Tekle Haymanot became Emperor at the age of 15 when his father Yohannes was killed by RasMikael Sehul, the aged warlord of Tigray. He joined Ras Mikael in defeating Fasil at the Battle of Faggeta on 9 December 1769. He lost the throne briefly in 1770 when he and Ras Mikael left the capital city ofGondar for Tigray, and Susenyos II was made Emperor by rival warlords in Gondar, but regained it when Ras Mikael returned to Gondar on 23 December of that year. Upon returning to the capital, Ras Mikael immediately killed a troop of travelling actors who had performed a satire of him. A number of former rebels, who had switched sides, brought to him a number of prisoners, including the Aqabe sa'atAbba Salama; after a show trial, Ras Mikael had them brutally executed. In the days that followed, Ras Mikael wrought his vengeance on all who had opposed him; as James Bruce wrote: The next year sawRas Mikael Sehul defeated in the Three battles of Sarbakusa against his adversaries near Teda in May, which forced the Ras to retreat to Gondar, where he surrendered to Wand Bewossen on 4 June 1771. Wand Bewossen imprisoned Ras Mikael for a year, then sent him back to Tigray to live out his last years as governor of that province. Emperor Tekle Haymanot managed to avoid his mentor's fate at that time, and Wand Bewossen only brought him into his power when the warlord surprised him at Qaroda, capturing him while he and his men were eating. Yet Wand Bewossen's control of the Ethiopian government was short-lived; he was defeated in 1772 by the coalition of Fasil, RasGoshu, and DejazmachHailu Eshte at Checheho and forced to retreat to Lasta. Over the subsequent years, Tekle Haymanot struggled against the shifting conflicts between the four paramount nobles of Ethiopia—Fasil, Ras Goshu, Hailu Eshte, and Wand Bewossen—who would form alliances against each other, only to break them and join with their former enemies whenever it was to their immediate benefit. Wand Bewossen went as far as to bring Tekle Giyorgis I down from Wehni as his candidate for emperor; Tekle Haymanot managed to defeat Wand Bewossen at Emakina and returned Tekle Giyorgis to the Imperial prison. Weary of the continuing power struggles with his nobles, and after a final conference with RasHaile Yosadiq, Wand Bewossen and Kenfu Adam failed to gain a plausible promise of their support for his rule, he repudiated the throne 13 April 1777. Tekle Haymanot became a monk and lived as a hermit in Waldebba, where he died a few months later. Despite this political turmoil, art and scholarship flourished in Gondar. Richard Pankhurst credits the construction of seven churches built in or near that city as being built during his reign. The most important was Ba'eta Maryam, built in 1775, which originally had a large bronze cross on its roof that towered over all of Gondar; the others include: Qeddus Qirqos, Qeddus Petros we Pawlos, Farta Lideta at Farta, Yohannes Wolde Nagwadgwad, Abajale Tekle Haymanot, and Debre Tibab.
