Alexander Bagration
Prince of Mukhrani
Prince Alexander Bagration, The Prince of Mukhrani (1 August [O.S. 20 July] 1853 – 12 November [O.S. 30 October] 1918) was a Georgian nobleman, and head of the princely House of Mukhrani, a collateral branch of the former royal dynasty of Bagrationi and a descendant of Erekle II, the penultimate monarch of the Kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti. A general in the Imperial Russian service and member of the tsar Nicholas II’s immediate circle, he was killed by the Bolsheviks in the post-revolution turmoil in Russia. Alexander was born to Prince Irakli Bagration of Mukhrani and Princess Ketevan née Argutinsky-Dolgorukov in the village of Mchadijvari, Georgia, then part of the Russian Empire. Educated at Nikolaevsky Cavalry School, he entered the Russian military service in 1874 and took part in the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878). He was promoted to colonel in 1893 and served in the Caucasus military district until 1902, when he was appointed commander of the Nizhny Novgorod dragoon regiment. In 1903, Prince Alexander succeeded on the death of his cousin Konstantin as Head of the Princely House of Mukhrani. Next year, he was made major-general and placed in command of the Leib Guard cavalry regiment. In 1905, he was appointed major-general à la suite to Tsar Nicholas II.
The Life Guard Horse Regiment was a cavalry regiment of the Imperial guard of Russian Empire. The regiment was founded in the reign of Peter the Great and was disbanded after the October Revolution in 1917. Its annual feast day was 25 March. The regiment was formed on 7 March 1721 from the Life Dragoon Squadron of Prince Alexander Danilovich Menshikov, the Dragoon Company of Count Sheremetev, and the Kronshlot Dragoon Company. On 21 December 1725, the regiment was reorganized along the lines of Swedish regiments and staffed exclusively by nobles. Unlike other dragoons, the regimental colour was red and their waistcoats had golden cords; they carried two pistols instead of one, and no axes. The regiment was granted the timpani drums captured from the Swedish Horse Guards at the Battle of Poltava on 8 July 1709. On 31 December 1730 (N.S. 11 January 1731), the regiment was renamed the Horse Guards and given all the rights of the guards, marking the beginning of the regular guards cavalry. The regiment consisted of 5 squadrons of 2 companies each, a total of 1,423 people of which 1,111 were front-line officers. Empress Anna Ioannovna accepted the honorary rank of colonel or chief of the regiment; this title was subsequently held by Peter III of Russia, Catherine the Great and others. The casual uniform of the horse guards was similar to the dragoons, differing only in the jacket's red
color and the trousers. The parade uniform consisted of a tunic, undertail and pants made from buckskin leather, an iron half-sleeve with copper elements, a broadsword on the waist belt, a carbine without a bayonet with a sash and two pistols. Equipment and horse headgear were similar to that of the dragoons. Since the time of Empress Anna Ioannovna, the regiment was staffed mainly by the Ostsee (Baltic) Germans. In 1801, Emperor Alexander I changed its name to the Life Guards Equestrian Regiment. After the death of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich in 1831, each successive regimental chief was a regent or heir to the throne.
The House of Mukhrani is a Georgian princely family that is a branch of the former royal dynasty of Bagrationi, from which it sprang early in the 16th century, receiving in appanage the domain of Mukhrani, in the Kingdom of Kartli. The family — currently the seniormost genealogical line of the entire Bagrationi dynasty — has since been known as Mukhranbatoni. An elder branch of the house of Mukhrani, now extinct, furnished five royal sovereigns of Kartli between 1658 and 1724. Its descendants bore the Imperial Russian titles of Prince Gruzinsky and Princes Bagration. Another branch, presiding in Mukhrani as tavadi and received among the princely nobility of Russia under the name of Bagration of Mukhrani. Origins of the house of Mukhrani date back to 1512, when King David X of Kartli was obliged to create his younger brother Bagrat a hereditary lord of Mukhrani in order to secure his support against encroachments from another Georgian ruler, King George II of Kakheti. The Ksani fortress built then became a stronghold of the house. Subsequently, the residence was moved to Mukhrani village. Over time, the princes of Mukhrani exploited the weakness of royal authority and converted their fiefdom into an
autonomous seigneury, satavado, that is "a holding of tavadi (prince)". On the death without heirs of King Rostom of Kartli, his adopted son Vakhtang, Prince of Mukhrani, succeeded on the throne as King Vakhtang V in 1659 and ceded the ownership of Mukhrani to his younger brother, Constantine I, ancestor of all the subsequent Princes of Mukhrani. The descendants of Vakhtang V, the elder branch of the house of Mukhrani, retained the crown of Kartli until 1724, when the Ottoman invasion forced King Vakhtang VI of Kartli and his household into exile in Russia, without, however, renouncing their rights to the throne. They formed two lines in exile, both accepted among the ranks of Russian princely nobility, knyaz. One of these, Princes Gruzinsky ("of Georgia"), descended from Vakhang VI's son Bakar and died out in 1892. The other, Princes Bagration, descending from Vakhang VI's nephew Alexander, was made famous by Pyotr Bagration, a Russian general of the Napoleonic Wars, and became extinct in male line in 1920, after the death of the brothers Dmitry and Alexander Bagration. The throne of Kartli eventually passed to their distant cousins from the Bagrationi dynasty of Kakheti. This new royal house united both Kartli and Kakheti into a single monarchy. Constantine's scions, the branch of the house of Mukhrani, chose to stay in Kartli rather than follow Vakhtang VI to Russia. They remained in possession of Mukhrani under the Kakhetian Bagrationi and continued to exercise within the united kingdom of Georgia the hereditary positions of Mayor of the Palace of Georgia and High Constable of Upper Kartli. After Russia's annexation of Georgia in 1801, Georgia and Mukhrani ceased to exist as autonomous territories and its former rulers were confirmed as Russian princes in 1825 and 1850. This line became the genealogically senior representatives of the Bagrationi dynasty, as the elder branch of the house of Mukhrani had gone extinct in its male line by 1920.
Awards: Sash and star of the Imperial Order of Saint Prince Vladimir, Star and cross of the Imperial Order of Saint Anna.
