Egwale Seyon
Egwale Seyon | |
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Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo |
Egwale Seyon (
Assumption of power and family
According to
Reign
The writer of The Royal chronicle of Abyssinia notes that, after one brief campaign into
- Nothing took place in the habitations, since nothing was done good or bad, no appointments and no dismissals; for there was an authority over the Negus in the hands of a Galla, who was called Dajazmach Gugsa.[5]
From 1803 on, his reign was marked by constant civil war. Most of the battles were part of a three-sided struggle between Ras Gugsa, Ras
Salt notes that throughout the turmoil of his reign, Egwale Seyon lived "neglected at Gondar, with a very small retinue of servants, and an income by no means adequate to the support of his dignity; so that, as he possesses neither wealth, power, nor influence in the state; royalty may be considered, for a time, almost eclipsed in the country."[3] Nathaniel Pearce commented, following the Emperor's death, that Egwale Seyon "was always very sickly and of a weak constitution".[9]
Philanthropy
Despite his political impotence, one tangible accomplishment of Egwale Seyon's reign was his benefaction of
References
- ^ Budge, E. A. Wallis (1928). A History of Ethiopia: Volume II (Nubia and Abyssinia). London: Methuen & Co. p. 480.
- ^ Nathaniel Pearce, The Life and Adventures of Nathaniel Pearce, J.J. Halls (editor) (London, 1831), vol. 2 p. 215
- ^ a b Henry Salt, A Voyage to Abyssinia and Travels into the Interior of that Country, 1814 (London: Frank Cass, 1958), p. 262
- H. Weld Blundell, The Royal chronicle of Abyssinia, 1769–1840 (Cambridge: University Press, 1922), p. 473
- ^ Weld Blundell, Royal chronicle, p. 478
- ^ E. A. Wallis Budge, A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, 1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970), p. 481. According to the Royal chronicle, Asserat died after Easter, 1806 (Weld Blundell, p. 479).
- ^ Weld Blundell, Royal chronicle, pp. 474f
- ^ Weld Blundell, Royal chronicle, pp. 483f
- ^ Pearce, Life and Adventures, vol. 2 p. 246
- ^ Stuart Munro-Hay, Ethiopia, the unknown land: a cultural and historical guide (London: I.B. Tauris, 2002), p. 144, 146