| Ekateriné Dadiani-Chavchavadze | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Princess of Mingrelia | |||||
 Portrait byFranz Xaver Winterhalter | |||||
| Born | (1816-03-19)March 19, 1816 Tsinandali | ||||
| Died | August 25, 1882(1882-08-25) (aged 66) | ||||
| Spouse | David Dadiani, Prince of Mingrelia | ||||
| Issue | Prince Niko Princess Salomé Prince Andria | ||||
| |||||
| House | Chavchavadze | ||||
| Father | Prince Alexander Chavchavadze | ||||
| Mother | Princess SaloméOrbeliani | ||||
Ekateriné Dadiani, Princess of Mingrelia (Georgian:ეკატერინე დადიანი;néeChavchavadze; March 19, 1816 – August 13, 1882) of theHouse of Dadiani, was a prominent 19th-centuryGeorgian aristocrat and the lastruling princess (asregent) of thePrincipality of Mingrelia inWestern Georgia. She was regent during the minority of her son between 1853 and 1857. She played an important role in resistingOttoman influence in her principality and was at the center of Georgian high society, both inside the country and abroad.
Ekateriné was born to the distinguishedHouse of Chavchavadze fromEastern Georgia. Her father wasPrinceAlexander Chavchavadze, a noted Georgian general andgodson ofCatherine the Great ofRussia.[1] Her mother was Princess SaloméOrbeliani (1795-1847), a great-granddaughter ofErekle II (Heraclius II) of Eastern Georgia. Her elder sisterPrincess Nino married the famous Russian playwright, composer and diplomatAleksandr Griboyedov, while her younger sister Princess Sophie was married to Count Alexandr Nikolai, the minister of education ofImperial Russia.[2]
On December 19, 1838, Ekateriné married theHereditary Prince of Mingrelia,David Dadiani. In 1840, he became ruler of the principality upon the retirement of his father,Levan V Dadiani.[3]
In August 1853, David died and Ekateriné quickly assumed the responsibilities of her late husband, rising from relative obscurity. Recognizing her asregent of Mingrelia on behalf of her elder son,Prince Niko,[3]Nicholas I of Russia assigned her aregency council which included her late husband's brothers, PrinceGrigol Dadiani and PrinceKonstantin Dadiani.
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During theCrimean War, theTurks sent a considerable force to Mingrelia, occupying significant parts of the principality and forcing Ekateriné to flee for security reasons. She soon received a threatening letter from the commanding Turkish generalOmar Pasha demanding her surrender, as well as the transfer of her son's principality to theOttoman Empire. Refusing to dignify Pasha's letter with a response, Ekateriné assumed control of theMingrelian forces and organized successful counter-attacks that inflicted serious damage on the invading Turks.
TheCrimean War soon ended in 1856 with theTreaty of Paris and Ekateriné was reinstated as regent, receiving an invitation to thecoronation ofEmperorAlexander II of Russia. She attended the ceremony with her children, as well as her sister, Nino. According to the Russian memoirist K.A. Borozdin, Ekateriné retained "the luster of her beauty" and looked extraordinary in her "original and richly decorated costume." The memoirist, like many others in modern-day Georgia, refers to her as the "Mingrelian Queen" and states that at the coronation ball, everyone was "delighted with [Ekateriné], her sister, children, and entourage."
In 1856, Ekateriné left the Mingrelian principality to her brother-in-law, GeneralGrigol Dadiani and moved to live inTsarskoe Selo, the residence of theRussian Imperial Family, where she became one of the "ladies of the court." In 1857, she was forced to return to Georgia because of the peasant uprising organized by a Mingrelian smith, Uta Miqava. On May 12, the rebels took control of the province's capitalZugdidi, forcing Ekateriné to request help from Russia. Having already effectivelyannexed Eastern Georgia, Russia eagerly intervened, subdued the uprising, and asked Ekateriné to move toSaint Petersburg on the pretext of facilitating her children's education and upbringing there. Her departure and the establishment of a "temporary" Russian military authority in Mingrelia marked thede facto abolition of the principality.[3]
After moving to Russia, Ekateriné kept her privatesalon inTsarskoe Selo open to the Georgian and Russianintelligentsia. After living there for nearly ten years, she moved to Paris, where her daughterPrincess Salomé already lived with her French husband,Prince Achille Murat. In the final years of her life, Ekateriné moved back to Western part of Georgia, then officiallypart of the Russian Empire, and lived there to the end. She was interred in the medievalEastern Orthodox monastery ofMartvili.
| Image | Name | Birth | Death |
|---|---|---|---|
| Princess Maria | 1840 | 1842 | |
| Princess Nina | 1841 | 1848 | |
| Prince Levan | 1842 | 1844 | |
.jpg) | Prince Niko | 4 January 1847 | 22 January 1903 |
 | Princess Salomé | 12 January 1848 | 27 July 1913 |
 | Prince Andria | 1850 | 1910 |
| Princess Tamara | 1853 | 1859 |
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