Kingdom of Lori

The kingdom of Lori was an Armenian kingdom that declined in prominence following its acceptance of Roman overlordship in the late eleventh century. In the 1170s, Lori was the major rival to the pretensions of the Prince of Syunik, Smbat I. King Ashot of Lori saw Smbat as his vassal, and energetically warred against him, but in the end, Smbat won an unlikely and total victory, assembling an alliance of other Armenian princes to smash Ashot and his Georgian backers at the Battle of the Sevan in 1195. Ashot thereafter gave up his crown to Smbat, and was one of the Armenian nobles who crowned him King of Kings. Lori remained a largely independent part of the reunited Armenian kingdom thereafter, however, able to resist direct integration.