Demetros
Emperor of Ethiopia
Reign25 July 1799 – 24 March 1800
PredecessorSalomon III
SuccessorTekle Giyorgis I
ReignJune 1800 – June 1801
PredecessorTekle Giyorgis I
SuccessorEgwale Seyon
Died1802
Burial
Ba'ata, Ethiopia
DynastyHouse of Solomon
FatherArqedewos
ReligionEthiopian Orthodox Tewahedo

Demetros (died 1802) was Emperor of Ethiopia intermittently between 1799 and 1801, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was the son of Arqedewos. He may be the same person as the "Adimo" mentioned in the account of the traveler Henry Salt who was dead by the time of Salt's visit to northern Ethiopia in 1809/1810.[1]

Reign

Demetros was elevated as Emperor by Dejazmach Gugsa and his brother Alula, who put his predecessor Emperor Salomon III in chains. Four days later he made Gugsa Dejazmach over Begemder, and five days after that Demetros appointed Alula Kenyazmach.[2] However, in March of the next year, Tekle Giyorgis returned to Gondar, supported by Ras Wolde Selassie, and while Tekle Giyorgis made a point of not entering the palace, Demetros is commonly considered to have been deposed at that point.[3]

The re-establishment of Demetros was not a somber event. According to the Royal Chronicle of Abyssinia, Demetros was taken against his will to the Royal Palace where he was crowned king when Tekle Giyorgis was away from Gondar warring in the provinces. "After that they turned him out and bringing in Takla Giyorgis King of Kings made him King over the other and even yet a third time drove him out of the Royal Palace when he had done nothing."[4]

On this rapid succession of emperors at the will of the powerful warlords, the writer of The Royal Chronicle lamented,

I indeed am sad and stricken on account of this persecution of those revered kings. Who shall restore the dominion of the kingdom to you as of old he restored the kingdom from the Zagwe to the house of David, through the prayer of Iyasus Mo'a,[5] and the covenant of Abuna Takla Haymanot, may he grant us this day that he restore the Kingdom. Amen.[6]

The Royal Chronicle records his death late in 1802. He was buried at Ba'ata.[7]

Notes

  1. ↑ Henry Salt, A Voyage to Abyssinia and Travels into the Interior of that Country, 1814 (London: Frank Cass, 1958), p. 474
  2. ↑ Herbert Weld Blundell, The Royal chronicle of Abyssinia, 1769-1840 (Cambridge: University Press, 1922), p. 462
  3. ↑ Weld Blundell, Royal Chronicle, pp. 463, 464, 466
  4. ↑ Weld Blundell, Royal chronicle, p. 470. The sequence of events in The Royal Chronicle clearly shows that Wallis Budge errs when he puts this event at the beginning of Demetros' first reign. (E. A. Wallis Budge, A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, 1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970), p. 480)
  5. ↑ Weld Blundell's translation, "Iyasus, the conqueror" makes no sense. Iyasus Mo'a is translated "Jesus has conquered"; Weld Blundell must have experienced a moment's lapse and failed to recognize the saint's name.
  6. ↑ Weld Blundell, Royal chronicle, p. 470
  7. ↑ Weld Blundell, The Royal chronicle of Abyssinia, p. 473
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