Body of Tewodros II, 1868
Tewodros II (1818 - April 13, 1868) was the Emperor of Ethiopia. He sought to reestablish a cohesive Ethiopian state and to reform its administration and church. In the first six years of his reign, he managed to put down rebellions, and the empire was relatively peaceful from about 1861-63, but the energy, wealth, and manpower necessary to deal with regional opposition limited the scope of Tewodros's other activities. In 1866 a British envoy had been dispatched to secure the release of a group of missionaries who had first been seized when a letter Tewodros had sent to Queen Victoria requesting munitions and military experts from the British, delivered by an envoy, had gone unanswered. The British Expedition to Abyssinia was a rescue mission and punitive expedition carried out in 1868 by the armed forces of the British Empire against the Ethiopian Empire. Tewodros eventually released all the Europeans unharmed but ordered 300 Ethiopian prisoners to be flung over the cliff. He committed suicide with a pistol as the British troops stormed the citadel of Magdala. He was buried by the British troops at Magdala's Medhane Alem Orthodox Church under the name of Theodore II. No artist credited, undated
