Wube Haile Maryam
Wube Haile Maryam of Semien,[note 1] (1799 – 1867), also called by his title Dejazmach Wube, Webé; his name is also given in European sources as ‘‘Ubie’’,[1] was one of the major figures of 19th century Ethiopia, during the closing decades of the Zemene Mesafint (lit: Era of the princes) a period of regional lords vying for power, prestige and territory amid a weakened authority of the emperors.
[3][1] A major claimant to the Ethiopian throne during his era, Wube was defeated and imprisoned in 1855 by another contender Kassa Hailu, the future emperor Tewodros II.
Hirut was Haile Maryam's ‘‘legitimate wife’’, their children (and Wube's older half siblings) were Merso, Betul and Yewub-dar.
They had one daughter, Yeshimebet Sabagadis; the spouse of Ras Welde Giyorgis Aboye, a cousin of Emperor Menelik II and grandson of Sahle Selassie.
[8] After Wube's usurpation, his two half brothers and Hirut Gugsa; their mother, fled to Tigray province to their sister Yewub-dar, wife of Sabagadis Woldu.
Sabagadis recognized Wube's half brother and rival Merso Haile Maryam as the governor of Semien before his return to Tigray.
Kassai escaped Wube's wrath early that year when the warlord stopped pursuing the fleeing rebel over the Tembien mountains.
In the second half of 1838, Wube left Tigray with his main army and crossed the Tekeze into Semien in anticipation of an attack by the regent Ras Ali II on his dominion.
[13] When Wube occupied Tigray, he found a small group of Anglican-sponsored Protestant missionaries, who tried to awake a reformist movement within the Orthodox Christian Church of the Ethiopians.
In 1838 he expelled these missionaries and established relations with the French-sponsored Lazarist mission, especially with Justin de Jacobis (later canonized as the “apostle of the Abyssinians”).
The Catholic missionaries seem to have cultivated Wubé’s hope that he could count on the help of France in his power struggle with the other Ethiopian princes, as diplomatic letters show.
[15] His status is underpinned by his being exempted from the usual requirement of vassals to attend the court of Ras Ali II, regent to the Emperor of Ethiopia.
In February 1842, their armies clashed again in the Battle of Debre Tabor, where Wube's initial tactical superiority from imported firearms almost carried the day, until a detachment under Dejazmach Birru Aligaz, Ras Ali's uncle, went to pay homage with his forces to Wube's encampment but found him very intoxicated[verification needed], also without guards and took him prisoner, thus enabling Ali to retain his title.
[17] Although Ras Ali II and Wube continued to have some tension, they avoided any serious clash as there was constant threat from Egyptian rulers from the north.
[16] Within a few days, Kassa, who had previously been titled as a Negus, was finally crowned Emperor Tewodros II, ironically by Abuna Salama III in the Dirasge Mariam Church.
