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In 1855, an unusual character who had once lived as a bandit had himself crowned as Emperor Tewodros and set out to unify his large and disparate country. He showed himself to be a very capable and creative monarch and he chose the mountain of Maqdala as his royal base.

He planned a system of roads across the country, encouraged land reform, established a national army and promoted Amharic as his country's lingua franca. He was a reforming monarch who took great pride in his country, his people and in himself.

He sought British and other European support for his

reforms and, when this was not forthcoming, he imprisoned two British ambassadors who were at his court at that time.

When Queen Victoria learned of this, she sent Sir Robert Napier with an army of soldiers, elephants and camels to achieve a rescue. Tewodros's reforming zeal had made him unpopular with local chieftains and they supported Napier's contingent and swelled its numbers.

As Napier and his men approached the summit of Maqdala in 1868, Tewodros, still refusing to submit, shot himself in the mouth. Maqdala was razed to the ground and the British troops returned triumphantly to England taking with them many hundreds of royal artefacts and manuscripts.

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