[December 28] Victor Emmanuel III, king of Italy

Local Name: Vittorio Emanuele
Parents: Umberto I, king of Italy, and Margherita of Savoy
Date of Birth: 11 November 1869
House: Savoy
Spouse(s): Elena, daughter of Nikola I, king of Montenegro, and Milena Vukotic
Predecessor: Umberto II
Reign: 1900 – 1946
Brief: Italy's fourth king since the peninsula's unification in the 1860s, Victor Emmanuel III was arguably one of the weakest rulers. Small in stature (barely 5 feet), he overcompensated by directly involving himself in the constitutional monarchy over which he ruled. Between 1900 and 1922, he intervened in ten separate parliamentary crises. Although at first against joining World War I, in 1915 he personally brought Italy into the Triple Entente with France, Britain, and Russia. The Italians remained staunchly against the war, but didn't hold a grudge against the king since he often visited the front lines in the north with his wife, endearing the people to the royal family. After the war, Benito Mussolini staged a march on Rome, quickly becoming prime minister and leader of the government. By 1926, Mussolini was in charge of all branches of government and pressing his fascist agenda, while Victor Emmanuel remained silent. He remained popular to the masses even though he sided with the fascists, but when he assumed the crowns of Ethiopia and Albania in the late 1930s, his popularity plummeted. In 1940, Mussolini dragged Italy into World War II, and as Italy quickly lost battles, so too did Victor Emmanuel lose supporters. Three years later, Mussolini was removed from office and Italy publicly joined the Allies. The Germans swarmed into Italian conquered territories and northern Italy, forcing the king to flee south. By 1944, Victor Emmanuel had passed much of his power to his son, Umberto. Finally, in 1946, the king abdicated in the hope that the Italian monarchy would survive if he were not leading the country. It failed. Umberto II ruled for less than a month and then the family was forced into exile to Egypt. Victor Emmanuel III died in 1947 in Alexandria and was buried there.

Date of Death: 28 December 1947

Successor: Umberto II

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Theonas, patriarch of Alexandria (300)
• Yoshiakira, shogun of Japan (1367)
• Clement VIII, antipope of Rome (1446)
• Piero, patriarch of Florence (1503) -
• Mary II, queen of England & Scotland (1694)
• Mustafa II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1703)

[December 12] Menelek II, emperor of Ethiopia

Local Name: Sahle Maryam (ምኒልክ)
Parents: Haile Melekot, king of Shewa, and Ijigayehu
Date of Birth: 17 August 1844
House: Solomon
Spouse(s): (1) Altash Tewodros, daughter of Tewodros II, emperor of Ethiopia, then (2) Befana Gatchew, then (3) Taytu Betul, daughter of Betul Haile Maryam and Yewubdar of Gondar
Predecessor: Yohannes IV
Reign: 1889 – 1913

Brief: The illegitimate son of a Ethiopian prince, Menelek was granted permission to inherit the throne of Shewa in 1855 and given the emperor's daughter as a binding contract of loyalty between the two monarchs, but the king was kept in captivity away from his lands. In 1865, he fled Tewodros II's palace and returned to Shewa, incurring the wrath of the emperor, but the Tewodros died soon after. Menelek was distracted in 1868 when his rival claimed the Ethiopian throne as Yohannes IV. For twenty years, Menelek remained silent, maintaing Shewa in relative peace. But in 1889, Yohannes was killed. Though his son was proclaimed his heir, Menelek took the throne through force. Claiming direct male descent from King Solomon, Menelek was recognized later that year as Ethiopian emperor. He was the last direct male descendant of the Solomonic royal line.

Soon after this ascension, Italy tried to trick Menelek into giving away Eritrea in northern Ethiopia. For seven years, the two countries fought until Ethiopia surprisingly defeated the would-be imperialists. He made a diplomatic alliance with Russia in 1893 to provide arms and advisors, but most other European powers were kept out of Ethiopia. Hesitantly, he allowed foreigners back into the country after 1898, but he constantly had to reassert his independence through proclamations and shows of force. Menelek II was a a modernizer and centralizer, who created the first national bank of Ethiopia, introduced a national postal system, allowed the creation of a railroad, and introduced electricity to the land. He even adopted a cabinet government late in his reign to help control the expanding bureaucracy. In 1909, Menelek suffered a mssive stroke and his wife, Taytu Betul, took over as his regent. When he finally died, he was buried quickly on the grounds of the Imperial Palace and a nephew, Lij Iyasu, succeeded him as king.
Date of Death: 12 December 1913

Successor: Iyasu V

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Carloman II, king of the West Franks (884)
• Selim II, sultan of the Ottoman Empire (1574)
• Stefan, king of Poland (1586)
• Tekle Giyorgis I, emperor of Ethiopia (1817)
• William I, king of the Netherlands (1843)

