Vakhtang of Imereti

Who was Vakhtang of Imereti?

Vakhtang Tchutchunashvili was a Georgian adventurer who usurped the crown of Imereti, western Georgia, in the years of 1660–1661 and 1668.

In 1660, Queen Dowager Darejan, the widow of Alexander III of Imereti, deposed and blinded his stepson and the legitimate king Bagrat V, and then married Tchutchunashvili, a petite noble, whom she installed as king of Imereti. Deposed by Prince Vameq Dadiani of Mingrelia and the great nobles with Ottoman support, Darejan and Vakhtang fled to Akhaltsikhe, in the Ottoman-held Georgian province. He was restored by the pasha of Akhaltsikhe in 1668. According to various, frequently conflicting accounts, he was murdered with his wife Darejan at the palace of Kutaisi.