1. Amha Selassie was first proclaimed Emperor during an unsuccessful coup attempt against his father in December 1960, during which he alleged that he was detained and compelled to accept the title.
19 Facts About Amha Selassie
1. 2.
Amha Selassie was again proclaimed Emperor in exile on 8 April 1989.
3.
Amha Selassie was born Asfaw Wossen Tafari, in the walled city of Harar, to Dejazmach Tafari Makonnen, then the governor of Harar and future Emperor of Ethiopia, and his wife Menen Asfaw, on 29 July 1916.
4.
Amha Selassie became Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen of Ethiopia when his father was crowned Emperor on 2 November 1930.
5.
Amha Selassie was married to Princess Wolete Israel Seyoum, great-granddaughter of Emperor Yohannes IV, and had a daughter, Princess Ijigayehu.
6.
Amha Selassie briefly served as acting governor of the provinces of Begemder and Tigray, retaining Wollo the entire time.
7.
Amha Selassie was eventually remarried to Princess Medferiashwork Abebe, and would father three more daughters, Princesses Mariam Senna, Sefrash, Sehin, and a son Prince Zera Yacob.
8.
At the age of 58 in late 1972, after his father Emperor Haile Amha Selassie blamed him for hiding the realities of the famine in the region which he presided over as Duke from him, Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen suffered a massive stroke and was evacuated for medical treatment to London and Switzerland.
9.
Amha Selassie had been out of the country for medical treatment when the coup occurred.
10.
Haile Amha Selassie had never signed an abdication or renounced his status as Emperor.
11.
Amha Selassie continued to use the title of Crown Prince during his exile until April 1989, when he finally assumed the title of Emperor with the regnal name of Amha Selassie I His succession was back-dated, not to 12 September 1974, when his father was deposed, but to 27 August 1975, when his father died.
12.
Amha Selassie reiterated his view that all of the Derg regime's acts were illegitimate and illegal.
13.
On 12 September 1974, the Derg military junta deposed Emperor Haile Amha Selassie and declared that Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen would be anointed "King" upon his return from medical treatment in Geneva, Switzerland.
14.
Amha Selassie took the throne name of Amha Selassie I His wife began using the title of "Empress".
15.
In 1991, with the fall of the Derg, and the coming to power of the EPRDF in Ethiopia, Amha Selassie founded the Moa Anbessa Monarchist Movement to promote a monarchial restoration in Ethiopia, and announced his intention to return to his country for a visit.
16.
The government refused to give Haile Selassie a state funeral; consequently, the funeral, and the return of Amha Selassie, were indefinitely postponed.
17.
Amha Selassie died at the age of 82 on 17 January 1997, after long illnesses, in the US state of Virginia.
18.
Amha Selassie had never completely recovered from the stroke he had experienced in 1972.
19.
At the time his son, Zera-Jakob Amha Selassie was living on the Isle of Dogs, London.