Wube Haile Maryam, also called Wube Haile Mariam or Dejazmach Wube, was a regional ruler and dejazmach in Tigray, Simien, and other coastal territories, in an area that is now part of northern Ethiopia and central Eritrea. Wube is remembered in Eritrea for barbarous military raids. He was defeated and imprisoned in 1855 by Kassa Hailu. Some sources date Wube's defeat as the end of Ethiopia's Zemene Mesafint era.
Dejazmach
Wube was born in 1800. He is variably reported as having become the regional chief of Simien upon the death of his father in 1826 or as having ruled from 1831. He was a persistent warlord, who leveraged his governorship of the district of Wogera into a wider rule of Simien and Tigray. Considered one of the more powerful of numerous concurrently feuding regional warlords, Wube is recognized as having had ambitions on becoming emperor himself, and he arranged for completion of the ongoing building of Dirasge Mariam Church for his coronation. His status is underpinned by his being exempted from the usual requirement of vassals to attend the court of RasAli II, regent to the Emperor of Ethiopia. In 1841, at Wube's request, the See of Alexandria sent Abuna Salama III to become the new patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. That same year, Wube defeated Ras Ali II in battle, taking Gondar, the then capital of Ethiopia. Nonetheless, Ras Ali II escaped. In February 1842, their armies clashed again in the Battle of Debre Tabor, where Wube's initial tactical superiority from imported firearms almost carried the day, until a detachment under Dejazmach Birru Aligaz, Ras Ali's uncle, went to pay homage with his forces to Wube's encampment but found him very intoxicated, also without guards and took him prisoner, thus enabling Ali to retain his title. Although Ras Ali II and Wube continued to have some tension, they avoided any serious clash as there was constant threat from Egyptian rulers from the north. Subsequently, Wube was unsuccessful in his efforts to take Massawa and in 1844 withdrew inland, finally leaving Tigray in 1846. Kassa Hailu later definitively defeated Ali II in the Battle of Ayshal, 29 June 1853, whereupon Ali disappeared from history.
Defeat and death
Some sources date the ending of Zemene Mesafint era, during which Ethiopia lacked effective central authority from approximately 1769 to approximately 1855, to Ras Ali II's defeat at the Battle of Ayshal in 1853, after which Kassa became the de facto ruler of Ethiopia. However, other sources denote the ending of the Zemene Mesafint as Wube's defeat in 1855, as the last remaining autonomous regional ruler. On 9 February 1855, Wube's army was defeated by Kassa Hailu and Wube was captured and imprisoned. Within a few days, Kassa, who had previously been titled as a Negus, was finally crowned Emperor Tewodros II, ironically by Abuna Salama III in the Dirasge Mariam Church. Although some sources suggest that Wube may have died in 1855, it is more commonly accepted that he spent the later part of his years in prison and died in 1867.
