Yeshashework Yilma
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Princess Yeshashework Yilma was the daughter of Dejazmatch Yilma Makonnen, governor of Harrar and niece of Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia. Her mother Woizero Aselefech, was the niece of Empress Taitu Bitul, consort of Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia. Through her paternal great-grandmother, she was a member of the Imperial Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia. Her father died while she was still very young.
Raised in the Imperial Palace nursery along side other children of royal blood during the reign of Menelik II, such as Lij Eyasu, Yeshashwork Yilma was clearly destined for the life of a great aristocratic lady in Ethiopia in the early 20th Century. Indeed, shortly after her uncle Ras Taffari Makonnen became Crown Prince and Regent of Ethiopia in 1917, Yeshashwork was given in marriage to the much olderLeul Ras Gugsa Araya Selassie, Prince of Eastern Tigray, and grandson of Emperor Yohannes IV. As the wife of Leul Ras Gugsa, she was given the title of "Leult" (Princess) by Empress Zauditu, with the dignity of "Her Highness". Ras Gugsa died not long afterwards, and the widowed Princess returned to Addis Ababa from Mekele. In 1930, her uncle became Emperor Haile Selassie, and she was granted the title of Princess in her own right with the dignity of "Her Imperial Highness" as the daughter of his elder brother. Princess Yeshashework's second husband, Bitwoded Makonnen Demissew, perished at Amba Aradam while fighting the Fascist Italian invasion of 1936. The Princess accompanied the rest of the Imperial family into exile, living primarily in Jerusalem until 1941. After the restoration, Princess Yeshashework married Ras Bitwoded Makonnen Endelkachew, head of the powerful aristocratic Adisge clan. He was a veteran of the war, a fellow former exile, a noted author of history and fiction, and would serve as Emperor Haile Selassie's Prime Minister (the first to bear the title after it was first created in the post-war period). It was a rare example of an aristocratic marriage in Ethiopia at that time, that was purely an unarranged love match.
Widowed for a third and final time in 1963, the Princess spent some time in seclusion in the Holy Land, and returned to take up some state duties as a member of the Imperial family, accompanying the Emperor on some foreign trips, and being part of the royal party at state functions inside the country as well. She was arrested upon the seizure of power by the Derg regime in September 1974, and was imprisoned with the other women of the Imperial family. The Princess suffered poor health while in prison, and was offered her freedom on several occasions, but refused it on the grounds that she would only walk out of the Prison gates if the other Princesses were to walk out as well. Finally, when her health had deteriorated significantly, the other Princesses prevailed upon her to accept the offer, and Princess Yeshashework Yilma became the first member of the Imperial family to be freed from prison in August 1982. She died a few months later and was buried at the church at her former estate at Reppi, just south of Addis Ababa.
