George of Ksani, pardoned by the king and restored in his duchy, revolted once more and Heraclius sent his two sons once more to defeat him. A brief siege of the Siata Fortress led to a victory by the royal princes and George of Ksani was imprisoned in Tbilisi, while Prince George received as gift the Ksani lands. On January 1, 1774, King Heraclius II introduced a mandatory military draft throughout the kingdom. To lead by example, George joined the service and was garrisoned in Ghartis-Kari, a border fortress facing constant Lezgin raids. In 1779, he followed his father to besiege Yerevan, whose sovereign Hoseyn Ali Khan had rebelled against Kartl-Kakheti. Chronicler Papuna Orbeliani would describe his "exemplary bravery" and his defeat of the khan in single combat. Crises During that time, George saw the status of his brothers rise. As early as 1772, Heraclius II sent the younger prince Levan to Saint Petersburg at the head of a delegation asking for Russia's protection of Georgia against the Ottoman Empire, a responsibility traditionally bestowed upon the heir to the throne. Levan died, however, in 1782 and on July 24, 1783, the Kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti and the Russian Empire signed the Treaty of Georgievsk, placing Georgia under Russian protectorate and formally recognizing Prince George as heir to the throne. As Heraclius II grew older and weaker, his influence at the royal court was replaced by that of Queen Darejan. In 1790, Iulon, her oldest son since the death of Levan, was made Duke of Ksani. A year later, Darejan's sons received a donation of 6,000 peasant households, against only 4,000 for George. Finally, in 1794, Heraclius II signed a decree changing the rule of succession that had been in place since the creation of the Kingdom of Georgia in 1010 to install the concept of agnatic seniority, making Prince Iulon second in the line of succession. This decree remains one of the most controversial decisions of Heraclius II, but contemporary sources reveal that the king's signature on the document may have been forced. A royal letter addressed to Prince George dated May 1794 said: The decree is nonetheless never cancelled by the King, who spent his last years fearing the outcomes of his pro-Russian orientation. In September 1795, the Persian army invaded Kartl-Kakheti and defeated the small Georgian forces at the Battle of Krtsanisi, which ended in a humiliating defeat for