Tamar of Mukhrani

The union was terminated after Levan's adventurous attack on Bagrat V upon his restoration in Imereti, in 1663, ended in disaster. Levan was captured and imprisoned in the Imeretian capital of Kutaisi. Bagrat V, who had earlier been blinded by his imperious stepmother Darejan, was married to Tamar's elder sister Tatia. A chain of intrigues ensued. The Imeretian courtiers induced Bagrat's sister, Tinatin, to seduce and marry the captive Mingrelian prince Levan, while Bagrat was convinced to discard Tatia and marry her more beautiful sister, Tamar. Simon, Catholicos of the Imeretian church, granted two divorces on the same day.^[1] Levan was set free, but he was still in love with Tamar and his enmity with Bagrat perpetuated. In 1678, Vakhtang's son Archil again expelled Bagrat from Kutaisi, forcing Tamar into flight to the Skande castle where she was captured and sent back to Levan in Mingrelia. Next year, Bagrat reconquered Imereti with the Ottoman troops, then raided Mingrelia and retook his wife.^[2] Despite this, Bagrat had to tolerate Tamar's adultery. The Frenchman Chardin, who dined with Tamar in Kutaisi in 1670, was shocked by her flagrant affair with the bishop of Gelati. Bagrat himself joked to Chardin that in Imereti every bishop had nine wives, "not counting those of his neighbors".^[1]

Bagrat and Tamar had three children, a son and two daughters. One of their daughters, Darejan, was married off to Giorgi III Gurieli, the new Prince of Guria, who had an eye both on Tamar and the throne of Imereti. According to Prince Vakhushti, Giorgi was "querulous, godless, bloodthirsty, and a merciless slave-trader". When Bagrat died in 1681, Giorgi Gurieli seized the throne of Imereti, divorced his child-bride Darejan and married his own mother-in-law, the queen dowager Tamar. Tamar died two years later, probably in childbirth, and Giorgi, abhorred by the Imeretians, was overthrown and killed in an attempt to reconquer Kutaisi in 1684.^[1]