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The Georgian royal family of the Bagrations practiced masculine primogeniture, legitimate sons and their descendants taking precedence over daughters and natural sons, and their descendants. The claim to represent the royal legacy is asserted on behalf of both Prince Nugzar Bagration-Gruzinsky and Prince David Bagrationi of Moukrani, representatives of the Gruzinsky and Mukhransky branches of the Bagrationi dynasty, respectively. Prince David's late father, Prince George Bagration-Mukhransky, was recognised by the Georgian government as head of the former royal house in 1991.[1] being the most senior legitimate descendant of the dynasty in the male line, but other prominent Georgians acknowledge the claim of Prince Nugzar.
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Prince Nugzar's daughter, Princess Anna, a divorced teacher and journalist with two daughters, married Prince David Bagration of Mukhrani, on 8 February 2009 at the Tbilisi Sameba Cathedral.[7] The marriage united the Gruzinsky (Kahetian) and Mukhrani (Kartlian) branches of the Georgian royal family, and drew a crowd of 3,000 spectators, officials, and foreign diplomats, as well as extensive coverage by the Georgian media.[7]
The dynastic significance of the wedding lay in the fact that, amidst the turmoil in political partisanship that has roiled Georgia since its independence in 1991, Patriarch Ilia II of Georgia publicly called for restoration of the monarchy as a path toward national unity in October 2007.[8] Although this led some politicians and parties to entertain the notion of a Georgian constitutional monarchy, competition arose among the old dynasty's princes and supporters, as historians and jurists debated which Bagrationi has the strongest hereditary right to a throne that has been vacant for two centuries.[7] Although some Georgian monarchists support the Gruzinsky branch's claim, others support that of the re-patriated Mukhrani branch.[8] Both branches share male-line descent from the last of united Georgia's kings, Constantine II who died in 1505, as well as unbroken, legitimate male line descent from Georgia's medieval kings back to Tamar Bagrationi, Queen of Georgia, and her consort, Prince David Soslan of Alania.[9]
Whereas the Bagration-Mukhrani were a cadet branch of the former Royal House of Kartli, they became the genealogically seniormost line of the Bagrationi family in the early 20th century: yet the elder branch had lost the rule of Kartli by 1724.
Meanwhile, the Bagration-Gruzinsky line, although junior to the Princes of Mukhrani genealogically[9], reigned over the kingdom of Kakheti, re-united the two realms in the kingdom of Kartli-Kakheti in 1762, and did not lose sovereignty until Russian annexation in 1800.[10]
The bridegroom is the only member of his branch who retains Georgian citizenship and residence since the death of his father, Prince George Bagration-Mukhrani in 2008.[10] Aside from his unmarried elder brother, Prince David is the heir male of the Bagrationi family, while the bride's father is the most senior descendant of the last Bagrationi to reign over the united kingdom of Georgia. Since Nugzar and Princes Peter and Eugene Bagration-Gruzinsky are the last patrilineal males descended from King George XIII, and all three were born before 1950, their branch verges on extinction. But the marriage between Nugzar Gruzinsky's heiress and the Mukhrani heir resolves their rivalry for the claim to the throne, which has recently divided Georgian monarchists.[10]
Prince David and Princess Anna became the parents of a baby boy on September 27, 2011, Prince Giorgi Bagration Bagrationi who, in his person, potentially unites the Mukhraneli and Gruzinsky claims. If no other Bagrationi prince is born in either the Gruzinsky or Mukhraneli branch who is of senior descent by primogeniture, and he survives those now living, Prince Giorgi will become the heir male of the House of Bagrationi and the heir general of George XIII of Georgia.[11]