Tamar of Georgia

Proclaimed heir and co-ruler by her father George III in 1178, Tamar faced sharp resistance from the aristocracy when she took full power after his death in 1184. She crushed the opposition and turned outward, using a powerful military elite and the weakening of the Seljuk Turks to expand Georgia into an empire. Her first marriage, to Yury Bogolyubsky of Vladimir, lasted two years before she divorced him, expelled him, and beat back his attempts to seize the throne by force. In 1191 she married the Alan prince David Soslan; they had two children, George and Rusudan, who ruled in succession aft…