Hezqeyas of Ethiopia

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For the early 18th century pretender to the Ethiopian throne, see Atse Hezqeyas.

Hezqeyas or Hezekiah (died 13 September 1813)[1] was niguse negest (26 July 1789 – January 1794) of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was the son of Iyasus III.

Hezqeyas was brought down from the Royal prison on Wehni by Azaj Dagale and Kantiba Ayadar, who made him Emperor, while the reigning Emperor, Tekle Giyorgis, was in the field campaigning against several revolts. Tekle Giyorgis started from Aringo to suppress this threat, but the Dejazmachs Amade and Ali Borshe, with detachments of Ras Aligaz's followers, met him at the village of Salam, and tried to encircle his army; Tekle Giyorgis managed to escape and crossed over the Abay to find refuge in Gojjam.[2]

During the early years of his reign, Hezqeyas had to provide a refuge for Selasse, who had raided Tigray. Hezqeyas also advanced to the frontier with Sennar, which he plundered and lay waste to.[3] Despite this demonstration of military strength, his power was very limited; the Royal Chronicle records that, towards the end of his reign one of the warlords, Dejazmach Wolda Gabrael, entered Gondar and "made appointments and dismissals without leave of the Negus [Hezqeyas]."[4] A few months later the disgruntled Master of Horse Asserat entered the capital city to expel the Dejazmach, and in the fighting his men set fire to the Gan Takal, part of the Royal Enclosure.

The traveler Henry Salt notes that he was still alive at the time of his visit to northern Ethiopia in 1809/1810.[5]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Pearce, Nathaniel (1831). in J.J. Halls: The Life and Adventures of Nathaniel Pearce. 
  2. ^ Weld Blundell, H. (1922). The Royal chronicle of Abyssinia, 1769-1840. Cambridge: University Press. 
  3. ^ Wallis Budge, E. A. [1928] (1970). A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia. Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications. 
  4. ^ Quoted in Pankhurst, Richard K. P. (1982). History of Ethiopian Towns. Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag. 
  5. ^ Henry Salt, A Voyage to Abyssinia and Travels into the Interior of that Country, 1814 (London: Frank Cass, 1967), p. 474.
Preceded by
Tekle Giyorgis I		 Emperor of Ethiopia
1789–1794		 Succeeded by
Tekle Giyorgis I
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