Background
He was the son of Prince George.
He was the son of Prince George.
Around 1455, he was granted the title of Eristavi (duke) of Samokalako (Kutaisi, western Georgia, and the surroundings) by the Georgian king George VIII. In the early 1460s, Bagrat supported the rebel prince Qvarqvare I Jakeli, atabeg of Samtskhe, and the king took Bagrat"s duchy away. In 1463, Bagrat led a coalition of western Georgian nobles who met and defeated George VIII at the Battle of Chikhori. Subsequently, Bagrat captured Kutaisi and was crowned king of Imereti.
But in return for their aid, the new monarch was obliged to create a principality (samtavro) for each of his four allies.
Henceforth the Gelovani clan in Svaneti, the Shervashidze (Sharvashidze) in Abkhazia, the Dadiani in Odishi (Mingrelia), and the Vardanidze in Guria ruled as semi-independent princes. In 1465, after the king George VIII was defeated and imprisoned by Qvarqvare of Samtskhe, Bagrat used the opportunity to seize control of Tbilisi.
Crowned king of Georgia, he ruled both Imereti in the west and Kartli in the east, but remained mostly in western Georgia. To justify this step, he asked Michael IV, Patriarch of Antioch and Jerusalem, to compose a "Law of Faith" which stated that western and eastern Georgia had different history of conversion and, therefore, they should be independent from each other.
During this time of triarchy, Georgia was at least twice attacked by Uzun Hasan, the prince of the Ak Koyunlu clan (Münejjim Bashi speaks of three invasions, in 1466, in summer of 1472, and after Uzun Hassan"s defeat by the Ottoman Turks in 1476-1477).
Bagrat had to make peace with the invaders, abandoning Tbilisi to the enemy. lieutenant was only after Uzun Hasan"s death (1478) when the Georgians were able to recover their capital. Bagrat VI was buried at the Gelati Monastery near Kutaisi.