Saakadze's influence and prestige especially grew after he destroyed an Ottoman invasion force at the battle of Tashiskari in June 1609, thereby saving Luarsab from being dislodged.

In 1611, the king married Saakadze's sister, Makrine, annoying the great nobles, who grew increasingly suspicious of the ambitious and aspiring officer who had risen from the ranks of the petty nobility to become the most powerful man in Kartli.

He conspired with the rebel leaders—his brother-in-law Zurab of Aragvi and king Teimuraz I of Kakheti—and ambushed the Iranian army at Martqopi on March 25, 1625, winning a decisive victory.

However, Grand Vizier Ekrem Hüsrev Pasha soon accused Saakadze of treason and had him, along with his son Avtandil, Prince Kaikhosro of Mukhrani, and other Georgians, put to death in Constantinople on October 3, 1629.

[3][failed verification] Saakadze's last surviving son, Ioram, later attained to the princely rank in Georgia, and founded the Tarkhan-Mouravi noble family.

In October 1940, Stalin commented on Saakadze, proclaiming that the Grand Mouravi’s hopes for Georgia’s "unification into one state through the establishment of royal absolutism and of the liquidation of the power of the princes" had been progressive.

[7] The film emphasized that Saakadze, initially an obscure squire, was a victim of machinations at the hands of the wealthy feudal lords who would sacrifice everything, including their motherland, for their own benefit.

In the atmosphere of suspicion and spy mania in the Soviet Union during these years, the movie also served contemporary propaganda by emphasizing that treason against the popular leader, and hence the country, was to be punished cruelly.