decree annexing the kingdom. He appointed Crown Prince David as administrator of the province and offered Georgian nobles titles of count and barons. This annexation would be formalized only two years later, Paul being murdered a few months later, before the decree could be published in Tbilisi. Death In the second half of 1800, George XII fell gravely sick because of his edemas that slowed down his movement. His lack of public appearances made him largely unpopular amongst his subjects. The state affairs were increasingly under the control of Russian official. The king spent his last months restoring the icon of Saint George of Bochorma, a high-mountain village in Tusheti, with artisan Gabriel. George XII stayed isolated in his palace in Tbilisi. While he trusted only his sons David, Ioane and Bagrat, he set himself apart from David when the latter married on January 9, 1800, Elene Abamelik, the daughter of an Armenian merchant, against the will of his father. Seeking to associate his younger sons to the throne, he named Ioane as Minister of the Armies on 20 November. Seven of his 23 children died before his reign and the king suffered from depression, in addition to his isolation and disease. He would never learn of the signing by Paul I of the decree incorporating Kartl-Kakheti within the Russian Empire, his biggest diplomatic accomplishment. Sick, he sought, in vain, to be healed with Russian medicine and doctor Hirzius. On December 28, 1800, while his ambassadors were still in the North Caucasus, heading towards Tbilisi with the Russian document, George XII addressed Knorring one last time through a translator, entrusting him his kingdom while asking his priests to ensure the crowning of David. He died the same day in Tbilisi, due to complications from an angina. His crown and scepter were sent to Saint Petersburg. He was the last King of Kartl-Kakheti and the last Georgian sovereign to be buried in the Svetitskhoveli Cathedral of Mtskheta. Crown Prince David immediately took over the kingdom, but remained a titleless governor before the final annexation of the Georgian state in 1802. Family Marriages and Children George XII married in 1766 Princess Ketevan Andronikashvili, daughter of Papuna Andronikashvili, Governor of Kiziqi, when she was 12 years old. She died on June 3, 1782, after the couple had six sons and six daughters: David Bagrationi (1767-1819), regent of Kartl-Kakheti; Ioane Bagrationi (1768-1839), military and