He claimed the throne of Western Georgia (Imereti) when his brother Constantine I came to power in 1293, but only obtained it after a civil war lasting nearly 35 years in 1327.

Michael was a son of the Georgian king David VI Narin and his wife, Tamar Amanelisdze,[1] or a Palaeologian princess.

[4] The conflict continued until 1327, when Michael succeeded on the death of the childless Constantine as king of Imereti,[1][3] although he had claimed the title earlier, as in the 1326 charter[2] sanctioning a reparational payment (sasiskhlo, a Georgian equivalent of weregild) by a certain Gogitashvili to Mikeladze.

[5] Michael sought to resubjugate to the crown the great nobles and provincial dynasts (eristavi), who had asserted greater autonomy for themselves in the reign of Constantine I.

He was succeeded by his son, Bagrat I, who, owing to his minority, never firmly sat on the throne of Imereti and was reduced to the position of a vassal duke by the resurgent King George V the Brilliant, in 1330.