Menelik II, Emperor of Ethiopia Quiz

Sahle Maryam was born in Angolalla, the capital of the Amharan principality of Shewa, in 1844. His father, then the 18-year-old crown prince, did not officially acknowledge him, but he was given a good home in the royal household (his mother being a servant there).

In 1847 Haile Melekot became negus (king) of Sherwa, which was at that time semi-independent of the rule of the Ethiopian Empire. Emperor Tewedros II invaded Shewa in 1855, in order to bring it under his control. Haile Melekot dies (of illness, not in battle) early in the campaign, and Menelik was surrendered to the emperor as a hostage after his victory in the battle of Bulga.

While being held captive in Amba Magdela, Menelik formed a strategic marriage with the daughter of the emperor, Woizero (Princess) Altash. The marriage lasted only until he escaped in 1865, at which time he left her behind and divorced her. The emperor was not pleased, to put it mildly, ordering a number of Oromo and Amhara hostages killed.

When Menelik captured by Tewodros, his uncle was appointed shum (governor) of Shewa. When he attempted to rebel against the emperor's authority, he was replaced by Ato (Mr or Sir) Bezebah; he in turn rebelled, and declared himself king of Shewa. The assumption of the throne by someone who was not part of the royal family outraged the royalty imprisoned at Magdela, who organised Menelik's escape on 1 July 1865.

He returned to Shewa, and rallied a large number of supporters, including a umber of Bezebah's own troops, allowing Menelik to claim the crown.

At the same time, he stated a claim on the emperor's throne, based on his descent from an earlier emperor, but did not attempt to follow up the claim until later.

Menelik had no children with any of his three wives, but he did have a number of illegitimate children, of whom he recognised three.

The oldest was a daughter, Shoaregga Menelik, born in 1867. Her second son was the nominal successor to his grandfather in 1913, but was deposed in 1916 without ever having been crowned, replaced by his aunt. The ostensible reason for his deposition was a suspicion that he had converted to Islam, and was no longer suitable to rule as part of the Solomonic Dynasty. The family claimed descent from the legendary Menelik I, who was declared the first emperor of Ethiopia (such as it then was) in the 10th century. He was reputed to be the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

Next was a son, Asfa Wossen Menelik, born in 1873. He died around the age of 15, and left no heirs.

The third child was a daughter, Zewditu Menelik, born in 1876. She was declared Empress in 1916, but as she had no children, all of the children from her four marriages having failed to reach adulthood, the nobles who were running things after her father's death decided to place actual power in the hands of a regent, Ras Tafari Makonnen, later to become Emperor Haile Selassie in 1930.

After divorcing his first wife in 1865, Menelik almost immediately married Bafena Wolde Michael, for whom he seems to have had a strong attachment, as he did not divorce her until five years after she had led an attempted coup in 1877. She was much older than Menelik, and she was apparently more interested in procuring political advantage for her children from previous marriages than she was in her husband.

A year after finally divorcing Bafena, Menelik married for the third and final time. This was her fifth marriage, and the first for either of them to be married in a full church service, making it indissoluble. When he became emperor, she was declared Empress consort, a position to which she brought considerable influence due to her own imperial pedigree.

Her connections had helped Emperor Yohannes extend the region controlled by the Ethiopian throne, and she was able to help Menelik retain and extend this. Following Menelik's stroke in 1906, she effectively ruled the country until his death.

During the 1870s and '80s Menelik had no permanent royal capital, as he spent most of the time engaged in battles to expand the kingdom of Shewa (later to be incorporated in Ethiopia), so the capital was wherever he happened to be at the time. In 1866 Empress Taytu Betul camped at a hot spring just south of Mount Entoto, and decided to build a house there to be her permanent base, as Menelik ranged around on military campaigns. She named this base Addis Ababa, meaning new flower, and allocated land nearby for all of the generals to build their own homes.

When Menelik was declared emperor in 1889, a new royal palace was built, and the city began a rapid expansion. By the time of his death, Addis Ababa had a population somewhere between 75,000 and 100,000 permanent residents.

When Emperor Yohannes IV died in March of 1889, he made a dying declaration that his illegitimate son Dejazemach Mengesha Yohannes should succeed him. A fortnight later Menelik declared himself Emperor. He based his claim on having a direct male lineage, rather than descent through females of the line, from King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

The technical argument was much less important than the military and political one, and Menelik managed to get the support of the majority of the nobles, gaining the throne.

He was consecrated and crowned in a ceremony at the Church of Mary on Mount Entoto that took place on 3 November 1889.

Shortly before he became emperor, Menelikhad signed the Treaty of Wuchale with the Italians, which recognised Italy's claim to Eritrea, but not to the rest of Ethiopia. However, there was a clause (claimed by Menelik to be in the Italian language version only, not in the Amharic version) which effectively made Ethiopia a protectorate of Italy. Menelik hence repudiated the treaty, leading to the First Italo-Ethiopian War in 1895.

The Italian forces experienced success until Menelik gathered a significant Ethiopian force to meet them in the mountains north of the town of Adwa on 1 March 1896. The battle resulted in an overwhelming defeat for the Italians, and effectively ended their expansion in the Horn of Africa. The Treaty of Addis Ababa, signed on 23 October recognised the sovereignty of Ethiopia as an independent country, removing any claims made in the Treaty of Wuchale.

The treaty with Italy was followed in 1897 by treaties with the United Kingdom and France, both of whom had colonies bordering Ethiopia, which recognised Ethiopia as a sovereign nation.

Menelik suffered a stroke on 27 October 1909 which left him completely incapacitated. His wife took over as de facto ruler, but the nobles appointed a regent to be in charge. Their choice died very soon, and was replaced by a council of regents (which did not include the empress) in 1910.

On 12 December 1913 Emperor Menelik died, and was unceremoniously buried at a church on the grounds of the Imperial Palace. In 1916, he was reburied with more formal observances in a church built expressly for that purpose in Ba'eta Le Mariam Monastery, also within the Imperial Palace. This church, Ta'eka Negest (a name meaning resting place of kings), is also the burial site of Empress Taytu (his third wife) and Empress Zewditu (his daughter).

The council continued to rule after the death of Menelik on 12 December 1913, with Lij Iyasu (son of his oldest daughter) nominally emperor until 1916, when he was declared unsuitable, and his third daughter became Empress Zewditu I on 27 September 1916. At his time, Täfäri Mäkonnän (husband of Lil Iyasu's niece) was elevated from a position on the council of regency to that of Regent Plenipotentiary and given the title of Ras (a noble title roughly equivalent to duke or prince), and declared to be the heir apparent. On the death of the empress in 1930, Ras Täfäri became Emperor Haile Selassie I.