George V of Georgia

George V the Brilliant (; also translated as the Illustrious, or Magnificent; 1286–1346) of the Bagrationi dynasty, was the king (''mepe'') of the Kingdom of Georgia from 1299 to 1302 and again from 1314 until his death in 1346. A flexible and far-sighted politician, he recovered Georgia from a century-long Mongol domination, restoring the country's previous strength and Christian culture.

He grew up in Samtskhe, at the court of his grandfather Beka I Jaqeli. In 1299, Ghazan Khan engaged the young George in a fight against his own brother David VIII - he appointed him king, but his rights did not extend beyond Tbilisi, and therefore he was called the "King of Tbilisi". Ghazan used David VIII's another brother Vakhtang III (reigned 1302-1308) for the same purpose. In 1314, after the deaths of David VIII and Vakhtang III, George V assumed the throne. He inherited an economically weakened and politically disintegrated country.

He was a shrewd politician and initially preferred a cautious and peaceful relationship to fighting the Mongols. Nevertheless, he gained the trust of the Mongols during his stay at Beka's court. He was friends with Chupan, the chief vizier of Ilkhan. This made it possible to correct the domestic situation. He energetically started solving the internal problems of the country: he expelled the Ossetians from Shida Kartli, who had settled with the support of the Mongols, whose pirate attacks were causing great damage to the population; He attacked the disobedient feudal lords of the royal government, for which he did not avoid extreme measures; managed to unify Georgia, which was actually divided into three parts

After the unification and strengthening of Georgia, George V expelled the Mongols from Georgia and ended their almost hundred-year rule. George V maintained active political relations with neighboring countries, as well as with Western Europe and the Mamluk Sultanate; established economic ties with Italian city-states; He achieved certain successes in the struggle to establish the influence of Georgia in the Empire of Trebizond. Provided by Wikipedia