Tewodros I


Tewodros I was Emperor of Ethiopia and a member of the House of Solomon. He was the son of Dawit I by Queen Seyon Mangasha.

Reign

Despite the fact it only lasted nine months, Tewodros's period of rule acquired a connotation of being a golden age for Ethiopia. The explorer James Bruce later commented,
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E. A. Wallis Budge repeats the account of the Synaxarium that Emperor Tewodros was "a very religious man, and a great lover of religious literature". Budge adds that Tewodros wished to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, but was convinced not to make the journey by the Abuna Mark, "who feared for his safety." Despite this, Budge notes that he annulled the agreement of his ancestor Yekuno Amlak that granted a third of the country to the Ethiopian Church.
Tewodros was killed beyond the Awash River fighting Muslims, although this is not explicitly stated by the Ethiopian chroniclers. Taddesse Tamrat notes that "in the royal chronicles and other traditions for the period, one can detect a deliberate attempt to suppress the violent ends of Ethiopian kings at the hands of their enemies." He was first buried at the church of Tadbaba Maryam, but his descendant Emperor Baeda Maryam I had his body re-interred at Atronsa Maryam.