49 Facts About Yohannes IV

Yohannes IV was Emperor of Ethiopia from 1871 to his death in 1889 at the Battle of Gallabat, and king of Tigray from 1869 to 1871.

Yohannes IV assisted the British in their British expedition to Abyssinia which ended in Tewodros' suicide, from which Yohannes was rewarded in ammunition and artillery.

Yohannes IV regarded Islam as a hindrance to the stability of the state and worked to strengthen Christian dominance in Ethiopia.

Yohannes IV thus descended from the ruling families of Tembien, Agame, and Enderta.

Yohannes IV Solomonic lineage is through his paternal grandmother Woizero Workewoha KaleKristoss of Adwa, the granddaughter of Ras Mikael Sehul and his wife Aster Iyasu, daughter of Empress Mentewab and Melmal Iyasu, who was a Solomonic prince and nephew of Emperor Bakaffa.

Therefore Yohannes IV is descendent from the Gondar-Branch of the Solomonic Dynasty.

Yohannes IV defeated the governors of Selewa and Kilte Awulaelo.

From February 1868, Yohannes IV came into contact with British officers, including the commander of the expedition, Sir Robert Napier, who sends Major James Augustus Grant, a British explorer, to meet the ruler of Tigray.

Yohannes IV undertakes to protect the supply routes from the coast to Magdala and to repress those who disturb the telegraph.

In return, Yohannes IV asked Napier during a meeting on February 28,1868, for the participation of British forces in his fight against Wagshum Gobeze.

In return for the help that Yohannes IV provided the British, he received military equipment, estimated at 500,000 Pounds sterling, including: six mortars, six howitzers, approximately 900 muskets and rifles, ammunition, powder and 585,480 primers percussion.

Yohannes IV is responsible for training the troops of Yohannes and preparing them for the use of modern weapons received from the British.

Yohannes IV successfully suppressed rebellions of ras Wolde Maryam of Begemender and Fares Ali of Yejju.

Yohannes IV however, refused to acknowledge the new metropolitan abuna Atnatyos sent from Alexandria in June 1869, and kept him in his dominion.

Yohannes IV thus managed, as the contemporary English vice-consul put it, "to hold the scales of justice with a firm and even hand"; "it was in 1884 the boast of King Yohannes that a child could pass through his dominions unharmed".

Yohannes IV crowned Menelik King of Shewa in 1878 and Tekle Haymanot King of Gojjam and Kaffa in 1881 and encouraged them to expand their empire to the south, east, and west.

Yohannes IV reprimanded both of them for fighting without his permission, punished them by taking away a province from the jurisdiction of each of them and defined the direction of territories to be conquered by each of the two kings.

When Yohannes IV was crowned emperor he established his capital in Debre Tabor which was his seat for a decade before he shifted the capital in 1881 to Mekelle, but he still retained Debre Tabor as his primary residence.

Yohannes IV inherited the empire encumbered with three religious questions which provoked him to seek a solution: the internal dissensions of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church, Islam, and Christian foreign missionary activities.

Yohannes IV regarded all of them as menaces to the unity and stability of the state.

Yohannes IV readily accepted corrections made by a notable on procedural matters.

Yohannes IV pleaded with the British to stop their Egyptian allies and even withdrew from his own territory in order to show the Europeans that he was the wronged party and that the Khedive was the aggressor.

Yohannes IV took this opportunity to tie the Shewan King more closely to him by arranging for Menelik's daughter Zewditu, to be married to his own son and heir, Ras Araya Selassie.

Victor of the Egyptian-Ethiopian War and undisputed Neguse Negest, in 1878 Yohannes IV was at the high point of his reign.

Emperor Yohannes IV convened a general council of the Ethiopian Church at Boru Meda later in 1878, which brought an end to the ongoing theological dispute in the local church; Christians, Muslims, and pagans were given respectively two, three and five years to conform to the council's decisions.

Ras Mohammed was brought to Emperor Yohannes IV and was confronted of his conspiracy in helping the Muslim colonizer and to bring down the Judeo Christian empire.

Yohannes IV went one step further and pressured Menelik to expel all of the Roman Catholic missionaries from Shewa.

Yohannes IV agreed to British requests to allow these Egyptian soldiers to evacuate through his lands, with the understanding that the British Empire would then support his claims on important ports like Massawa on the Red Sea to import weapons and ammunition in the event that Egypt was forced to withdraw from them.

Yohannes IV attempted to work out some kind of understanding with the Italians, so he could turn his attention to the more pressing problem of the Mahdists, although Ras Alula took it upon himself to attack Italian units that were on both sides of the ill-defined frontier between the two powers.

Yohannes IV brutally crushed the Gojjame rebellion, but before he could turn his attention to Shewa news arrived that the Mahdist forces had sacked Gondar and burned its holy churches.

Evidence suggests that Emperor Yohannes IV had acted rashly and had made himself vulnerable, going beyond enemy lines in a range of enemy shots as victory was going to his side.

Yohannes IV's body was carried back to Tigray guarded by a small party, who were overtaken by the Mahdist troops of Zeki Tummal near the Atbara River, who captured the sovereign's body.

Many refused to accept Ras Mengesha as the son of Yohannes IV, having long known him as his nephew.

The death of Yohannes IV reduced the influence of Tigrayans in the Ethiopian government and opened the way for Italians to occupy more districts previously held by Tigrayan nobles.

The descendants of Yohannes IV ruled Tigray as hereditary Princes until the Ethiopian Revolution and the fall of the monarchy in 1974 ended their rule.

Araya Selassie Yohannes IV was born to his wife Wolete Selassie.

The son of Araya Selassie Yohannes IV was Ras Gugsa Araya Selassie.

Yohannes IV's son was the infamous Dejazmach Haile Selassie Gugsa who governed eastern Tigray in the 1930s and was married to Emperor Haile Selassie's daughter Princess Zenebework Haile Selassie.

Yohannes IV was elevated to the title of Ras by the King of Italy.

Yohannes IV was freed by the Derg regime in 1974 following the fall of the monarchy.

The second, "natural" line is through Ras Mengesha Yohannes IV and is the better-known line.

Yohannes IV commanded troops against the Italians, but was forced to surrender and spent most of the Italian occupation under house arrest in Addis Ababa.

Yohannes IV undoubtedly had his weaknesses; they were not his own making, but rather imposed on him either by external pressure or inherited by his deep-seated values and traditional norms.

Yohannes IV succeeded to a large extent in pacifying the country and expanding the empire by the device of power-sharing and accommodation.

Ras Adal of Gojjam, after he killed his own cousin, Ras Desta Tedla Gualu, the newly appointed governor by Yohannes IV and submitted to Yohannes IV and asked for forgiveness, not only was he forgiven but he was given the command over Gojjam and eventually elevated as King of Gojjam and Keffa, under the name of Tekle Haymanot.

The submission of Menelik to Yohannes IV was not effected until 1878 after Yohannes IV gained substantial advantage over his rivals in terms of quality and quantity of firearms as a result of the booty gathered in his successive victories over the Egyptian army at Gundet and Gurae, in 1875 and 1876, respectively.

Finally, Yohannes IV heard that both his vassal kings have defected and during his campaign in Gojjam, Tekle Haymant confessed that they had concluded an agreement to help one another and rebel against the authority of the Emperor.

Yohannes IV's priority was to avert the external threat and he decided to face the Mahdists who had penetrated twice as far as Gonder and burnt the churches, pillaged the country, and enslaved people.

Yohannes IV strove within the parameters of what was possible in his day to promote the welfare of his people.