Background
Princess Mariam Tsitsishvili was born at Tbilisi to Prince Giorgi Tsitsishvili, a representative of one of the preeminent noble houses of Georgia.
Princess Mariam Tsitsishvili was born at Tbilisi to Prince Giorgi Tsitsishvili, a representative of one of the preeminent noble houses of Georgia.
Mikheil (1783–1862)
Jibrail (1788–1812)
Ilia (1790–1854)
Joseph (died before 1798)
Spiridon (died before 1798)
Okropir (1795–1857)
Svimeon (born 1796 - died in infancy)
Irakli (1799–1859)
Thamar (1788–1850)
Anna (1789–1796)
Anna (1800–1850)
When George died on December 18, 1800, Paul I of Russia, an official protector of the Kingdom of Georgia, did not allow his heir, David, to be crowned king, and abolished the Georgian monarchy, annexing the kingdom to the Russian Empire. In April 1803, the Russian commander in Georgia, Prince Pavel Tsitsianov, himself a Russified Georgian and ironically a distant relative of the Georgian queen, heard that Mariam was planning to flee to the strongholds of Khevsureti with the aid of loyal mountainous clansmen who were resolutely opposed to the Russian rule. The very next morning, on April 22, 1803, the Russian soldiers arrived at Queen's mansion and Lazarev ordered Mariam to get up and be ready for departure, but the queen refused to follow him.
Mariam, indignant at the attempt to take her by force, drew the dagger from beneath the cushion and stabbed Lazarev, killing him on the spot.
Lazarev’s interpreter drew his saber, and gave her a wound in the head, so that she fell down insensible. (?)
Escorted by a considerable armed force, they were carried away to Russia through the Darial Pass.
During her passage through Georgia, the inhabitants came out to testify their loyalty to the queen and bade her farewell. She was kept into confinement at the Belogorodsky Convent at Voronezh until 1811 and then permitted to reside in Moscow.
Little is known about Mariam’s life in Moscow, but she is known to have been regularly visited by Georgian students whom she helped financially.
She died there at 82 and was interred at Svetitskhoveli Cathedral in Mtskheta, Georgia, with regal honors. The tragic story of Queen Mariam was described in several contemporary accounts, based on the reports of eye-witnesses, and found its place in European literature of that time.
In 1802, the newly established Russian administration started deporting the members of Georgian royal family to Russia proper.