After the death of his brother Levan in 1781, Vakhtang succeeded him to the princely appanage in the mountainous Aragvi valley, for which he codified the criminal and family law (განჩინება ბარისა და მთიურთა ადგილთა, The Regulations for the Lowlands and Highlands) in 1782.

In September 1795, Vakhtang fought in his father's ranks against the invading Iranian army of Agha Muhammad Khan at the battle of Krtsanisi in the course of which he commanded the last stand of his highlanders on the approaches of Tbilisi.

Iulon, Vakhtang, and Parnaoz blocked the roads to Tbilisi and attempted to rescue their mother, Queen Dowager Darejan, who had been forced by George XII into confinement at her own palace in Avlabari.

[5] On 19 February 1803, Vakhtang and his former foe, David, son of George XII, departed under the Russian military escort to St. Petersburg, where he died in 1814 and was interred at the Annunciation Church of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.

[1] His reflections on the social and political issues in Georgia were translated by a Georgian, Igor Chilayev, into Russian and published as Письма царевича Вахтанга Ираклиевича (The Letters of Prince Royal Vakhtang, son of Heraclius) in St. Petersburg in 1812.