House of Dadiani


The House of Dadiani, later known as the House of Dadiani-Chikovani, was a Georgian family of nobles, dukes and princes, and a ruling dynasty of the western Georgian province of Mingrelia.

The House of Dadiani

The first data about the family dates back to 1046. Presumably, the Dadiani descended from a certain Dadi, of the House of Vardanisdze.
Appointed as hereditary eristavi of Odishi in reward for their military services, the family had become the most powerful feudal house in western Georgia by the 1280s. At that time, the branches of the family also governed Svaneti, Guria, and Bedia.
In 1542, Duke Levan I Dadiani became hereditary Prince of Mingrelia and established himself as an independent ruler. His descendant, Prince Levan III Dadiani, was forced to abdicate in 1691 and Dadiani’s relatives from the House of Chikovani, hitherto Princes of Salipartiano, inherited the title of Princes of Mingrelia and the surname of Dadiani. The original dynasty of Dadiani thus went extinct into what genealogists have termed the House of Dadiani-Chikovani.
Accepting Russian sovereignty in 1802, the Dadiani were elevated to the dignity of Prince of the Russian Empire and enjoyed significant independence in their home affairs.
Russia led a de facto annexation of Samegrelo in 1857, but Samegrelo retained its nominal existence until January 4, 1867, when Niko Dadiani, the last Prince of Samegrelo, was deposed and the principality was abolished.
Prince Niko Dadiani officially renounced his rights to the throne in 1868.

Dadiani vs Dadányi

In the late 18th century, in the Hungarian part of the Holy Roman Empire, emerged a newly nobilitated family named Dadányi de Gyülvész. In order to improve their genealogy during the nineteenth century this family invented the legend that a Mingrelian ancestor, George Dadiani, had fled to Hungary because of a conflict with his brother, Grigol Dadiani. However, when asked about the proof, members of the family stated that an iron safe containing the documents that would have proved their ancestry had been lost during a robbery in Hungary. According to this legend, the Dadányi family from Hungary were an offspring of the Dadiani Princes of Mingrelia, while in fact, they descended from the Moschopolitan merchants of Aromanian ancestry.

Dukes (''eristavi'') and Princes (''mtavari'') of Mingrelia