Iyoas II (Ge'ez: ኢዮአስ, died 3 June 1821) was Emperor of Ethiopia from 14 June 1818Nathaniel Pearce, The Life and Adventures of Nathaniel Pearce. J.J. Halls. ed. (London, 1831), vol. 2 p. 256 to 3 June 1821, and a member of the Solomonic dynasty. He was the son of Hezqeyas.
Reign The Royal chronicle provides very little information about his reign: only the date of his elevation and the year of his death.Herbert Weld Blundell, The Royal chronicle of Abyssinia, 1769-1840 (Cambridge: University Press, 1922), p. 484 According to Nathaniel Pearce, Iyoas was selected Emperor over his nephews Zerobabel and Merrit by Ras Gugsa and Kenyazmach Akli Meru due to the nephews' bad characters. Prior to his elevation, he had been living as a monk in Waldebba.Pearce, Life and Adventures, vol. 2 p. 255
Samuel Gobat, a near-contemporary of Iyoas, states he was "efficiently sustained by Ras Gugsa, who was his firm support, or rather his superior."Samuel Gobat, Journal of Three years' Residence in Abyssinia, 1851 (New York: Negro Universities Press, 1969), p. 168 With Iyoas' death an interregnum of several months followed.
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