Saint Demetrius II of Georgia

Demetrius II the Self-Sacrificer or the Devoted (Georgian: დემეტრე II თავდადებული, romanized: demet're II tavdadebuli) (1259–12 March 1289) of the Bagrationi dynasty, was king (mepe) of Eastern Georgia reigning from 1270 until his execution by the Mongol Ilkhans in 1289. Demetrius, born in 1259, was the second son and third child of King David VII of Georgia. His mother was David's third wife Gvantsa née Kakhaberidze. He was 2 years old when Gvantsa was put to death by the Mongols as a reaction to David's abortive rebellion against the Ilkhan hegemony. David himself died in 1270. Demetrius had an elder half-brother George, an heir apparent, who died before his father's death in 1268, and an elder half-sister Tamar, whom Demetrius subsequently married off, with great reluctance, to a son of the Mongol official Arghun-Agha. He succeeded on his father's death in 1270, when he was 11 years old. He ruled for some time under the regency of Sadun Mankaberdeli, the Atabeg and Amirspasalar designated by the Mongols. It is for this reason that upon the death of Sadun in 1282, Demetrius refused the post of atabeg to his son Khutlubuga and made him a sworn enemy. Although he continued to be titled "king of Georgians and Abkhazians, etc", Demetrius's rule extended only over the eastern part of the kingdom. Western Georgia was in the hands of the descendants of David VI Narin who proclaimed themselves kings of western Georgia, while the province of Samtskhe, governed by the independent prince Beka I Jaqeli, was directly subject to the Mongols. Demetrius also participated in the Mongol campaigns in the Middle East against the Mamluks of Egypt and particularly distinguished himself with Beka I Jaqeli at the head of a Georgian army of 15,000 men under the orders of Möngke Temür, brother of Abaqa Khan, during the Second Battle of Homs in 1281. Despite the defeat of the Mongol troops, the Georgians reported significant spoils.