Ashot II of Armenia

Ashot II is remembered in Armenian historical tradition with the epithet Yerkat (the Iron). Contemporary chroniclers explain that he earned this title not only for his remarkable personal bravery, physical endurance, and unbreakable will, all of which were demonstrated in continuous warfare, but also because of the merciless, harsh, and iron-fisted severity he displayed toward his own subjects and internal opposition.^[1][2]

Ashot Erkat entered political life as Prince of the Armenian Princes. During the reigns of the first four Bagratuni kings (Ashot I, Smbat I, Ashot II, Abas: 887–953), this position was held by members of the royal house who subsequently inherited the Armenian throne.^[3]

During Smbat I's reign, two of the king's brothers—first Shapuh and then David—were appointed to this office. Smbat I was unable to appoint his son Ashot as Prince of the Armenian Princes at that time, because in 897 he had been forced to hand over Afshin, the emir of Atropatene, as a hostage, only retrieving him in 901.^[3] In 903, following Afshin's death, Emir Yusuf of Atrapatakan waged war against Smbat I, but they soon concluded peace. Yusuf subsequently sent a royal decree to Smbat I, appointing his eldest son, Ashot, as Prince of the Armenians and formally recognizing his right to the throne.^[4] Ashot Yerkat, recognized by Emir Yusuf, held this post until 909, when Yusuf invaded Armenia.^[5]

From 914 onward, Ashot, with the help of Gurgen, the Georgian ruler of Tao, was proclaimed King of Armenia.^[6] With Gurgen's support, he was able to launch a liberation struggle against the Arab Emir Yusuf and Gagik Artsruni, the prince of Vaspurakan, who had allied himself with Yusuf. In 910, Ashot led the Armenian army in the Battle of Dzknavachar, where, according to Hovhannes Draskhanakerttsi, the Armenian forces were defeated due to betrayal by the Utians.^[4]

After the martyrdom of Smbat I, the centralized government system of the Bagratid kingdom underwent a serious transformation. Instead of the previously existing one-man title of "King of Armenia" and centralized power, a political situation arose in which three thrones simultaneously appeared, each bearing or claiming the title "King of Armenia".^[7]

These three kings were:

• Ashot II Yerkat – the legitimate heir of Smbat I, representing the main branch of the Bagratid house and enjoying the support of Byzantium and the Catholicos of Armenia.^[8]
• Gagik Artsruni – the ruler of Vaspurakan, whom the Arabs had recognized as king as early as 908 in an effort to divide the integrity of Armenia.^[8]
• Ashot Shapuhyan (Sparapet) – a rival king crowned by the Sajjan emirate, who had become a tool in Yusuf's hands in his struggle against the legitimate king.^[8]

This situation broke the traditional model of Armenian statehood, where there was one supreme king and the remaining princes were his vassals. Such decentralization and transformation of the state system greatly complicated the unification of the country and the creation of a united front against external enemies, as each king tried to consolidate his own power in the region.^[9]

In 909, Yusuf's troops pursued Smbat I, who had fled to Kgharjk and then settled in Dvin. In the spring of 910, Yusuf sent an army against Smbat I, and the troops he dispatched were also joined by the regiments of Gagik Artsruni. Smbat I's troops were led by his sons, the princes of the Armenian princes Ashot and Mushegh. A battle took place near a place called Dzknavachar in the Nig province, during which the Armenian troops suffered a heavy defeat. Mushegh was captured, but Ashot managed to escape. Smbat had fortified himself in the Blue Fortress, and a liberation struggle was underway in the country under the leadership of the crown prince Ashot. Hovhannes Draskhanakertsi reports that terrible chaos and famine had begun in the country.^[4] Crown Prince Ashot was supposed to unite the people, drive the enemy out of the country, punish the disobedient princes, and bring the country out of that difficult situation. In 908, Prince Gagik Artsruni, breaking the alliance with Smbat I, proclaimed himself the king of Armenia, laying the foundation for the Vaspurakan Artsruni Kingdom (908–1021).^[4] Yusuf, wanting to divide Armenia by any means, recognized Gagik's kingdom. However, Gagik Artsruni did not create a rival kingdom in Armenia, and Yusuf's expectations were not justified. All this was compounded by the raids of the northern mountain tribes. Hovhannes Draskhanakertsi reports that such a famine had begun that there were even cases of cannibalism.^[10] In 913, when Smbat I was captured, Yusuf proclaimed Gagik Artsruni the king of Armenia.^[11]

After Smbat I was tortured in Yernjak fortress by the Atrpatakan policeman Yusuf in 914 and crucified in Dvin, the Armenian throne passed to his crown prince, Ashot II (914–928). Immediately after his father's martyrdom, Ashot II, together with his brother Abas, assumed leadership of the liberation struggle against Arab rule.^[12]

