[citation needed] On 10 January 1901, at the death of Negus Tekle Haymanot Tessemma, three of his sons fought over who would succeed him as ruler of his province.
[citation needed] Around 1906, Menelik became incapacitated and Itege[nb 4] Taytu Betul became the de facto power behind the throne.
Tareke goes on to describe how Ras Hailu "introduced new forms of taxation, auctioned political and church offices, nearly monopolized provincial trade by controlling the export side of it, transacted obligatory labor into monetary rents, and, though little is known about them, enlarged his estates with a manifest arrogant disregard for the customary judicial process of land allocation.
Ras Tafari and his party visited Jerusalem, Cairo, Alexandria, Brussels, Amsterdam, Stockholm, London, Geneva, and Athens.
The Crown Prince, Ras Tafari Makonnen, and his entourage were being received by King George V and Queen Mary at Buckingham Palace.
[citation needed] In the same year as the trip with Tafari Makonnen, Hailu was awarded an honorary British knighthood (KBE).
Gugsa Welle asked Hailu to support his uprising against the recently crowned Negus Tafari Makonnen.
Still, his response was lukewarm when Negus Tafari Makonnen called a chitet, the traditional mustering of the provincial levies.
Marcus continues, "Hailu also embarrassed the crown by openly seeking favors from the American and British legations, insinuating that otherwise he would block their access to Lake Tana and the Blue Nile."
After freeing Iyasu, Hailu planned to re-capture him and to turn him back in to gain favor with Haile Selassie.
He was replaced as Shum of Gojjam by Ras Imru Haile Selassie, a loyal cousin of the Nəgusä Nägäst.
[15] On 2 May 1936, at the very end of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Hailu was still considered enough of a threat that, on his way into exile, Haile Selassie had him removed from prison, bound, and loaded onto his train leaving Addis Ababa.
[16] Haile Selassie must have reconsidered and Hailu was released at Dire Dawa with fellow prisoner Ras Balcha Safo.
[citation needed] During the occupation, Hailu was treated with respect and given honors few other Ethiopian nobles received from the Italians.
He retained his pre-occupation titles of Leul and Ras, and the Italian government awarded him the Star of Italy and the Order of Saints Maurice and Lazarus, and restored his lands which had been confiscated from him in 1935.
[17] In July 1936, a number of surviving Ethiopian soldiers staged an unsuccessful attack on Addis Ababa to wrest control of the capital from the Italian occupiers.
The Italians eventually returned Hailu to power in Gojjam at the very final stage of their occupation and as their rule began to collapse under the onslaught of British, Commonwealth, and exiled Ethiopian forces.
He was forbidden from leaving Addis Ababa, but was accorded all the dignities of a senior prince of the Imperial dynasty and head of the House of Gojjam.
In the words of Gebru Tareke, he "languished in well-merited obscurity until his death in 1950," which "put the final nail in the coffin of the provincial ruling elite, who had been grudgingly yielding ground to the centralists since the closing decade of the nineteenth century.
[citation needed] The continued incapacitation of Nəgusä Nägäst Menelik allowed Hailu to better his position by marrying Woizero[nb 14] Assalafetch Wolde Hanna in 1909.