Atse Hezqeyas

Hezqeyas was a member of the Solomonic dynasty who was proclaimed "IPA|nəgusä nägäst" of Ethiopia (1736 – 1737) by a group of notables opposed to Emperor Iyasu II. He had been confined to the royal prison on Mount Wehni until freed by his supporters.

These notables gathered an army and marched on the capital city of Gondar to further his claims. Emperor Iyasus' bodyguard dispersed their attack on the Royal Enclosure, but the rebels regrouped outside Gondar and marched to Wehni where they brought Hezqeyas down from the mountain. With him in their ranks, the rebels once again attacked Gondar, destroying many houses and the Church of St. Raphael in the city, but failing to gain the Royal Enclosure.

Eventually Emperor Iyasus's loyal supporter Warana arrived from the south with an army to relieve Gondar, and destroyed the rebel army at Fenter. [E. A. Wallis Budge, "A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia", 1928 (Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970), pp. 450f.]

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