Andronikashvili

The surname Andronikashvili, meaning "children [descendants] of Andronikos", is attested in sixteenth-century documents, but oral tradition has it that the family descends from Alexios Komnenos (c. 1170–1199), the illegitimate son of the Eastern Roman emperor Andronikos I Komnenos (ruled 1183-1185) by his mistress and relative Theodora Komnene, Queen Dowager of Jerusalem.

After the deposition and brutal murder of emperor Andronikos, Alexios is said to have taken refuge at the court of his relative Tamar of Georgia, who granted him an estate in the eastern Georgian province of Kakheti.

Despite the fragmentary nature of this Andronikashvili pedigree, Professor Cyril Toumanoff (1976) accepted it as plausible, but evidence marshaled by Kuršankis (1977) suggests that it may be only a legend.

In the sixteenth century, the family acquired the office of High Constable (mouravi) of K’iziqi which became hereditary in the main line (sometimes known as Abelashvili, აბელაშვილები).

They held key political, diplomatic and military posts at the court and were distinguished for their particular loyalty to the royal Bagrationi dynasty with which they had ties of marriage.