Egwale Seyon of Ethiopia
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Egwale Seyon (Ge'ez እጓለ ጽዮን; died 3 June 1818) or Gwalu (ጓሉ) was nəgusä nägäst (June 1801 – 3 June 1818) of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was the son of Hezqeyas.
He was made Emperor by Rasses Wolde Selassie and Gugsa of Yejju and chief of the Oromo. Emperor Egwale Seyon then married Walatta Iyasus, the sister of Ras Gugsa, and they had five children. When Henry Salt visited Ras Wolda Selassie at his palace in Chalacot in 1809/1810, the Emperor's brother, Kenyazmach Iyasu, was also a guest of the Ras.1
From 1803 on, his reign was marked by constant civil war. Most of the battles were part of a three-sided struggle between Ras Gugsa, Ras Gabrael of Semien, and Wolde Selassie. Egwale Seyon was also twice attacked at Gondar (1804 and 1808) by armies of the Oromo who lived south of the Abay River, united under the leadership of the disgraced Master of the Horse Asserat.
[edit] Notes
- Henry Salt, A Voyage to Abyssinia and Travels into the Interior of that Country, 1814 (London: Frank Cass, 1967), p. 262.
| Preceded by Demetros |
Emperor of Ethiopia 1801–1818 |
Succeeded by Iyoas II |
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