Georgian Royalty. Born Nikolay Davidovich Dadian-Mingrelsky, he was the last Prince of Mingrelia from 1853 until 1867. Of the House of Dadiani, one of the leading Georgian noble families, he succeeded the throne upon the death of his father, David Dadiani, but he never ruled in his own right. In his minority, the government was run by the regency presided by his mother, Princess Ekaterina. During the Crimean War, the Russian forces temporarily withdrew he and his mother took refuge in the mountains of Lechkhumi, at the monastery of Tsageri. After the war, in 1856, they relocated to Moscow, Russia to attend the coronation of Tsar Alexander II and then followed the imperial family to St. Petersburg. On this occasion, he was made aide-de-camp to the Tsar and commissioned as a poruchik in the Life Guards Caucasian Squadron of His Imperial Majesty's Personal Escort. In 1857 Mingrelia was placed under a provisional Russian administration and ten years later he formally abdicated the throne and Mingrelia was directly incorporated into the Russian Empire. In April 1874 he married Maria Alexandrovna nee Adlerberg, daughter of Count Aleksandr Adelberg, sometime Minister of the Imperial Court. He resided primarily in St. Petersburg, being close to the court and was an officer in the Imperial Russian Army and distinguished himself in the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878). He retired with the rank of major-general and in 1887 he was nominated by Tsar Alexander III as a candidate for the vacant princely throne of Bulgaria after Alexander of Battenberg had been forced to abdicate the previous year. The Russian nominee was rejected by the Grand Assembly of Bulgaria and the crown eventually went to the German prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. He died at the age of 56.