Gelawdewos

Timeline

1. c. 1521–1540Shewa highlands · Ethiopian HighlandsHe grew up during the long war between his father Lebna Dengel and Imam Ahmad Gran of Adal. After 1529 the empire suffered successive defeats, churches and provinces were largely destroyed, and the royal house withdrew into the highlands. His father died in September 1540, and he acceded in extremis as the youngest son.
2. 1540–1541Shewa · Ethiopian HighlandsHe acceded on 3 September 1540 under the title Asnaf Sagad. At the time he could muster only a few dozen to a hundred or so remnant troops in the Shewa highlands, the imperial heartland having fallen into Adal's hands. His mother Seble Wengel continued to liaise with the Portuguese for reinforcements in the north, becoming the key external channel for his reorganization.
3. 1541–1543Wayna Daga · Ethiopian HighlandsIn 1541 Cristóvão da Gama entered the country with some four hundred musketeers from Massawa, winning successive victories in Tigray before being defeated, captured, and killed at Wofla in August 1542. Gelawdewos then joined his mother and the Portuguese survivors in the north, replenishing firearms stored at Debre Berhan, and on 21 February 1543 killed Gran in the decisive battle at Wayna Daga, whereupon the Adal invasion rapidly collapsed.
4. 1543–1550Ethiopian Highlands · Ethiopian HighlandsAfter Gran's death he expelled Adal remnants from the highlands and eastern lowlands, pardoning many subjects who had sided with the enemy to avoid depopulation. He then repaired churches and reorganized the provinces, reestablishing Solomonic rule over the Christian highlands. In the 1550s he also had to contend with Ottoman-backed Adal remnants and Catholic missionary pressure, and died in battle in 1559.