Reigning and fighting for the strengthening of royal power

In 1752, the seventeen-year-old Solomon I inherited the throne of his father, Alexander V: Imereti and all western Georgia began to emerge from turmoil, degenerate princes and dukes came against him - Mamia Gurieli and Besarioni, Catholicos of Abkhazia (brother of Rostom, Duke of Racha), as well as Solomon  relatives, grandfather Levan Abashidze, uncles Mamuka and Giorgi, mother Tamari, who forced Solomon to flee to Akhaltsikhe for Ottoman protection. Solomon restored his rule with the help of the Ottomans, he took revenges and punished the rebel - banished his mother to Mingrelia, imprisoned his uncles, confiscated his grandfather's property, sent the Ottoman army to punish the principality of Guria, but the ruler of Racha - Rostom and the Catholicos of Abkhazia - Besarion were not punished. In order to strengthen his own power, Solomon divorced Abkhazia's princess Tinatin and married Mariam, the sister of the powerful ruler of Mingrelia.^[2]

The kingdom of Imereti was economically destroyed due to the Ottoman invasion, the kingdom could not pay tribute, so the only income was the slave trade (especially Georgian women). Therefore, Solomon imitated Teimuraz's and Heraclius's measures in Kartli and Kakheti to revive agriculture and repopulate the countryside: in one concession Solomon warned landowners: "Wherever you have peasants, no labour and no tithes whatsoever are ever to be demanded". He returned the serfs seized from the feudal lords to the church and exempted the church peasants from taxes, thereby earning the trust of the church.  The king decided to seize the strategically important castles, which were the basis of the power of the feudal lords.  He also created a completely new institution strengthening the king's power,  "Sworn Men".  Every year on May 15, all adult "Sworn" males, their serfs, their clergy carrying icons, and, in times of war, 1,000 armed men, would assemble at Lekertsa meadow, renew their oaths, and then feast for two weeks. "Sworn men" had access to the king and pardon for all crimes except treason.^[3]

The beginning of the conflict with the Ottomans, its causes and the battle of Khresili

At first, Solomon was reluctant to come out against the Ottomans openly, but once he restored order in the country, he declared war against the slave trade. This was considered a serious challenge by the Ottomans. The Ottomans greatly facilitated the trade in captives - a whole network of slave traders was created, in which both the Imeretian nobility and the Turkish mercenaries participated. A large part of Imereti's foreign trade was income the slave-trading. It was for this reason that the prohibition of trade in captives was opposed by the Ottomans as well as by the nobles associated with them. Solomon knew very well that he could not overcome domestic resistance without driving out the Ottomans, so he secretly began preparations for war. For the first time, after a long hiatus, the ruler of Mingrelia, the ruler of Guria, the ruler of Samurzakano, the nobility and the peasantry of Imereti lined up next to the king of Imereti. Dukies of Racha - Rostom and Levan Abashidze were on the side of the Ottomans. At the beginning of December 1757, Solomon chose the field of Khresili as a battlefield, where the main forces of the Ottomans were gathered.

At the large-scale Battle of Khresili on December 14, 1757, Imereti won decicively. Levan Abashidze was killed and Rostom fled to Racha again. However the Ottomans still threatened Solomon, who agreed to pay tribute, but not to slave-trading. Haji Ahmed, Pasha of Akhaltsikhe, responded by letting Turks and Lezgi wreck the Gelati monastery and rob the local population. Solomon went to Akhaltsikhe to remonstrate. The Pasha sent him 3,000 soldiers, ostensibly to punish the Turkish garrisons for looting. Before they even crossed the border, Solomon's ‘Sworn men’ massacred the entire Turkish force. For this failure, the sultan had Haji Ahmed strangled. In 1759 a new Pasha, Ibrahim, took over. Solomon sent Queen Mariam to negotiate a treaty, but talks foundered when the Pasha insisted on the export of slaves.^[4]

In 1758, Solomon I, Heraclius II, and Teimuraz II signed a treaty of mutual assistance in Gori. In 1760 Heraclius II and Solomon with the principality of Mingrelia and the duke of Racha sent 15,000 men to attack Ganja.^[5]

