Lij iyasu biography of rory

Iyasu was especially weary of the Italians and the British. Iyasu is rumored to have wanted to join World War 1 on the side of the Central Powers. Had they prevailed in the war, they could have been depended on to counter the British and Italians in East Africa. Starting in , Iyasu focused his attention towards eastern Ethiopia. He spent much of the year in Harar and surrounding areas, which Ras Tafari had been assigned governorship.

He slowly started stripping away power from him, removing his power to police and later appointing a foreigner to a position that rivaled Tafari's. The following year, he removed Tafari from his position as governor, which would turn out to be a critical event that would cost Iyasu the crown Marcus , By this time, Ras Tafari was back in Addis Ababa and shortly after the Ethiopian new year September , the Shoan elites assembled once more but this time to depose Iyasu.

Menelik's daughter, Zawditu, was crowned Empress and Ras Tafari named regent. Iyasu at the time was in Harar and when news reached of his removal from the crown, he went into hiding. His father, Ras Mikael, assembled a force of 80, and marched towards Addis Ababa but it was soundly defeated by the forces assembled by the central government.

Lij Iyasu would eventually get caught in Henze He died in under suspicious circumstances. Augustyniak, Zuzanna, Wolbert G. Finally, the third heir of the female line was Menelik's elder daughter Woizero Zewditu , who was married to Ras Gugsa Welle , nephew of the Empress Taitu. Menelik refused to consider Taye Gulilat, whom he deeply disliked.

Wosan Seged was eliminated from consideration due to dwarfism. In March , at any rate, Wosan Seged was in poor health and dying of tuberculosis. It was clear that the aristocracy would not respect a woman as their leader, so Zewditu was also not seriously considered at this time. On 15 May Menelik informed his ministers that Iyasu would succeed him.

Not long after his decision that Lij Iyasu would succeed him, Emperor Menelik succumbed to further strokes.

Lij iyasu biography of rory

These eventually left him a mere shell of his once-powerful self, and incapacitated until his death in During his last years, in a bid to retain power, Empress Taitu intrigued against his choice, intending to substitute either her step-daughter Leilt Zewditu or her daughter's husband Ras Gugsa Welle who happened to be Taitu's nephew for Iyasu.

In response to Taitu's intriguing, a number of nobles organized in an ever-closer alliance against her. On 28 October , after a massive stroke, Menelik's choice of Iyasu as his heir was made public with Ras Bitweded Tessema Nadew as regent. The new regent found his authority undermined not only by the still living but paralyzed Emperor Menelik, but also by the Empress.

For example, she insisted that questions from the foreign legations in Addis Ababa be directed to her, not to Tessema. Despite this, Harold Marcus notes that the presence of Tessema "did curb ministerial dissensions and intrigues and was a reminder of the existence of central authority. With Tessema, Iyasu continued Menelik's program of modernization, including the establishment of the first police force in Addis Ababa.

When asked whom he desired in the position, he is reported to have replied, "Myself! From the very beginning of his de facto reign, Lij Iyasu showed that he was not the stuff from which great monarchs were made. He was bright, but also impulsive, cruel, lascivious, prone to depressions and egocentricities, and politically inept. Despite his vision of an Ethiopia in which religion and ethnic affiliations made no difference in a man's political or private career, he had no clear comprehension of the power realities in the empire, nor of his own position as its ruler.

In the first year, he was faced with several serious challenges to his rule. On 14 July, an attempt was made to poison Iyasu. That same year Menelik's soldiers sent a delegation demanding back pay and regular supplies, which made clear that the government was on the brink of financial insolvency. Intelligence reached Iyasu's father, Ras Mikael, of another plot, and he arrived on 14 November in Addis Ababa with an army of 8, men.

This was only the first of many efforts Ras Mikael made to keep his son on the Imperial throne. At this point, Lij Iyasu decided to leave the capital, ostensibly on a military expedition against the Afar , but he simply traveled through eastern Shewa and into Wollo , meeting with the common people. Once he finally returned to the capital, he came into conflict with the commander of the Imperial Bodyguard, which was eventually settled by the mediation of Abuna Mattewos.

The conflict began when Iyasu expressed his wish to the ministers that the incapacitated Emperor be removed from the Imperial Palace so that Iyasu himself could take up residence there. Trying to please the heir, the ministers asked for an audience with Empress Taitu and suggested that she take the Emperor to Ankober as a change of scene that might be beneficial for his health.

Taitu had however been informed that Iyasu was intent on moving into the Imperial Palace, and defiantly refused to move either herself or her husband from the Palace. Informed of this exchange, the commander of the Imperial Bodyguard swore that he would protect the Emperor in his palace with his life. Angrily, Iyasu ordered the palace complex surrounded by his soldiers and only allowed in enough food for the Emperor himself.

With Iyasu's soldiers in a tense standoff with the Imperial guard, the situation deteriorated to the point that gunfire was exchanged, and the bedridden Emperor had to be moved to the cellars as his bedroom windows were shattered in the battle. Hearing the guns, the Archbishop rushed to the scene and arranged for a ceasefire. Empress Taitu then emerged from the palace to publicly berate Iyasu as an ungrateful child who wanted to kill his grandfather.

She angrily declared that neither she nor the Emperor would be going anywhere and returned to her rooms. Iyasu was thwarted, but demanded vengeance against the commander of the Imperial Bodyguard. Although he had wanted him severely punished, he was convinced to accept a sentence of banishment from the capital. Iyasu indulged in a lavish celebration, which led the European diplomats to conclude "that he was purposely neglecting urgent business and impeding the ministers from carrying out their duties".

Lij Iyasu left the capital after little more than a month, and during this time engaged in a raid upon the Afar, who had reportedly massacred of the Karayu Oromo at the village of Sadimalka on the Awash River. Unable to find the responsible parties, he made a punitive raid upon the general population which provoked a general uprising of the Afar.

On 8 April, after repeated messages from his father to return to the capital, he finally did arrive at the city and managed to accomplish nothing. On 8 May, Iyasu left to meet his father in Dessie. Iyasu was informed of his grandfather's death. No public announcement of the Emperor's death was made, and no requiem or any type of mourning ritual was allowed.

Empress Taitu was immediately expelled from the Imperial Palace and sent to the old palace on Mt. Lij Iyasu's aunt, Zewditu Menelik, was also removed from the palace and banished into internal exile at her estates at Falle. Ahmed Hassen Omar, pp. Paper by E. Ficquet: - Fig. With focus on the most prominent figures p. Paper by A. Gori: - Fig.

Augustyniak: - Fig. Sohier: - Fig. De Castro, Ankober, p. Date, place and author unknown p. Harar, ca. Semenova: - Fig. Collection Boris Turaev. Author: Aleqa Haddis; date: ca. Paper by R. Agstner: - Fig. Paper by H. Fontaine: - Fig. Iyasu V. Yohannes IV. Abiyyi Ahamad Ali. Negasso Gidada. Sahle-Work Zewde.