increasingly unstable, had other plans for Kartl-Kakheti. Following the British invasion of Malta on September 4, 1800, he imagined granting the Knights of the Order of Malta control over Georgia. He saw the idea of a sovereign king within his autocratic empire as going against the interests of his crown. Rise in Internal Chaos Despite his strong foreign policy equipped with a competent diplomatic team, George XII remained largely incapable of controlling his kingdom. This became largely obvious when his younger son Ioane presented him an ambitious plan of reforms on May 10, 1799, a plan that would have radically changed the administrative system of the kingdom and its financial sector, while introducing a public education program. Despite the king's approval, the lack of support by noble and merchant classes prevented its implementation. Queen Mariam herself abused of the her husband's weakness: she stole the royal insignia to counterfeit the king's signature several times, as the King often loaned the insignia to his younger children as a toy. George XII was afflicted with a severe paranoia that made him fear assassination. He placed Queen Dowager Darejan under constant surveillance and placed himself under the sole confidence of his three older sons, David, Ioane and Bagrat. The noble class was itself divided between those supporting Darejan and wanting to see Prince Iulon on the throne with a foreign policy moderately favorable towards Russia, and those supporting the pro-Persian clan of Prince Alexander Bagrationi. Some merchants also sought a complete abolition of the monarchy in favor of a republican system. The arrival of Russian troops in November 1799 only worsened the internal division. Not only Kovalensky was often challenged by General Lazarev, but he also regularly insulted members of the royal family. Moreover, he engaged in a policy of dividing Georgians and Armenians in the kingdom, the latter making up a large part of the bourgeois class of Tbilisi. Two Tbilisi Armenian prefects, Jumshid and Pheridun, received a Russian salary for the spreading of pro-Russian sentiments within the Armenian community of Georgia and were in direct contact with Russian authorities, in violation of the agreement between George XII and Saint Petersburg. Joseph II Argutinsky, the Armenian catholicos consecrated in 1800, encouraged opposition to the king and sponsored his followers' support for Emperor Paul. According to British diplomatic intercepts in India, the Russians had promised the Armenians the creation of an autonomous state