According to the 18th-century Georgian historian
Vakhushti of Kartli, Heraclius, soon after Alexader's accession to the throne of Kakheti, took offence at his brother
David and clandestinely repaired for the
Ottoman court in
Constantinople. The
Safavid Iranian shah
Tahmasp I saw this as a renege on the Kakhetians' pledge of loyalty. Advancing with his army into
Karabakh, the shah summoned Alexander to his camp. Through the machinations of Prince Cholokashvili, the Kakhetians managed to divert the shah's attention to the political intrigues in the
principality of Samtskhe, which was invaded and ravaged by the Iranians in 1574. In 1578, when
Lala Mustafa Pasha's Ottoman army
marched into Georgia, Alexander II of Kakheti accepted the sultan's suzerainty and helped Lala Pasha to conquer
Shirvan. Alexander's son Heraclius was briefly appointed by the Ottomans a governor of
sanjak of
Shaki in Shirvan, which had hitherto been ruled by Alexander's alienated brother
Isa-Khan on the shah of Iran's behalf. Erekle reappears in the historical records as a signatory, together with his father Alexander II and brothers, David and
George, to the oath of allegiance to
Feodor I of Russia on 28 September 1587, a culmination of the mission of the Russian envoy Rodion Birkin, which, however, did not bring about any tangible changes in the regional political climate. ==Ancestry==