During the battle, the Emperor was mortally wounded and it was on his deathbed that Mengesha Yohannes was acknowledged as his "natural" son and designated as his heir.

[1] Fighting between various relatives of the slain Emperor split his camp and prevented Mengesha from making a viable bid for the Imperial throne.

Another skirmish led by Fitawrari Gebeyehu, the vanguard commander of Menelik forces on the way to Adwa, annihilated the Italians at Amba Alagi.

The war culminated in 1896, as Mengesha Yohannes and the forces of Tigray fought at the side of Menelik against the Italians at the pivotal Battle of Adwa.

Emperor Menelik had Ras Mengesha captured and put under house arrest at the old Shewan royal palace at Ankober.

In the aftermath of the disastrous battle of Metemma, the Tigrayan ruling families found themselves embroiled in a power struggle that led to a regional civil war.

However, historians cast doubts on Mengesha Yohanens's basic military prowess and leadership skills to mobilize the available resources and prevail over rivals, in contrast to his predecessor Yohannes.

The Italians' non-committed stance, coupled with Mengesha Yohannes's hesitant attitude finally convinced him to end his rebellion, even against the opposition of his counsellors and his military supporters, such as ras Alula.

[6] In June 1894, Mengesha Yohannes ultimately dropped his claims to the imperial throne and officially submitted to atse Menelik II, ostensibly in expectation of the title of negus of Tigray.

He was beaten in the two battles of Kweatit (1894), Senafe (Eritrea) and Debre Hayle (1895): in early 1896 he even retreated from his stronghold Mekelle, but kept the Italians busy until a united Ethiopian army was gathered to face them.

Menelik officially rewarded Mengesha Yohannes with 300,000 silver dollars and married him to Kafay Wele Batul of Yejju, atege Taytu's niece.

[8] Mengesha Yohannes's final and desperate rebellion (in concert with ras Sebhat of Agame) in 1898 ended with his captivity and confinement at Addis Ababa, starting from 1899, and then in Ankober where he died as a prisoner in 1906.

Mengesha Seyoum played then a role as the leader of an anti-Derg oppositional party, the Ethiopian Democratic Union, which dates back to the mid-1970s.

It was only on his deathbed, at Metemma, that Yohannes declared to Etchege Tewoflos and the important dignitaries present that Mengesha was not the son of his brother Gugsa, but his.

Augusus B. Wylde, a correspondent of the British paper, The Manchester Guardian, who had been in Ethiopia as a member of the Hewett Mission of 1884 and later, soon after the Battle of Adwa of 1896, contends that Mengesha was indisputably the actual son Yohannes.