Haile Melekot

Haile Melekot (* 1824 - November 9, 1855 ) was Negus from Shewa , a historical region of Ethiopia , from October 12, 1847 until his death. He was the older son of Negus Sahle Selassie and his wife Woizero Bezabish Wolde.

Rise to power

His first wife was Woizero Ijigayehu (whom he married in 1844 and from whom he divorced in 1845); their only child, baptized Sahle Mariam, was renamed Menelik by the Negus Sahle Selassie . Their background is controversial; some believe she was of Oromo origin, others insist that she was one of the women who were brought to Ankober from the Gondar court to teach court etiquette to the royal wives of Shewa, so that the Shewa branch of the dynasty would follow the same court practices how the older Gondar branch could take over. In May 1845 he married his second wife, Woizero Tideneqialesh, who was the former wife of a court official.

Before Haile Melekot became king, he was known as Lij Besha Warad. It is known that Sahle Selassie preferred his younger son, Seyfe Sahle Selassie , and the rumor that he would appoint his younger son as heir was widespread. He publicly announced that Haile Melekot would inherit the kingdom, forced Seyfe to swear to obey his decision and, although terminally ill, shortly before his death he traveled to Debre Berhan , where he asked his vassal Oromo to remain loyal to Haile Malakot.

Sahle Selassie's death was, in Mordechai Abir's words, "a signal of a bloodbath that surpassed anything ever recorded in the annals of Showa." The Abichu Oromo rose in open revolt, attempting to regain control of the Tegulet district , and nearly succeeded Take Ankobar . Only the loyalty of a few other Oromo chiefs and the support of the Shewa with firearms saved the capital. Then Haile Melekot managed to persuade her to meet in Angolalla , where he convinced her to end the revolt. In early 1848 he had strong control of his kingdom and even organized a campaign against the Arsi-Oromo who had raided the southwestern areas of Shewas for years.

Domination

Harold Marcus observes, "Little is known or reminiscent of the reign of Sahle Selassie's son, other than its end." While he is quite correct in saying that this lack of information "leads to the assumption that his reign was ordinary," a brief letter survived Haile Melekots, undated, but written in spring 1849 and addressed to " Victoria , Queen of the Ferangi" - d. H. the European. In this communication he refers to the friendship between the United Kingdom and Shewa, asks why they have not sent any officials to express their condolences on the occasion of his father's death, and asks for 1,500 talers , in addition to an oral message from the courier asking for trained workers . Lord Palmerston replied on July 4, 1849, misunderstanding the intent of the message (and not for the last time the British government misunderstood Ethiopian customs) that Shewa was too far away to send workers, “and besides, the workers on her territory are very great at the moment busy. ”With this letter a box of 300 sovereigns was sent; this gift was returned with a second letter, alleging that the coins were not made of gold but of brass, with the final remark: "Even if our friendship has passed, let no enmity be between us."

Inevitably, his semi-independent kingdom (the ruler of Ethiopia in Gondar was still nominally the feudal lord of the King of Shewa) attracted the attention of Tewodros II , who successfully completed the process of defeating the remaining warlords of Ethiopia and reuniting Ethiopia. Haile Melekot himself allied with the Oromo in Wollo Province , which lay between him and Tewodros, but, as Abir notes, he “was not cut from the same cloth as his father and did not have the same inspirational leadership that Showa had in the past The Shewan Army failed to provide effective aid to the Oromo leaders in Wollo, and with an army of 50,000 men, Tewodros crushed his divided opposition. After a break for the rainy season, Tewodros took Nordshewa in 1855.

At this point, Haile Melekot was discouraged and seriously ill. His brother Seyfe Sahle Selassie , dissatisfied with his indecision, led the army to Menz , south of Wollo, then to Tegulet and abandoned Haile Melekot. The local governors were an easy game for the king and were either defeated (like the governor of Efrata ) or defected to Tewodro's side. Rebellious Oromo burned Angolalla. The Shewa Negus was horrified to find that his mother Bezabish and grandmother Zenebework (or widow and mother of the later Sahle Selassie) had switched sides and paid homage to Tewodros in exchange for a guarantee that their personal land would not be touched . A discouraged Haile Melekot made a few skirmishes against Tewodro's forces, then destroyed his grocery stores and his capital Ankober to keep them out of Tewodro's hands. He died of his illness in the city of Atakelt and was hastily cremated at Debre Gage in Tara .

A handful of noble Shewa fought on until the final battle in Bulga , where they were defeated by a division of Tewodro's troops under Ras Ingida. Accepting that further resistance was not possible, they handed over Tewodros Menelik, the son and heir of Haile Melekot. King Tewodros appointed Haile Melekot's brother Haile Mikael as governor and the independence of the Shewa ended.

Effects

In an interesting postscript, Tewodros II is said to have not believed that Haile Melekot was really dead and to have asked for his body to be exhumed. When he saw the body of the dead king, he is said to have wept for it and said it was a shame that illness had deprived a brave man like the king of Shewa from the honor of falling in battle. He ordered that Haile Melekot be reburied like a king with all pomp and ceremony.

Then Tewodros turned his attention to Melekot's beautiful widow Tidenekialesh. Even recently widowed, the king ordered her to accompany him back to Gondar. Tidenekialesh agreed to come, but asked permission first to visit the Cathedral of St. Mary of Zion at Axum , which she had never visited before arriving in Gondar. Tewodros gave his permission, after which Tidenekialesh traveled to Axum, prayed at the shrine, then promptly escaped across the border, where after some difficulties she managed to get on board a ship to the Holy Land , where she entered an Ethiopian convent in Jerusalem and died a few years later as a nun. Tewodros marveled at the loyalty of the widow Haile Melekot in contrast to the betrayal of the mother and grandmother of the later king.

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1. ↑ Marcus, Harold G. (1995). The Life and Times of Menelik II: Ethiopia 1844-1913 . P. 16. Lawrenceville: Red Sea Press. ISBN 1-56902-010-8 .
2. ↑ Marcus lists the numerous stories ( Menelik II , pp. 16f), including "a persistent rumor" that Ijigayehu was a Gurage slave!
3. ↑ Marcus, Menelik II , p. 13
4. ↑ Abir, Mordechai (1968). Ethiopia: The Era of the Princes; The Challenge of Islam and the Re-unification of the Christian Empire (1769-1855) . P. 178. London: Longmans.
5. ↑ Marcus, Menelik II , p. 13
6. ↑ This correspondence and discussion by Richard Pankhurst was published in David L. Appleyard (translator), Letters from Ethiopian Rulers (Early and Mid-Nineteenth Century) (Oxford: British Academy, 1985), pp. 79-84.
7. ↑ Abir, Ethiopia , p. 180.
8. ↑ One source identifies the disease as malaria (Marcus, Menelik II , p. 18).
9. ^ Rubenson, Sven (1966). King of Kings: Tewodros of Ethiopia . P. 53. Addis Ababa: Haile Selassie I. University.
10. ↑ Harold Marcus only writes that an ancient Ethiopian manuscript, which was written in Gondar and is now in the Institute for Ethiopian Studies in Addis Ababa, reports that Tewodros attended his funeral. Marcus, Menelik II, p. 19