Empress Medferiashwork Abebe
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Empress Medferiashwork Abebe (Crown Princess Medferiashwork) is the titular Empress-consort of Amha Selassie, Emperor of Ethiopia in Exile. (Her full title used by monarchists is "Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Medferiashwork", but she is officially regarded in Ethiopia as "Her Imperial Highness Princess Medferiashwork Abebe".) Daughter of Lt. General Abebe Damtew, and niece of Ras Desta Damtew who was the first husband of her sister-in-law, Princess Tenagnework. Daughter-in-law of Emperor Haile Selassie. She married Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen in 1942, and they had three daughters (Princess Maryam Senna, Princess Sehin Azebe and Princess Sifrash Bizu) and a son, Prince Zera Yacob.
Medferiashwork is said to have played a key role in organizing the opposition to the attempted 1960 coup against Emperor Haile Selassie. Her husband had been coerced into reading a radio statement declaring that he was to henceforth assume his father's throne as a "salaried monarch" and also announce far reaching political reforms. The Crown Princess was one of the few members of the Imperial family not placed under detention, and she played a role in getting the members of the nobility that had not been detained together with the leaders of the Army in order to crush the Imperial Guard which had launched the coup.
In 1973, when her husband suffered a massive stroke, she accompanied him to Geneva, Switzerland where he was undergoing treatment. At this time, as the government in Ethiopia was faced with growing dissent, and the health of the Crown Prince was despaired of, the Prime Minister prevailed on the Emperor to name an "acting Crown Prince" or Heir Presumptive with the expectation that the Heir Apparent did not have long to live. Her son Zera Yacob was named Acting Crown Prince and Heir Presumptive by Emperor Haile Selassie, with the expectation that he would be named Crown Prince and Heir Apparent upon the expected death of his father. Instead, the Derg seized power and proclaimed her husband "King-designate", but as he refused to recognize this proclamation, the couple continued to use the titles and dignity of Crown Prince and Crown Princess. The Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen recovered sufficiently to allow the couple to move to London with their children where they lived in exile for over 15 years.
In 1989, when Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen assumed the title "Emperor-in-exile" with the name "Amha Selassie I", he bestowed the title of Empress upon Medferiashwork.
Emperor Amha Selassie and Empress Medferiashwork moved to the Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C. in 1990 to be near the large Ethiopian community there. Accorded courtesies and homage of an Empress-consort, Empress Medferiashwork lived with her husband in Virginia until his death in February, 1997. She and her children accompanied his body back to Ethiopia and held Ethiopia's first royal funeral since the revolution. Empress Medferiashwork currently lives in Addis Ababa.
