Tsotne Dadiani

Political career

Tsotne Dadiani's career unfolded against the background of decline of Georgia as a major regional power in the face of the Khwarazmian and Mongol invasions. Around 1228, Tsotne was among the commanders of a large army summoned by Queen Regnant Rusudan to free Georgia from the Khwarazmian troops of Jalal ad-Din Mingburnu. In the ensuing battle at Bolnisi, on route to Tbilisi, the Georgian army was defeated and Tbilisi once again fell to Jalal ad-Din. After Rusudan's death, the throne of Georgia lay disputed in view of rival claims from her son David and his namesake cousin, a natural son of Rusudan's brother and predecessor, King George IV. Tsotne Dadiani was among the supporters of David, son of Rusudan. During this period of interregnum (1245–1250), with the two Davids absent at the court of the Great Khan in Karakorum, the Mongols divided the Kingdom of Georgia into eight districts (tumen), each governed by a leading Georgian noble. In this territorial arrangement, Tsotne Dadiani shared the governorship of western Georgia with Kakhaber, eristavi of Racha.

Kokhtastavi conspiracy

Around 1246, Tsotne Dadiani joined other Georgian nobles in a clandestine meeting at the castle of Kokhtastavi, in Javakheti, to discuss an overthrow of the Mongol overlordship. The Mongols promptly learned about the summit and rounded up its participants, who, having no troops by their side, surrendered without resistance. The only survivors were Tsotne and the eristavi of Racha who had left earlier to recruit troops in their remote provinces. The arrested Georgian dignitaries, on being brought to Shirakavan before the noyan Chormaqan, insisted that they had no intention of rebelling, but had merely met to arrange the levying of the kharaj, or tribute to be paid to the Mongols. The noyan did not credit this and had the Georgians stripped naked, bound their hands and feet, and left suffering under the scorching sun, according to one account, their bodies smeared with honey to attract insects.

In the meantime, Tsotne Dadiani arrived with his army to the appointed rendezvous at Rkinis-Juari between Samtskhe and Ghado. Upon hearing what had happened, he dismissed his army and, in the company of two servants, headed to Shirakavan. When he saw the prisoners, Dadiani took off his clothes and joined them. When interrogated, he maintained that the Georgians had no design to revolt and demanded to be executed if that was the punishment of others. Impressed, the noyan took Dadiani's self-sacrifice move as a testimony of the Georgians' innocence and set them free.

Later years

After David's return to Georgia in 1250 and his accession to rule in Imereti, the western moiety of the Georgian kingdom, Dadiani stood by his side. He was responsible for bringing a relative order and stability to his fiefdom of Odishi. He died c. 1260.

Memory

The story of Tsotne Dadiani made him one of the most popular medieval historical figures in Georgia. On 26 October 1999, he was canonized by the Holy Synod of the Georgian Orthodox Church as Saint Tsotne Dadiani the Confessor, instituting his feast day on 30 July.