Ecclesiastical Council, Prohibition of the Slave Trade and Reforms

On December 4–5, 1759, Solomon convened an extraordinary assembly of ecclesiastical and secular feudal lords. For a month, discussions were held on the common issues of Western Georgia. At the meeting, the religious and secular authorities of Imereti, Mingrelia and Guria promised to obey the king of Imereti and to prohibit the slave-trading. In addition, the meeting also adopted other resolutions: Solomon made the Church an executive branch of the crown. The bishopric of Kutaisi was revived and endowed; Serfs and territories were returned to the church; Church's serfs were exempted from taxes; Prohibition of interference of laymen persons in church affairs; unworthy priests were unfrocked, church buildings restored.^[6]

Unsuccessful Turkish attempts to change the government and the Ottoman-Imereti truce

As Solomon grew stronger, the Ottomans increased their efforts to overthrow him. In 1763, Solomon defeated yet another Ottoman army, this time 13.000 men strong. However, in 1765, the Ottomans invaded Imereti with a larger host. They first defeated Guria, then proceeded to subjugate Racha and Mingrelia, which prompted Solomon to flee from Kutaisi. The Ottomans put his nephew Teimuraz on the throne, who agreed to slave trade. But the Ottomans resented paying 300,000 silver roubles to maintain 45,000 soldiers in hostile territory. Therefore, in 1766, they agreed to a truce. Solomon asked for help from the king of Kartli-Kakheti, Heraclius II, to mediate with the Ottomans. Solomon formally agreed to the term of sending 60 girls annually as tribute. The Ottomans didn't demand that they had to be Georgian and also recognized Imereti as a protectorate, rather than vassal state. Nevertheless, Solomon never sent any girls. His nephew Teimuraz did not cede his positions, instead continued to fight him. But in a pitched battle at Chkheri in 1768, Solomon defeated Teimuraz. He was captured, locked up and died in prison.^[7]

Abolition of the Duchy of Racha and restoration of sovereignty over Mingrelia

Solomon decided to abolish the Duchy of Racha, even though his Magrelian ally and Hall disapproved of this attack.  In 1769, Solomon succeeded, but the Duke Rostom of Racha fled to Mingrelia. His brother Catholicos Besarion was with the Pasha of Akhaltsikhe. Katsia II Dadiani appointed Besarion as the Catholicos of Mingrelia and demanded the independence of the church. Solomon offered peace to the Pasha of Akhaltsikhe in exchange for the Catholicos Besarion. The Pasha imprisoned Besarion fearing that Solomon might help Russia in the Russian-Turkish war. He sided with Ioseb, while Dadiani recognized the sovereignty of the king of Imereti. The king deposed Rostom's brother, Besarion as Catholicos and appointed his own brother, Ioseb. In May 1769, Solomon announced that he had pardoned Rostom. His brother Catholicos Ioseb swore that the king had pardoned him, and in return for loyalty, Rostom and his children had to meet with the king. The king invited them to dinner and hunting, but subsequently, on his order, they had their eyes burnt. Rostom was imprisoned, then released. Solomon then abolished the duchy of Racha.^[8]

Russian military actions in Western Georgia

As a result of diplomacy, Catherine II sent a four hundred men strong detachment under the command of General Totleben, to Georgia. In September 1769, Totleben entered Imereti. In October, Georgian and Russian troops surrounded Shorapani Castle. At that time, Solomon got news that the Turks, along with Dadiani, had invaded Imereti. Solomon was forced to withdraw his men and leave, while Totleben remained at Shoropani. However Totleben arbitrarily lifted the siege and moved to Kartli.

In 1770, the Russians received reinforcements. In total, about 4,000 Russian soldiers were deployed to Georgia. When Heraclius was convinced that Catherine was indeed sending an army, he entered the war. Following the Battle of Aspindza, in which Totleben did not take any part, the Russian army moved to Imereti. This time, Totleben helped the king of Imereti and with their armies united, they took the fortresses of Tsutskhvati, Shorapani and Baghdati (July 2), and on August 6, the Russian-Imeretian army also took the Kutaisi fortress. However, Totleben's arbitrary decisions strained relations with Solomon.^[9]

The departure of the Russian army and Battle of Chkheri

The Pasha of Akhaltsikhe continued to send detachments to raid Georgia. In order to act together against the Ottomans, in 1773, Solomon I and Heraclius II sealed their alliance with a treaty and sent a transcript to the Russian government.^[10] In the same year, the armies of Heraclius and Solomon joined forces in Gori and marched together to Javakheti. The united army of Georgians reached Artaani, but Solomon suddenly fell ill and they turned back.