[October 13] Iyasus I, emperor of Ethiopia

Surnamed: "The Great"
Local Name: ኢያሱ
Parents: Yohannes I, emperor of Ethiopia, and Sabla Wangel
Born: circa 1662
House: Solomon
Predecessor: Yohannes I

Reign: 1682 – 1706
Brief: Serving as governor of the Gojjam province until he was declared heir in 1682, Iyasus was a kind-hearted emperor. He was known for his devotion to administration, calling councils on both theological and governmental matters. He encouraged trade and lowered tariffs. A rebel uprising in 1684 forced him to suppress a usurper, Yeshaq. Iyasus was a diplomat who sent out envoys to many European countries including France. In 1699, an envoy returned with a French physician, Charles Poncet, who wrote about his stay in Ethiopia and his impressions of the emperor, which were overwhelmingly favorable. After a campaign in 1706, Iyasus retired to an island on Lake Tana, sparking an uprising by his son Tekle Haymanot. Iyasus was assassinated when he attempted to return to his capital and retake his throne. 

Date of Death: 13 October 1706

Successor: Tekle Haymanot I

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Claudius, emperor of Rome (54)
• Robert I, count of Flanders (1093)
• Maximilian I Joseph, king of Bavaria (1825)

[August 27] Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia

Local Name: ኃይለ፡ ሥላሴ

Birth Name: Tafari Makonnen

Parents: Makonnen Woldemikael Gudessa and Yashimebet Ali Abajifar

Date of Birth: 23 July 1892

House: Solomon

Spouse(s): Menen, daughter of Asfaw, Jantirar of Ambassel, and Woizero Sehin Mikael

Predecessor: Zewditu

Reign: 1930 – 1974

Summary: A descendant of a distant scion of the Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia, Tafari Makonnen actually claimed his maternal descent to determine his right to the throne. At the age of fourteen, he was given the provincial governorship of Selale, where he continued independent studies through numerous schools. He became an acting governor of Sidamo in 1907 and then transferred to rule the more prestigious province of Harar in 1910. It was there that he married his wife, Menen, the niece to the Ethiopian heir, Lij Iyasu. Lij became the emperor of Ethiopia in 1913 but was not crowned or universally recognized. He was possibly Muslim, which put him at odds with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church as well. In 1916, he was deposed, possibly with the help of Tafari. In the wake of the deposition, Emperess Zewditu was made ruler of Ethiopia while Tafari was declared heir to the throne. He became a co-regent of himself, in a strange twist, and administered Ethiopia while Zewditu ruled the capital city and oversaw the imperial court. As administrator, Tafari oversaw the admission of Ethiopia into the League of Nations in 1923 with the promise to end slavery in his country. Slavery did not in fact end until the early 1930s. Tafari then went on a tour of Europe and the Middle East beginning in 1924. The goal of the mission was to secure a seaport for Ethiopia, but he also wished to open Ethiopia up to a moderate amount of Western modernization. Problems at home forced Tafari back in 1928 where he had to fight with a provincial governor to keep his position. By the end of the conflict, Zewdity feared that her regent was conspiring against her. When a coup attempt failed, Zewditu crowned Tafari king in Ethiopia, though she retained the imperial dignity. The problem of having two monarchs ruling the same country were resolved suddenly in April 1930 when Zewditu died without warning. Tafari ascended the throne and was proclaimed the neguse negest ze-'Ityopp'ya (King of Kings of Ethiopia) and he took the regnal name Haile Selassie, which means "Power of the Trinity." Two years later, he annexed the Kingdom of Jimma to Ethiopia, bringing the country to its current size.

As an initial move, Haile promulgated a new constitution in 1931 that provided for a legislature while retaining power in the nobility. In this new document, only the heirs of Haile Selassie were allowed to inherit the throne, which made many dynastic rivals angry but helped resolve a long debate between   rival branches of the Solomonic dynasty. Problems with Italy soon became the subject of Haile's reign. Determined to conquer Ethiopia after it had lost a war many decades prior against the African state, Benito Mussolini put all his efforts into conquering Ethiopia in 1935. Italy never planned to play fair, utilizing air strikes, carpet bombing, chemical weapons, and psychological terror on the Ethiopian peoples. Haile set up camp in northern Ethiopia, where the mountains provided some refuge. After some initial success in repelling the Italians, Haile was forced to go on the defensive throughout 1936. He finally left for Jerusalem and exile in 1936, leaving a cousin as his regent in Ethiopia. The state was annexed by Italy three days later and King Victor Emmanuel III was proclaimed emperor. Haile met at the League of Nations and proclaimed the outright oppression and slaughter of his people, earning him the title "Man of the Year" by Time magazine. But he gained nothing from it, and many more countries recognized Victor Emmanuel's conquest. Haile settled in Bath, UK, where he remained until 1941. He was restored to the Ethiopian throne in 1942 after Britain removed the British presence from Ethiopia. As his first move, he abolished any semblance of slavery, severely punishing those who practiced it. He also began to centralize and modernize the state, though the nobles resisted at every step in an attempt to retain the feudal system from before the war. Haile attempted to separate Ethiopia's church from the Egyptian patriarchate with some success, and he participated in the Korean War on the side of the Americans. By 1955, he had promulgated a new constitution that allowed for universal suffrage, though most power was still reserved for the emperor. Throughout the 1960s, Haile supported the independence of African states and was the first president of the Organisation of African Unity, a precursor of the African Union. A larger goal of uniting all of Africa never materialized, but was pursued from the mid-1960s onward.

