Taytu Betul

Taytu Betul ( äthiop. ጣይቱ ብጡል, * about 1851, † February 11, 1918 in Addis Ababa ) was 1889-1913 Empress of Ethiopia ( as a wife, not as regent in its own right ).

Taytu Betul was born about 1851, the third of four children of an influential Ethiopian family. Her uncle Dejazmach Wube Hayle Maryam then ruled the whole of northern Ethiopia and claimed the imperial throne. After four marriages, she married King Menelik of Shewa in 1883, the future Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia.

In November 1886, it chose in the absence of her husband at the foot of the mountain Entotto a new place for the imperial residence near the hot springs, which were worshiped by the local Oromo population. According to the sources ( in Amharic " Filwuha " ) this level Finfinnee called ( with the Catholic mission station Finfini ). This fast-growing settlement is since 1892 under the name of Addis Ababa ( " New Flower " ) Capital Ethiopia (of the Oromo still Finfinnee called ). The Empress can thus be regarded as a city founder.

Taytu Betul is said to have a considerable political influence as the wife of Menelik II, both before and after her coronation to Emperor and Empress of Ethiopia ( 1889). As her husband's health deteriorated in 1906, she began to make policy decisions on their own responsibility, took over late 1909 even the de facto regent of the kingdom, which earned her the wrath of their opponents. 1910, she was ousted. The Council of Ministers ordered her only to take care of her sick husband, " as befits a woman."

Taytu and Menelik II had no children. Her husband Menelik II died in 1913. The rest of her life she spent in the Entoto Maryam Church near Addis Ababa, where she died on 11 February 1918.

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