[4] Manuel de Almeida, a Portuguese Jesuit who lived in Ethiopia during Susenyos reign, described the emperor as "tall with the features of a man of quality, large handsome eyes, and an ample and well groomed beard.

He wore a tunic of crimson velvet down to the knee, breeches of the Moorish style, a sash or girdle of many large pieces of fine gold, and an outer coat of damask of the same colour, like a capelhar.

His control over this territory was strengthened earlier through his marriage, around 1595, to Wald Saala, a princess from the ancient Christian family of the rulers of Walaqa and Mahrabete.

With his new Oromo followers, he pillaged Christian peasants on mountain tops in Shewa and returned to Walaqa, where he mercilessly looted a large commercial caravan.

Upon hearing of this, the Emperor responded by summoning his son-in-law Qegnazmach Julius and Kifla Krestos to join him with their troops, and defeated the raiders at Ebenat on 17 January 1608.

Without a scarf obscuring his features, writes Bruce, "it now appeared, that he had neither scars in his face, broken jaw, nor loss of teeth; but the covering was intending only to conceal the little resemblance he bore to king Jacob, slain, as we said before, at the battle of Lebart.

"[16]: 299f Abd al Qadir II of Sennar acknowledged Susenyos' authority in 1606, receiving a negarit drum, sign of vasselage, and giving a trained falcon.

[18] Badi I of Sennar, son of Abd al-Qadir II and successor of Adlan I, however, outraged by the shelter given in Chilga to his father by the Ethiopians, severed these ties, sending as an insult two lame horses and an army led by the Nail Weld Ageeb from Atbara, to pillage the border areas.

In 1615, Susenyos, this time allied with the Nail Weld Ageeb,[16]: 316ff  re-conquered and annexed the Kingdom of Fazughli into the Ethiopian Empire,[20] on the Sennar Sultanate borderlands.

Welde Hawaryat, Melca Chrestos and the governor of Tigray, Ras Tekle Giyorgis, led a three-pronged assault on the border from their respective provinces.

[21] Susenyos finally sent Bahr Negus Gebre Mariam to attack Mandara, whose queen controlled a strategic caravan road from Suakin.

[15]: 303  Bahir Negash was successful in capturing Queen Fatima, who was brought back to Susenyos palace in Danqaz, and renewed submission to the Empire.

The Emperor became interested in Catholicism, in part due to Pedro Páez's persuasion, but also in hope for military help from Portugal and Spain (in union at the time of Susenyos' reign).

Susenyos hoped to receive a new contingent of well-armed European soldiers, this time against the Oromo, who were ravaging his kingdom, and to help with the constant rebellions.

[23] He showed the Jesuit missionaries his favor by a number of land grants, most importantly those at Gorgora, located on a peninsula on the northern shore of Lake Tana.

The plan was to head south, in an attempt to reach Malindi, a port on the Indian Ocean in what is Kenya today, hoping to break through the effective blockade that the Ottoman conquests had created around the Ethiopian Empire by sailing all the way around the southern tip of Africa.

In addition to the strategic logic behind Susenyos's conversion, some historians point out that the Oromo crisis had undermined the legitimacy of the traditional Ethiopian social order based on feudalism and religious orthodoxy.

Critics claimed he debased the imperial mystique after abandoning practices such as remaining behind a curtain to protect the emperor from the gaze of commoners and requiring his subjects to prostrate themselves before him.

Strife and rebellions over the enforced changes began within days of Mendes' public ceremony in 1626, where he proclaimed the primacy of Rome and condemned local practices which included Saturday Sabbath and frequent fasts.

Susenyos avoided their first attempt to assassinate him at court, but while he was campaigning against Sennar they raised a revolt, calling to their side "all those who were friends to the Alexandrian faith".

[29] When he attempted a second expedition against the rebels in Lasta, Susenyos found his men's morale so low that he was forced to allow them to observe one of the traditional Wednesday fasts—which brought an immediate reproach from the Catholic Patriarch.

Although Susenyos eloquently defended himself, Bruce notes that "from this time, it plainly appears, that Socinios began to entertain ideas, at least of the church discipline and government, very opposite to those he had when he first embraced the Romish religion.

While expressing some skepticism at the matter, Bruce states the Royal Chronicle reports his son told the troops that if they were victorious in Lasta, the Emperor would restore the traditional Ethiopian practices.

Upon viewing the field of battle, Susenyos' son Fasilides is reported to have said, These men, whom you see slaughtered on the ground, were neither Pagans nor Mahometans, at whose death we should rejoice—they were Christians, lately your subjects and your countrymen, some of them your relations.