Although Haile Selassie was an immensely popular progressive monarch in international politics, he suffered in Ethiopia. A famine erupted in the early 1970s and killed upwards of 200,000 people. Marxist instigators paid for by Russia may have encouraged the early rebellion against the emperor. Other issues combined to put Ethiopia's empire in jeopardy. Although Haile was able to pacify the people, the military rebelled and deposed the emperor on 12 September 1974. Within months, a grandson of the emperor and two former prime ministers were executed. The government then abolished the Solomonic dynasty. A year later, Haile Selassie was dead, probably due to a successful assassination that was covered up by the government. The government that replaced his, the Derg, fell alongside the Soviet Union in 1991. His bones were uncovered the next year and reburied in 2000 in an imperial-style funeral. The Rastafarian movement, however, denies that the bones are his and believe that Haile Selassie is the messiah. While the emperor was a devout Orthodox Christian, he never criticized or rebuked the Rastafarian movement for proclaiming him their messiah. His son, Amha Selassie, briefly served as emperor but never reigned. He served as the head of the household until 1997. 

Date of Death: 27 August 1975
Successor: Amha Selassie I (as pretender)

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Eugene II, pope of Rome (827)
• Arthur II, duke of Brittany (1312)
• Chokei, emperor of Japan (1394)
• Sixtus V, pope of Rome (1590)

[April 2] Tewditu, empress of Ethiopia

True Name: Askala Maryam Zewditu (ዘውዲቱ)

Parents: Manelek II, emperor of Ethiopia, and Abechi

Date of Birth: 29 April 1876

House: Solomon

Predecessor: Iyasu V

Spouse: Araya Selassie Yohannes, then Gugsa Welle

Reign: 1916 - 1930

Summary: Zewditu was the eldest daughter of Menelek, king of Shewa and heir to Ethiopia. Her mother died when she was young and the princess was then raised by her father and his new wife, Baffana. Her father chose Lij Iyasu, her nephew, as heir despite favoring Zewditu more. Politics at the time were deemed unfit for a female ruler. At ten Zewditu married Ras Araya Selassie Yohannes, the son and heir of Emperor Yohannes IV of Ethiopia, whom Manelek II later replaced. Their short marriage was childless and Araya Selassie Yohannes died in 1888. Zewditu returned to her father's court later that year and married two more times before finally sticking with Gugsa Welle, the nephew of her stepmother. Manelek finally became emperor in 1889 when Yohannes IV died at the Battle of Metemma. Manelek ruled for three decades and died in 1913, being replaced by Iyasu. Viewing his aunt as a threat, he exiled her to outside the capital city. Iyasu delayed his coronation until political matters were resolved, but he was unpopular and suspected of Muslim sympathies. In 1916, he was forcibly deposed by the imperial council and Zewditu was recalled to take his place.

The Empress was not initially given political powers, instead passing that position on to a state-appointed regent, Tafari Makonnen, and her father's general, Hapte Giorgis Dinagde. Tafari was made heir to Ethiopia since he was next in line in the succession and Zewditu had no surviving children. Zewditu disliked her cousin and attempted to remove him in 1928 but was forced to back down and crown him Negus (king and heir).Zewditu was a relatively weak-willed monarch. She felt much guilt for deposing her father's appointed heir and she did little to stop her council from exiling her husband to a provincial governor's office. With little power and much sadness, she became increasingly religious, fasting and praying much of the time. Her heir, Tafari, become the power behind the throne. When Iyasu rose up in rebellion twice against her rule, Zewditu pleaded for mercy for the deposed emperor when he was captured both times. Zewditu asserted herself numerous times in opposition to her heir, Tafari, who was a modernist and progressive while the empress was a staunch conservative. After World War I, Ethiopia joined the League of Nations under Tafari's rule and abolished slavery. Meanwhile, Zewditu constructed churches and engaged in religious activities. Her husband rose up in rebellion against Tafari in 1930 against Zewditu's wishes, but his rebellion was put down and Gugsa was killed byTafari's modernized army. Zewditu died two days later, probably due to typhoid made worse by diabetes. She was the last member of the House of Solomon. Tafari took the throne as Haile Selassie, the last universally recognized emperor of Ethiopia.

