Tamar was born to then-Prince Royal Vakhtang of Kartli and his
Circassian wife
Rusudan in 1696. Vakhtang ruled Kartli intermittently from 1703 until being forced by the
Ottoman invasion into exile to the
Russian Empire in 1724. At the age of 16, on 2 February 1712, Tamar married, as his second wife, Prince Royal Teimuraz of Kakheti, a younger brother of
King David II of Kakheti (Imam Quli Khan). The wedding was lavishly celebrated in Vakhtang's capital city of
Tbilisi and then in
Manavi, Kakheti. The couple's subsequent life was marred by a civil strife, attacks by the
Lezgians, and invasions from the Ottoman Empire and
Persia. Teimuraz acceded to the throne of Kakheti, until 1744, when he resigned Kakheti to his son,
Heraclius II, and established himself on the vacated throne of his in-laws in Kartli. According to the charter of 1733, her title was "
Queen of Queens." During these years of turmoil, Tamar herself became involved in war and politics. During Teimuraz's absence at the headquarters of his Iranian suzerain,
Nader Shah, in
Kandahar from 1736 to 1738 Tamar counterbalanced the regency of Teimuraz's Muslim nephew,
Ali Mirza. She used her influence and the services of Prince Givi
Cholokashvili to disrupt Ali Mirza's design for a revolt against Iran, thereby saving her husband and son from Nader's imminent revenge and eventually forcing Ali Mirza out of Kakheti in 1738. When Nader again summoned Teimuraz to his camp at
Derbend in 1741, Tamar accompanied her husband, at the shah's request, as a proof of loyalty. Teimuraz succeeded in securing the shah's support for his dynastic ambitions in both Kartli and Kakheti, but this also invited a rebellion led by Prince
Givi Amilakhvari. After three years of inconclusive fighting, the rebels were eventually defeated by Teimuraz, and Tamar in person accepted the courteous surrender of Amilakhvari in
Surami in 1745. ==Children==