However, the future George VIII fell under the influence of this nobility, which caused his father's abdication in 1442, and he took over the administration of eastern Georgian territories under the leadership of his elder brother Vakhtang IV.

He quickly lost control of Samtskhe in the 1460s when the Atabeg Qvarqvare II Jaqeli declared independence, and then of West Georgia during the Georgian civil war of 1463–1491.

He was also dethroned after being captured and imprisoned by Qvarqvare II in 1465, which created a new power that allowed the great nobility to seize large semi-independent territories throughout Georgia.

[8] He then centralized his kingdom and attempted to increase his control over the Georgian Orthodox Church; He groomed his son David, brother of George, as the future Catholic Patriarch of Georgia.

[10] According to the historian Cyril Toumanoff, the king was inspired by the Byzantine system to delegate his power to his sons and entrusted them with the daily management of the kingdom, but this explanation is denied by the chronicler Vakhushti of Kartli, who questioned this association in the 18th century.

[10] This division was particularly severe when the royal council failed to agree on a strategy to defend against the invasion of the Qara Qoyunlu ruler Jahan Shah, who ultimately massacred nearly two thousand Georgians.

[15] In 1442, Alexander, no longer control his kingdom in the face of his sons' ambitions and abdicated after a reign of thirty years; He retired to a monastery where he adopted the name Athanasius.

[21] Under mysterious circumstances and perhaps in accordance with the king's will, George VIII took possession of the crown and disinherited his other elder brother, who was forced to return to Western Georgia.

[27] Since his accession to the throne, George VIII had to face the separatist ambitions of the Georgian principalities, such as Mingrelia, Guria and Samtskhe, which already exercised their own military and diplomatic policies.

These, for their part, faced a new geopolitical reality: the rise to power of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II could create a new common enemy for the Catholics of the West.

In 1456, Ludovico da Bologna, apostolic nuncio to the new Pope Callixtus III, arrived in Georgia to submit a full report on the kingdom and the Georgian Orthodox Church to Rome; He highlighted the piety of its inhabitants, but also the serious situation caused by the civil conflicts in the region.

[15] After this report, the Holy See asked George VIII to send an embassy to Europe and in September 1459 the successor of Callistus III, Pius II, organized a public call for a new crusade against the Ottomans.

[27] The king also organized the plan for this possible campaign: the Georgian forces would invade Anatolia with a contingent under the command of Qvarqvare II that would advance to Palestine, while the Europeans would open another front in Greece.

[32] In 1460, a large embassy of Georgians, Armenians, Trapezuntines and Persians, led by Bishop Nicholas of Tbilisi and Qartchikhan of Mingrelia, arrived in Europe and met with Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor, in Vienna.

[33] On August 15, they returned to Paris to attend the coronation of Louis XI of France, but the monarch refused to undertake any military campaign because he was facing a series of internal problems.

[35] Emperor John IV Megas Komnenos, who married the daughter of Alexander I, lived at the Georgian court after attempting to usurp his father's throne in 1426.

[39] Konstantin Mihailović, who served in the Ottoman army, recounted the sultan's raid on Georgia to intimidate its ruler and prevent him from coming to the aid of the Trapezuntines.

[40] Emperor David Megas Komnenos, successor to John IV, waited in vain for help from his ally for months before finally opening the city gates on August 15, 1461, exactly two hundred years after the reconquest of Constantinople by Michael VIII Palaiologos, which put an end to the last vestige of Byzantine civilization.

[46] In addition to Samtskhe, Bagrat allied himself with Liparit I Dadiani, Mamia Gurieli, and the princes of Abkhazia and Svaneti, whom he promised to liberate from the central government.

[48] The absence of the king from his dominions opened the doors for Uzun Hasan to return to Georgia and in 1463 he sent his generals Tavrij Gilak and Timur to devastate Kartli.

[48] Subsequently, Qvarqvare II used the help of Duke Mamia Gurieli to reconquer his infidel provinces and offered him the territories of Adjara and Chaneti in exchange, solidifying the fragmentation of West Georgia.

[47][34] The young Constantine, his nephew, managed to escape and assumed command of the army, but had to retreat northwards, before being besieged at Gori by Qvarqvare II, after which he took refuge in Western Georgia.

[55] Qvarqvare II made an agreement with the deposed king:[48] the latter promised to forgive Samtskhe's betrayal, ensure Akhaltsikhe's autonomy, and give up claiming Western Georgia in exchange for his freedom.

[58] Appointed in charge of an army of Samtskhe, he attempted to invade Kartli in 1466, but met only widespread opposition from the local nobility, who feared his revenge if he returned to power.

[56] With the latter, he agreed to a military partnership around 1467 to help him in the conflict he waged against Constantine, his former protégé who also claimed the Georgian crown, in exchange for the recognition of Kakheti as an independent kingdom.

[56] After an attempted rebellion to put David of Didoeti on the throne in 1470, George I undertook to reform the Kakheti system of government to end the power of the nobility.

He abolished the semi-autonomous duchies and established a series of prefectures, including Kiziki, Elisseni, Tsoukheti, Didoeti, Tianeti, Tchiaouri, Shilda, Kvareli, Martqopi, Gremi and Pankisi.

Uzun Hasan soon invaded the kingdom and devastated the provinces of Kherki, Saguramo, Martqopi and Tianeti, and George I was forced to recognize him as his lord to ensure peace and had to pay him an annual tribute of slaves of both sexes.

One of them, suggested by Cyril Toumanoff, has it that both names were borne by the same woman, a daughter of Bagrat, son of Constantine I of Georgia, and, thus a first cousin of George VIII, whom she married in 1445.

[63] An alternative view, enjoying a more general currency in Georgia, holds it that George VIII was married twice, first to Tamar, sometimes thought to have been daughter of Qvarqvare II Jaqeli, Atabeg of Samtskhe, whom he wed c. 1445 and, secondly to Nestan-Darejan, of unknown origin, whom the king took as his wife sometime before 1456.