Yaqob of Ethiopia
Yaqob or Jacob was negus (throne name Malak Sagad I) (1597 - 1603; 1604 - 1607) of Ethiopia, and a member of the Solomonid dynasty. He was the son of Sarsa Dengel and Queen Maryam Sena.
Sarsa Dengel had intended to make his nephew Za Dengel his successor, but under the influence of his wife Maryam Sena and a number of his sons-in-law, he instead chose Yaqob, who was seven when he came to the throne, with Ras Antenatewos of Amhara as his regent. Za Dengel and the other rival for the throne -- Sissinios, the son of Abeto Fasilidos -- were exiled, but Za Dengel escaped to the mountains around Lake Tana, while Sissinios found refuge in the south amongst the Oromo.
After six years, when Yaqob came to adulthood, he quarrelled with Ras Antenatewos, and had him replaced with Ras Za Sellase. However, Za Sellase deposed Yaqob, exiling him to Enarya, and made his cousin Za Dengel Emperor. When Za Dengel proved more troublesome than Yaqob, Za Sellase recalled Yaqob from exile.
Not long after Za Dengel was defeated and killed in battle, Sissinios marched north at the head of an army raised amongst the Oromo, and sent a message to Ras Antenatewos proclaiming himself as king and demanding support from Antenatewos; unable to communicate with Za Sellase, the Ras sent his troops to support Sissinios. A similar message to Za Sellase only served to still Za Sellase into action: he marched on Sissinios, who, sick from fever, retreated into the mountains of Amhara. This lack of resolve convinced Ras Antenatewos to withdraw his forces, and he joined with Ras Za Sellase to support Yaqob.
Sissinios managed to first surprise and decimate the forces of Za Sellase in Begemder; when Za Sellase escaped to Yaqob's camp, the Emperor's derision caused Za Sellase to defect to Sissinios. For several days, the two armies maneuvered in the mountains of Gojjam, to at last meet in the Battle of Gol , where Yaqob and Abuna Petros II were killed in battle, and his troops slaughtered.
Yaqob had married some years before a foreigner named Nazarena, by whom he had three sons, one of whom had died before the Battle of Gol. Nazarena sent her sons to safety in exile: Cosmas, the older, went south and was not heard of again; the younger, Saga Krestos, went to the safety of the Kingdom of Sennar where he was treated well and came of age. When King Rabat proposed that Saga Krestos marry his daughter, Saga Krestos refused, and was forced to flee to another refuge, adopting Roman Catholicism while at Jerusalem. Eventually he found his way to Rome (1632), and eventually to Paris, where he was given lodgings by Cardinal Richelieu. Saga Krestos died of pleurisy in 1638 at the age of 38.
Reference
- E. A. Wallis Budge. A History of Ethiopia: Nubia and Abyssinia, 1928. Oosterhout, the Netherlands: Anthropological Publications, 1970. The sections about Yaqob and his cousin Za Dengel cover pp. 375-383.
| Preceded by: | Emperor of Ethiopia | Succeeded by: |
| Sarsa Dengel | Sissinios |