to 1187; she divorced and expelled him and then defeated his attempts to take power. In 1191 she chose the Alan prince David Soslan, and their children George and Rusudan each ruled after her. Helped by the decline of the Seljuk Turks and a strong military elite, she built an empire that dominated the Caucasus. She died on 18 January 1213, and within two decades Mongol attacks brought that empire down. Georgians still celebrate her in art and popular memory.
Source: Tamar of Georgia