In 1774, after Russian troops had departed, the Pasha of Childir Eyalet sent a 4,000 men strong force to Imereti and incited Dadiani and the prince of Abkhazia to act against Solomon. Imereti was to be struck by their combined armies, from two directions. At Solomon's request, Heraclius II was to take Dadiani's hand for treason and have him refuse the Turks proposal. Heraclius was moving to support Solomin, when the Turks, realizing their folly, suddenly began to retreat. On February 6, this resulted in a small but decicive battle. An army of Imeretians ambushed the enemy in the narrows of Chkheri and cut off their retreat. Meanwhile, Solomon's troops hit the rear of the Ottoman force, who lost 1,000 troops in the ensuing fight, while another 600 men were captured. The detachment of Imeretians killed about 1,400 Ottomans from Chkheri to Vakhani.^[11]

The results of the Küçük–Kainarca treaty for Imereti

In November 1774, Solomon I again sent Davit Kvinikhidze as ambassador to Russia, who brought with him an official request to Emperor Catherine II to turn Imereti into a Russian protectorate. But by this time the Küçük–Kainarca treaty (July 10–21, 1774) had already been concluded, the results of which Solomon learned from a letter sent by Catherine. According to Article 23 of this treaty, Russia recognized the right of the Ottomans to Western Georgia under certain conditions - recognized fortresses in Imereti captured by Russian artillery as inviolate. The Ottomans had no more rights to slaves from Imereti, and had to pardon any Imeretian who had attacked them. Nor could Ottomans infringe the rights of Christians.^[12]

Ottomans continued aggression and Battle of Rukhi

In 1779, in order to remove an ally from Solomon I, on the instructions of the Ottoman government, a large army consisting of Abkhazians and North-West Caucasian raiders (Jiks, Alans, Circassians, Balkars and Crimean Tatars) invaded the principality of Mingrelia. Katsia II Dadiani appealed to the king of Imereti for help. Solomon I helped Dadiani with the army of Imereti-Guria, quickly moved to Mingrelia and together with Dadiani won a decicive victory in the battle at Rukhi Castle. The victory at Rukhi stopped the expansion of the Turks in Georgia from the North-west for a long time. However, after that, the Ottomans started organized attacks on Imereti from the fortresses of Kvemo Guria and Adjara.

In 1781, Solomon tried to march on Adjara, but this march did not bear success. Solomon took the port of Kobuleti in Guria with 6000 men and the support of locals, massacred every non-Georgian and ploughed up and salted all the land around the garrison ruins, before moving south to ravage and then abandon Batumi.^[13]

In search of the successor to the throne

Solomon I had no direct successor. His son Alexander died in 1780. Solomon was well aware that after his death, a fight for the throne in Imereti would break out. In 1783, he sent his priest to Heraclius II and informed him that he would appoint his nephew and grandson of Heraclius II, the son of Davit Archilis-dze(the future Solomon II), raised at the court of the king of Kartli-Kakheti, as the heir to the throne, thus merging Imereti with Kartli-Kakheti.^[14]

The last battle with the Ottomans and death

To prevent Ottoman aggression, Solomon I marched several times to Kvemo Guria and on March 9, 1784, fought a major battle to liberate the region. In a fierce confrontation near Nachishkrevi, the army of Imereti-Guria cleared the areas of Kobuleti and Chakvi from enemy troops. However the Ottoman army was informed by the king's opponents about his movements and attacked Solomon's forces in the rear, which resulted in their defeat. Kvemo Guria as a result, remained in Ottoman hands for a century.^[15]

On 23 April 1784, on his way to the festival of St George at Khoni, he fell dead as he mounted his horse and was buried at the Gelati Monastery.^[16] Solomon was canonized by the Georgian Orthodox Church on 22 December 2016, his feast day set for 23 April (NS 10 April).^[17]

Marriages and successors

Solomon I was married three times; first, to Princess Tinatin Shervashidze, second to Princess Mariam, daughter of Otia Dadiani (died 1778), Prince of Mingrelia, and third, Princess Gulkan Tsulukidze (1730–1800). He had five children, three sons and two daughters:

• Prince David, born of Solomon's first marriage to Tinatin Shervashidze.
• Prince Alexander (1760–1780), born by Mariam Dadiani. He led a revolt against Solomon in 1778.
• Princess Darejan (ka) (1756–1827), born by Mariam Dadiani. She married, in 1768, Prince Kaikhosro Abashidze. Their son, Ivane Abashidze, was a pretender to the throne of Imereti in 1820.
• Princess Mariam (1769–1845), born by Mariam Dadiani. She married Prince Elizbar Eristavi of Ksani (1738–1813).
• Prince Bagrat, an extramarital son.