Nino, Princess of Mingrelia

Nino was a Georgian princess royal as a daughter of King George XII of Georgia and princess consort of Mingrelia as the wife of Grigol Dadiani, Sovereign Prince of Mingrelia. After the death of her husband in 1804, Nino was a regent for her underage son, Levan, and helped bring Mingrelia and Abkhazia, a neighboring principality of her inlaws, under the hegemony of the Russian Empire. In 1811, she retired to Saint Petersburg, where she died at the age of 75.

Princess Nino was born in Tbilisi as the sixth child of thenCrown Prince George and his first wife, Ketevan Andronikashvili, in 1772, in the lifetime of her reigning grandfather, Heraclius II of Georgia. In 1791, at the age of 19, Nino was married off to Grigol Dadiani, Prince of Mingrelia. Around the same time, Grigols sister Mariam wed Ninos cousin, King Solomon II of Imereti. These marriages were intended to cement an alliance of the Georgian potentates which had been concluded through the efforts of Heraclius IIs minister Solomon Lionidze in June 1790. The relations between Solomon and Grigol quickly became soured over their territorial disputes and, in the period of 17911802, Grigol thrice lost throne to Solomons protgs. Grigol and Nino sought and obtained the protection from the Russian Empire, which had taken over the kingdom of Ninos late father in 1801 and eyed Imereti. By the treaty ofDecember 1803 Mingrelia became part of the Russian Empire as an autonomous principality.

Source: Wikipedia