Date of Death: 2 April 1930

Successor: Haile Selassie

Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Baldwin I, king of Jerusalem (1118)
• Richard, king of Germany (1272)
• Henry, duke of Carinthia (1335)
• Ferdinand III, Holy Roman Emperor (1657)
• John Paul II, pope of Rome (2005)

[February 21] Ahmad, imam of Adal

True Name: Ahmad ibn Ibrahim al-Ghazi (حمد بن إبراهيم الغازي‎)

Surname: "The Conqueror"

Date of Birth: c. 1507

Spouse: Bati del Wambara

Reign: c. 1527 – 1543

Predecessor: Mahfuz

Summary: Ahmad was a Somali Muslim born in the Imamate of Adal, at the time a Muslim tributary state to the Christian Empire of Ethiopia. When he was in his teens, he married Bati del Wambara, the daughter of the governor of Zeila, a neighboring city. Mahfuz, the governor, was killed in 1517 while fighting against his Ethiopian overlord, Emperor Lebna Dengel. The war caused Adal to fall into anarchy for a decade and Ahmad was the soldier who took up the cause of his father-in-law to defeat the Ethiopians once and for all.


In 1529, Ahmad invaded Ethiopia with a vengeance and defeated Lebna in March. He returned two years later, defeating the emperor again, and then looting a number of religious institutions in the north of Ethiopia. With few option remaining, the Ethiopians petitioned for help from the Portuguese, who were just making inroads into East Africa at this time. It was not until 1541 that Portuguese help arrived and by that time, Emperor Lebna was dead and Gelawdewos was ruling. The Portuguese were led by Cristóvão da Gama, son of Vasco da Gama, and consisted of 400 musketeers and their attachments. The two armies finally met in April 1942. Ahmad was wounded in the confrontation and his army scattered, but it was able to reform and was reinforced. The armies met again two weeks later and the Muslims were again forced to retreat. Rains and winter forced da Gama to sit out further fighting. Ahmad, however, used this opportunity to enlist aide from Muslim neighbors, swelling his numbers to the thousands. He attacked da Gama's camp and decimated them, killed all but 140 men and executing da Gama. The Ethiopians, however, were not injured in the engagement and attacked Ahmad's army the following winter. Ahmad was killed by a Portuguse musketeer in February. His wife fled the battle and married his nephew, Nur ibn Mujahid, in the hope that Adal would again rise against Ethiopia. Nur would go and avenge Ahmad's death by killing Emperor Galawdewos in battle and continuing a Jihad against Ethiopia for the next twelve years.

Date of Death: 21 February 1543

Successor: Nur ibn Mujahid


Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• James I, king of Scots (1437)
• Julius II, pope of Rome (1513)
• Benedict XIII, pope of Rome (1730)
• Ninko, emperor of Japan (1846)

[February 1] Admas Sagad I, emperor of Ethiopia

The standard of the House of Solomon

True Name: Menas (ሜናስ)

Parents: Dawit II, emperor of Ethiopia, and Wanag Mogassa

Royal House: Solomon

Spouse: Adimas Moas, daughter of Robel, governor of Bora & Selawe

Reign: 1559 – 1563

Predecessor: Asnaf Sagad I

Summary: Menas had an interesting childhood. He had been captured in his teens and should have been castrated and sent into slavery. Instead, he found a wife through his captivity and then was given as a a gift to the Sultan of Yemen in return for military aide. The Ethiopian Emperor's capture of the Iman's son allowed for a prisoner exchange, and Menas was returned to the royal family.

He was made king in 1559 upon the death of his brother. His reign was rife with European problems. In the first year, he banished a group of Jesuit missionaries to a small enclave where they soon thrived. The next year, a revolt occurred supported by the Portuguese. The revolt was led by a provincial leader who chose as the figurehead an illegitimate son of one of Menas' elder brothers. One-by-one, Menas captured and killed the supporters of the revolt, but it consumed most of his short reign. When the revolt should have been quelled, another pretender, this time supported by the Ottoman Pasha, was elected to replace the executed pretender. Menas returned to his capital to regroup and came down with a fever. He died on march a few days later. The pasha made peace with Menas' successor, Malak Sagad I, later that year, but rebelled again in the ensuing years. 

Date of Death: 1 February 1563

Successor: Malak Sagad I


Other Monarchs Who Died Today:

• Henry II, duke of Brabant (1248)
• Charles IV, king of France (1328)
• Alexander VIII, pope of Rome (1691)
• Augustus II, king of Poland (1733)
• Carlos, king of Portugal (1908)