Ashot II resorted to immediate and preemptive military operations, striking at Arab military units stationed in various provinces of the country. Armenian forces successfully liberated Bagrevand, Shirak, Gugark, and the vicinity of Tiflis. After clearing Gugark of the enemy, Ashot II reestablished the rights of the Armenian princes in Tashir, and appointed Movses as the governor of Utik.^[13] For his uncompromising and victorious battles against the Arabs, his extraordinary will, endurance and courage, the people bestowed upon the king the title of "Iron".^[14]

Despite his military successes, the country was in a dire situation: years of devastation, Arab invasions and famine had plunged the Armenian provinces into chaos. In order to overcome the crisis and obtain foreign political support, in 915 the Catholicos of Armenia Hovhannes Draskhanakertsi addressed a letter to the Byzantine Emperor Constantine VII the Yellow-Eyed.^[7] In the autumn of the same year, Ashot II Iron left for Constantinople, the capital of Byzantium, on a diplomatic mission.^[8]

Ashot II succeeded his father Smbat I upon the latter's death in 914. Smbat had fought off an invasion launched by the Emir of Atropatene, Yusuf Ibn Abi'l-Saj, but when Smbat surrendered he was tortured and beheaded by Yusuf in Yernjak. Having taken control of the central lands of Armenia, Yusuf installed Ashot II's first cousin, also named Ashot, in Dvin as the "anti-king" of Bagratid Armenia.^[15] Harried by Yusuf's forces, Ashot II visited Constantinople to receive aid from Empress Zoe Karbonopsina.^[16] Ashot II was well received, and a Byzantine force was assembled to assist Armenia in defeating the Arabs. The force accompanying Ashot II, led by the Domestic of the Schools Leo Phokas the Elder, moved out the next year and marched along the Upper Euphrates, entering Taron with scant opposition from the Arabs.^[17]

Ashot the pretender and Yusuf's armies were unable to stop the Byzantine advance, which stopped short of capturing Dvin due to the onset of winter. Nevertheless, the force had returned Ashot II to a powerful position in Armenia and managed to inflict heavy casualties against the Arabs.^[18] This still left the anti-king Ashot in control of Dvin, and civil war raged on from 918 to 920, when the pretender finally conceded defeat. Numerous other rebellions in Armenia also took place, but Ashot II was able to defeat each one of them. In 919, Yusuf instigated a failed rebellion against the Caliph and was replaced by a far more well-disposed Arab governor, Subuk. In 922, Ashot II was recognized as the ruler of Armenia by the Abbasid caliph in Baghdad and Subuk recognized him as shahanshah, or "king of kings".^[15]

The Byzantines were distressed with Ashot II's close relations with the Arabs and dispatched a new force under the Domestic of the Schools John Kourkouas to disrupt Ashot II's position as king and to support the rebels fighting him. In 922, Kourkouas reached Dvin in an unsuccessful attempt to capture a city that was defended by both the Arabs and Ashot II.^[15] In 923, the Caliph, facing troubles at home, released Yusuf, who traveled back to Armenia to unleash his fury against Ashot II. He began demanding tribute from the Armenian rulers but faced considerable resistance from Ashot II.^[19] Time and again, Ashot II was able to defeat and rout the Arab armies sent against him for several years. A second unsuccessful attempt by Kourkouas to take Dvin in 927/8 coincided with Ashot II's victory over an invading Muslim army near Lake Sevan and again north of Dvin.^[15] Byzantine emperor Romanos I Lekapenos soon turned his attention to the east to fight the Arabs in Syria, leaving Ashot II master of his domain at the end of his reign. Ashot II died in 929 without any sons or heirs and was succeeded by his brother Abas I.^[15]

In the period following the coronation of Ashot II the Iron, Armenia and the entire Christian Transcaucasia found themselves in an extremely difficult military-political situation. The Sajyan emir Yusuf launched new raids on Vaspurakan, Syunik, and Gugark.^[7]

In addition to the Arab threat, the situation had also become complicated on the northern borders. In 915, the Abkhazian (Yegerats) king Constantine III, in alliance with the Kakheti chorbishop Kyurike, launched a campaign against the Aghvan kingdom, forcing the Aghvan king Atnerseh to cede important fortresses and regions.^[20] Taking advantage of the chaos in the country, the Gugark rebels and the Utik elujahs resumed their bandit attacks. Although Hovhannes Draskhanakertsi interprets these events as an attempt by the neighbors to create an uninhabited desert-divide in the north of Armenia against Yusuf's troops.^[21] In reality, the mobilization of the Abkhazian-Kakhetian forces was a direct blow to the interests of the Armenian Kingdom, since the previous rulers (Ashot I and Smbat I) had included these countries within the borders of the Armenian state.^[22]

At the same time, the allied ties with the Georgian king Atrnerseh Kgharjetsi began to weaken, and the Georgian prince Gurgen, together with his son-in-law Abbas (Ashot's brother), began to plot against the Armenian king.^[23][24] In the difficult conditions created, when it was impossible to resist Yusuf and restore regional influence with local forces alone, Ashot Yerkat decided to turn to Byzantium for military and diplomatic assistance.^[25]

