The rival noble clans, especially Tsulukidze and Tsereteli, attempted to counter the move by invoking a force of Ottoman and Dagestan mercenaries, only to be routed by the royal army in 1786.
George then married his second wife, an anonymous daughter of Giorgi-Malakia Abashidze, ex-wife of Prince Giorgi Nizharadze, and repudiated the union in 1713 (she would marry her third husband Prince Merab Tsulukidze in 1714).