He was beset by leading European powers greedy for his Kingdom; harassed by rebellious chieftains of his own land; & worried by family dissension.
Menelik belonged to a very ancient family. According to such records as we have his pedigree was older than that of any other ruler of his time. Indeed it towered over theirs as a California redwood over an oak.
Of course this will be doubted by some but these will find it very difficult to disprove.
The oldest royal family in Europe was the Bourbon which dates back to the 9th century A.D. The next is the English which goes back to William the Conqueror, who was born in 1028 the illegitimate son of the Duke of Normandy & a tanners daughter. Menelik however traced his descent from Menelik I, son of Solomon & Queen of Sheba or back to 930 B.C.
Between Menelik I & Menelik II stretched 2793 years. But that is not all. Solomon's lineage is traced in the Bible to Adam, which for those who accept the legend would give Menelik nearly 6000 years of recorded ancestry. Thus if lineage makes for aristocracy, Menelik could have been called the most aristocratic monarch then living.
One indisputable fact is that when the book of Genesis was written even granting that it was written by Moses (which it was not) Ethiopia was already a very ancient kingdom. Already in 750 B.C. when Greece & Rome were still in their infancy one of Menelik's ancestors Pianky had conquered Egypt.
Twice in its long history Menelik's line had been dethroned first in A.D. 950 by the Falashas or Negro Jews & then again in 1855 by Kassai(King Theodore) a man of humble birth. Both times the dynasty reasserted itself with remarkable vitality"
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