The Armenian Catholicos Hovhannes Draskhanakertsi played a major role in preparing the negotiations with Byzantium. The latter, with the knowledge of Ashot Yerkat, sent an official letter to the imperial court, presenting the disastrous state of Armenia.^[16] In response, Byzantium sent its special envoy Theodoros Vasilikos to Armenia, who first met with the Catholicos in Taron, and then with Ashot Yerkat in northeastern Armenia.^[7][26]

The Empire continued to view the Armenian king as the supreme ruler of the Christian Transcaucasia, and the Armenian Catholicos as the spiritual leader of the Christian East. This position was expressed in the letters of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Nicholas the Mystic, addressed both to the Armenian Catholicos and to other Christian leaders in the region.^[27] The Patriarch urged the Abkhazian king and the Georgian princes to listen to the advice of the Armenian Catholicos, stop the conflict, and unite around Ashot Yerkat against the Arabs.^[28]

The date of Ashot Yerkat's departure to Byzantium has long been a subject of debate in historiography. Nikoghayos Adontz, relying on imperial records, dated it to 914.^[29] Karen Yuzbashyan also held the same view.^[30] However, based on new chronological clarifications, according to which Patriarch Nikoghayos's first letter could not have been written in 914 (since he had just been reinstated in his position by Empress Zoya), it is considered more likely that Ashot Yerkat left for Constantinople in 915. This dating is also supported by the report of Hovhannes Draskhanakertsi that the war against Yusuf lasted 7 years (starting in 909 and ending in 915/916).^[7]

In Constantinople, the Armenian king and the Armenian ministers accompanying him were received with royal pomp. According to the Byzantine historian Theophanes Continuatus, he was received with great honor by the mother of Emperor Constantine the Great, Empress Zoya, and his reception was organized with special solemnity in Augustean Square.^[31] The Byzantine court officially reaffirmed Ashot's royal powers. After a little less than a year in the capital of the empire, the Byzantine government entrusted Ashot the Iron with auxiliary troops and generals to return to his homeland. Learning that Yusuf had intensified his attacks on Vaspurakan, Ashot Yerkat hurriedly returned to Armenia in 916, beginning the liberation of the country and the restoration of centralized power with the support of Byzantine forces.^[7]

In difficult internal and external political conditions, Ashot Yerkat fortified himself with a small detachment on the island of Sevan. In 921, the Arab commander Beshir besieged the island.^[32] Using an unusual military tactic, Ashot approached the lake shore with 11 boats under cover of fog and panicked the enemy with a surprise arrow attack. At that moment, Gevorg Marzpetuni's small cavalry attacked from land, finally crushing the Arab army.^[33]

The brilliant victory at Sevan was a turning point: it not only forced the Arabs to retreat, but also sobered the centripetal Armenian princes, preparing the ground for the internal stabilization of the country and the final strengthening of Armenian statehood.^[34]

Ashot II was married to an unnamed daughter of Prince Sahak Sevada, the powerful ruler of Gardman whom Ashot II had blinded after a failed revolt.^[35] His wife's name is sometimes given as Maria. The chronicles of Stepanos Asoghik make no mention of any children.^[36]

Ashot Yerkat's reign was full of fierce internal conflicts, which were also based on personal and family dramas. The king was married to Mariam, the daughter of the powerful prince of Gardman, Sahak Sevada. However, relations deteriorated after Ashot's love affair with the wife of the prince of Utik (Sevordyats) was revealed. This love story turned into a major political conflict: the offended father-in-law, Sahak Sevada, and his brother-in-law, Grigor, rebelled against the king. Ashot Yerkat suppressed the rebellion in armed struggle, took his father-in-law and brother-in-law prisoner and ordered them to be blinded, which shocked the Armenian ruling system.^[4][8]

His brother Abbas also came out against the king. The main reasons for their conflict were the issues of power sharing and Abbas's dissatisfaction with Ashot's centrist policy. Abbas even allied himself with the Georgian prince Gurgen in an attempt to overthrow his brother, which undermined the unity of the country for many years.^[37]

A statue of Ashot II stands in Ijevan, Armenia. In 2012, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the Armed Forces of Armenia, the cross that Ashot II is said to have carried into battle with him was declared the "Guardian of the Armenian Army" by Catholicos Karekin II. During the Armenian Independence Day parade in 2016, honor guards posted the flag of King Ashot II the Iron before the parade proceedings.^[38]

Ashot II features prominently as a character in Muratsan's nineteenth-century historical novel Gevorg Marzpetuni.^[39]

Bagrat Ayvazyants, Ashot Yerkat (1893–1894) is a historical novel that is a key work in popularizing the image of the king. The novel was first published in Tbilisi and subsequently reprinted numerous times in Armenian communities in the diaspora (Cairo, 1936; Beirut, 1940; Tehran, 1959, 1984). It was also translated into Russian (Moscow, 2008).^[40]

Artashes Agozian, Ashot Yerkat (1990) is a historical tragedy in three acts.^[40]

A. Parsamyan, Ashot the Iron Cross (2013) is a novella published by the Publishing House of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.^[41]