John III (Ethiopia)

John III (* 1797 ) was Negus Negest ( Emperor ) of Ethiopia and thus the last Ethiopian ruler from the "Gonder" branch of the Solomonids dynasty . He was the son of Tekle Giyorgis I. When Emperor was he, while the real power in the hands of largely a figurehead end racial or regent, Ras Ali II. , A prince of the ruling Oromo family from the district Yejju rested. Johannes was forced by Ras Ali, his mother, to marry the mighty Empress Mennen Liben Amede . She should dominate both her second husband and son.

In the numerous wars between Ras Ali and his strongest competitor for power, Dejazmach Wube Haile Maryam von Semien , Johannes was dethroned and put back on the throne several times between August 30, 1840 and 1851. He took turns with his cousin Sahle Dengel . For the first time Johannes was deposed in October 1841 because he showed himself to be a friend of Dejazmach Wube. He briefly returned to office in 1845 and was promoted to the throne for the last time in an unknown manner in 1850.

Budge portrays Johannes as a despicable person who was only tolerated because he came from the Solomonic branch. He was a gourmand and wine drinker and usually drunk. When he was not in his dining room, he could be found in the harem .

Nothing is known of his ultimate fate, as of many details of his reign. When Mennen was defeated on June 18, 1847 by Kassa of Qwara (later Theodor II ) on the northern bank of Lake Tana , Johannes is said to have been the ruling emperor. Kassa captured Johannes and Mennen and exchanged them with Ras Ali for the title of Dejazmach and the areas of the late Ras Kinfu in Gojam .

According to another source, Kassa ultimately seized the imperial throne. John resigned voluntarily on the condition that the new emperor did not force him to reunite with his hated wife, Empress Mennen. Then Johannes disappeared from the scene and died in poverty in the early 1870s. At the end of his life he converted to Catholicism and had Napoléon III. asked for financial support in a letter.

Budge gives a different account, according to which Johannes ended his life much less memorable. Accordingly, he died in 1851 of an acute stomach upset and was replaced on the throne for the last time by Sahle Dengel. This story seems more believable, as Sahle Dengel was emperor until shortly before Theodor's coronation on February 11, 1855.

literature

1. ^ EA Wallis Budge: A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia . 1928 Anthropological Publications (Oosterhout, The Netherlands 1970), p. 483
2. ↑ Mordechai Abir: Ethiopia: The Era of the princes . Longmans (London 1968), pp. 128f

predecessor	Office	successor
Sahle Dengel	Emperor of Ethiopia 1840 - 1851	Sahle Dengel