Bagrationi, Thekle

Born in 1776 in the family of the Kartli-Kakheti king Irakli II and his third wife Darejan Dadiani . She was the beloved daughter of her father, who for her fighting character called her "Tekle Boy" ( Georgian. თეკლე-ბიჭი ). On September 7, 1800, the princess married Prince Vakhtang Orbeliani (1769–1.03.1812), the Morawi Sagareggio, who had four sons in her marriage: (05.05.1801 - 9.12.1869), Nikoloz (b. and d. 1803), Demetrius (1806-1882), Vakhtang (04/05/1812 - 09/29/1890) ^{[1] [2]} .

Unlike other members of the royal family, Tekle was not forcibly taken out of Kartli-Kakheti by the Russian authorities, after the annexation of the kingdom in 1801. She was awarded the Small Cross of the Order of St. Catherine. The fate of the family of Tekle herself reflected the controversial situation in which the local nobility found themselves with the establishment of Russian rule in Kartli-Kakheti. Her husband, Prince Vakhtang Orbeliani, enlisted in the Russian army with the rank of colonel and was killed in battles against Georgian rebels in Kakheti in March 1812. And Tekle, who, like the sister sisters Mariam and Ketevan , was a poet, wrote poems filled with longing and crying for the lost kingdom. Among the few surviving poems is her reaction to the despair of her sister “In response to Princess Ketevan” ( Georgian .ასუხად ქეთევან ბატონიშვილს ) ^[3] .

In 1832, the Tekle family home in Tbilisi became a meeting place for Georgian nobles and intellectuals displeased with Russian rule. The planned uprising aimed at restoring the independent Georgian kingdom was revealed due to betrayal, and the conspirators were captured by the police ^[4] . Tekle shared with her sons the fate of an exile in Kaluga , where she lived from October 11, 1834 to May 6, 1835. After that, she was allowed to return to Tbilisi, where she lived until her death on March 11, 1846. The princess was buried in Svetitskhoveli Cathedral , in Mtskheta.