Yohannes IV helped a British army against his own emperor and gained its guns
In 1868, when Britain sent an expedition into Ethiopia to free European captives held by Emperor Tewodros II, a Tigrayan rebel lord named Kassa helped supply the invading troops. His reward was weapons and artillery. Within a few years he had become Emperor Yohannes IV, and he later repelled a major Egyptian invasion.
Born Kassa Mercha, he came from the ruling families of several Tigrayan districts and claimed descent from the Solomonic dynasty through his father's mother. His early life is poorly recorded; even his birth year is given as anything from 1831 to 1837. Sources say he was the youngest child, sickly as a boy, had some church schooling, and marked his coming of age by hunting big game such as lions or elephants.
He first appears at the court of Tewodros II in 1864 or 1865 with his brothers, who received grander titles while he got the lowest. Soon after returning home he rebelled, perhaps from resentment at that slight, perhaps answering an imprisoned archbishop's letter denouncing the emperor. For a while he took refuge among the Afar in the eastern lowlands, marrying an Afar woman who was baptised Tebaba Sellasie, then came back to defeat a series of regional lords.
By 1867 he was writing to the British as if he were ruler of Ethiopia. The British envoy James Grant judged him weak and easy to manipulate, but after three meetings Kassa agreed to help the expedition's commander, Robert Napier, setting up markets near the camps to feed his troops. The campaign ended with Tewodros taking his own life. Kassa became king of Tigray in 1869 and emperor in 1871.
As emperor he continued Tewodros's drive to unify the country, touring regions and meeting governors in person. He saw Islam as a threat to the state's stability and pressed conversions to Christianity, reportedly of some 550,000 Oromo and Jeberti people. Abroad he fought Egypt under Khedive Isma'il and later the Mahdist state in Sudan, and he was killed at the Battle of Gallabat in March 1889.
Source: Yohannes IV
