Mikael Sehul: Difference between revisions

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He was offended by the behavior of his superior Ras [[Anda Haymanot]] during a hunting expedition, and returned to [[Adowa]] which he fortified, and rebelled from Anda Haymanot. Eventually Ras Mikael fought, captured then executed his one-time master in [[1759]].^[[#Notes|4]] Adowa was located at a strategic point on the trade route between Massawa and [[Gondar]], and from the fees and duties he extracted he was able to recruit an army of 8000 men and arm them with [[musket]]s.

Upon the death of Iyasu II, his son Iyoas took the throne and rivalry exploded between the mother of the late Emperor, and and his widow. Empress Mentewab and been crowned co-ruler when her then underage son had succeeded her husband. Now that her son was gone, she believed that she was entitled to remain as co-ruler. However, Iyasu's widow, Welete Bersabe (known as Wubit), strongly believed that it was her turn to take the leading role at the court of her son Iyoas as her mother-in-law had done during the previous reign. The young Emperor took the side of his mother against his grandmother. Empress Mentewab gathered her relatives from her native [[Qwara]] and their forces flooded into Gondar to support her claims. When news of the arrival of the Qwaran troops arrived, Welete Bersabe also summoned her relatives from [[Yejju]], and throngs of of Oromo soldiers arrived from that district to uphold her claims. The city of Gondar was swamped by these two tense armies, and a bloodbath seemed imminent.

To resolve the faceoff, Empress Mentewab looked to her son-in-law Ras Mikael to intervene. Mikael Sehul arrived with an army of 26,000 promising to mediate the dispute between the two queens and their followers. He took control of the capital city of Gondar and assumed an increasingly dominant role. Emperor Iyoas became alarmed, and after secretly intreguing with [[Fasil of Damot|Fasil]] ordered the Ras to return to Tigray. Ras Mikael Sehul disobeyed, and defeated Fasil's army. He returned to Gondar and demanded an assembly of the nobility before whom he announced that he had proof that the Emperor Iyoas had plotted to have him killed while he was off defending his throne for him.