Iyasu I

Timeline

1. c. 1654–1682Gondar · GondarHe grew up at the Gondar court. After his elder brother Justus died in 1676, he inherited his house, weapons, and the office of Semen Aqafari, and also served as governor of Gojjam, accompanying his father on campaign against Lasta in 1677. In 1681 he defied his father's orders and negotiated over succession arrangements, paving the way for his smooth accession the following year.
2. 1682–1705Gondar · GondarCrowned on July 19, 1682, the day Johannes I died, with the title Adyam Sagad. Over the following twenty-plus years he personally campaigned repeatedly against the Oromo, eastern Muslim chieftaincies, and southern Ennarea, temporarily reversing the centrifugal trends of mid-century Gondar. He patronized church and palace construction and convened ecclesiastical councils in an attempt to reconcile the factions within the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, with limited effect.
3. 1705–1706Chekela Manzo Island, Lake Tana · Lake TanaIn 1705, while campaigning south against Ennarea, he learned of the death of his beloved concubine Kedest Kristos and, stricken with grief, withdrew to Lake Tana. In March 1706 the Gondar nobles raised his son Tekle Haymanot in his place. He briefly gathered troops in an attempt to regain the throne, then fell ill and was placed under guard on the island of Chekela Manzo, where on October 13 he was assassinated by Dermen and Paulos, the maternal uncles of his son. Gondar's politics then entered a period of palace massacres.