The Liberation of Georgia and Greater Armenia
The King of Kings heir and only son, Demetre, was commanded by the King to begin the campaign by taking the
infantry and besieging the garrison of Yerevan while his distant cousin, David Bagrationi, took the cavalry
companies and sought to defeat the Azeri Turks whose raids caused so much death and destruction within the
Georgian kingdom. David, like his biblical progenitor, was a mighty warrior and clever strategist and for this
reason, the king entrusted him with the attacks against the principalities of Ganja and Shamakha.
David though was more daring than even the king had anticipated for he split what troops he had and taking only
a small contingent of cavalry sought to provoke a battle whereby he might defeat the armies of Ganja while
sending the rest of his troops to distract the tribes that inhabited Shamakha. Such was the swiftness of his passage
and the surprise of the armies of Ganja that his enemies melted away before him, as the snows of the mountains of
Abkhazia before the fury of the summer sun, until he came to the very gates of Ganja. There the Azeris had
gathered a large army together but without any cavalry. When they saw how few Georgians had come to fight
them, they got their courage up again and came out to meet the warriors and knights of Georgia. There on the
field before the walls of Ganja, David by stratagem and the valor of his Monaspa lancers won a great victory over
the Azeris. With the defeat of their army, the Ganjan rulers surrendered the city. David, by his noble character
and gracious manner, occupied the city peacefully, only requiring the return of Georgian treasures stolen during
the raids.
Then, leaving a small garrison to maintain order, David Bagrationi took his knights and horse archers to meet up
with the rest of his warriors in the valley of Shamakha. There, another great victory was obtained over the Azeris
and the city occupied.
Meanwhile, the garrison of the fortress at Yerevan had run out of supplies and with no hope of relief from the
Shaddadids of Ani sallied out from their walls to win free or die trying. There the Tadzrueli, the Georgian
templars, proved their skill as they routed company after company, even facing the mighty nakharar undaunted.
With the liberation of Yerevan, the time had come for the campaign to free Greater Armenia. The Shaddadids of
Ani were clever foes who had alliances with the Turkic tribes of Anatolia and thus had many brave warriors at
their disposal. Thus the King Giorgi sent his horse archers and knights under David to distract and delay the
garrison at Ani while Prince Demetre besieged the principality of Dvin. When the garrison commander saw the
size of David Bagrationis army and that his own was many times larger, the prideful man marched out of the city
to meet the Georgians. That day David and his warriors, calling on St. George and St. Andrew, overthrew the
mighty army of the Shaddadids. For the grace of heaven was on the noble Georgians as the archers arrows
pierced many while the thunderous charges of the lancers devastated company after company. During the battle,
David and his bodyguard of nobles managed to force the city gates open and win their way through the city to the
palace of the rulers. There in fierce combat he slew the garrison commander and thus captured the city.
With the defeat of the Shaddadid rulers, the garrison at Dvin made a half-hearted attempt to beat off the
besiegers, but surrendered quickly when that failed. With the capture of Greater Armenia and the lands of eastern
Georgia, the raids by the nomadic Turks and Kurds became greatly lessened, which brought much joy to the
peoples of Georgia.
Cue the celebration!
Chronicles of the Bagrationi Kingdom of Georgia
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