Hezqeyas of Ethiopia

Hezqeyas or Hezekiah (died 13 September 1813) [Ref Ethiopia|Pearce|pages=vol. 1 p. 141] was "niguse negest" (26 July 1789 – January 1794) of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was the son of Iyasus III.

Hezqeyas was brought down from the Royal prison on Wehni by Azaj Dagale and Kantiba Ayadar, who made him Emperor, while the reigning Emperor, Tekle Giyorgis, was in the field campaigning against several revolts. Tekle Giyorgis started from Aringo to suppress this threat, but the Dejazmachs Amade and Ali Borshe, with detachments of Ras Aligaz's followers, met him at the village of Salam, and tried to encircle his army; Tekle Giyorgis managed to escape and crossed over the Abay to find refuge in Gojjam. [Ref Ethiopia|WeldBlundell-1922|pages= pp. 392f]

During the early years of his reign, Hezqeyas had to provide a refuge for Selasse, who had raided Tigray. Hezqeyas also advanced to the frontier with Sennar, which he plundered and lay waste to. [Ref Ethiopia|WallisBudge-1928|pages=479] Despite this demonstration of military strength, his power was very limited; the Royal Chronicle records that, towards the end of his reign one of the warlords, Dejazmach Wolda Gabrael, entered Gondar and "made appointments and dismissals without leave of the Negus [Hezqeyas] ." [Quoted in Ref Ethiopia|Pankhurst-1982|pages=177] A few months later the disgruntled Master of Horse Asserat entered the capital city to expel the Dejazmach, and in the fighting his men set fire to the Gan Takal, part of the Royal Enclosure.

The traveler Henry Salt notes that he was still alive at the time of his visit to northern Ethiopia in 1809/1810. [Henry Salt, "A Voyage to Abyssinia and Travels into the Interior of that Country", 1814 (London: Frank Cass, 1967), p. 474.]

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