Taytu Betul

Taytu Betul in a contemporary article in Le Petit Journal

Taytu Betul ( Ethiop . ጣይቱ ብጡል , * around 1851; † February 11, 1918 in Addis Ababa ) was Empress of Ethiopia from 1889 to 1913 (as a wife, not as regent of her own right).

Taytu Betul was born around 1851 as the third of four children to an influential Ethiopian family. Her uncle Dejazmach Wube Hayle Maryam ruled the whole of northern Ethiopia and claimed the imperial throne. After four marriages, she married King Menelik of Shewa , later Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia , in 1883 .

In November 1886, in the absence of her husband at the foot of Mount Entotto , she chose a new location for the imperial residence near the hot springs, which were worshiped by the local Oromo people. According to the sources (in Amharic "Filwuha") this plain was called Finfinnee (with the Catholic mission station Finfini ). This rapidly growing settlement has been the capital of Ethiopia since 1892 under the name Addis Ababa ("New Flower") (still called Finfinnee by the Oromo). The empress can therefore be regarded as the founder of the city.

Taytu Betul is said to have had considerable political influence as the wife of Menelik II , both before and after her coronation as Emperor and Empress of Ethiopia (1889). When her husband's health deteriorated from 1906 onwards, she began to make political decisions on her own responsibility, and in late 1909 even took over the de facto reign of the empire, which earned her the anger of her opponents. In 1910 she was ousted. The Council of Ministers ordered her to take care of her sick husband only "as a woman deserves."

Taytu and Menelik II had no children. Her husband Menelik II died in 1913. She spent the rest of her life in Entoto Maryam Church near Addis Ababa , where she died on February 11, 1918.

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