eight princes and three princesses. The Emperor has great qualities – sagacious genius, a sweet and affable humor, and the stature of a hero. He is the most handsome man I have seen in Aethiopia. He is a lover of curious arts and sciences, but his chief passion is for war. He is brave and undaunted in battles, and always at the head of his troops. He has an extraordinary love for justice, which he administers to his subjects with great exactness; but whereas he is averse to blood, 'tis not without reluctance that he condemns a criminal [to death]. Such eminent qualities make him equally fear'd and belov'd by his subjects, who respect him even to adoration. Death Concubine's death In 1705, while he was campaigning in Ennarea against the Oromo. Iyasu learned that his favorite concubine, Kedeste Kristos was suffering from a terrible illness, he abandoned his campaign and returned to Gojjam where he found her already dead. Stricken with grief, he retired to an island in Lake Tana. Iyasu's assassination In 1706, supported by the scheming concubine Malakotawit, some of the officials argued, that he had abdicated, and crowned his son Tekle Haymanot Emperor. According to some accounts, this was not Iyasu's intent, and he marched from his hermitage in Lake Tana towards to Gondar to protest this; in any case, during this time he fell sick and was assassinated at Tekle Haymanot's orders by his maternal uncle's, Dermen and Pawlos. Aftermath Iyasu's death caused much distress in the capital, especially amongst the priests of Debre Berhan Selassie, who openly displayed his gifts to them, and mourned their dead monarch for a month. Bruce writes that Iyasu was buried on Mitraha Island, where he was shown Iyasu's body interred amongst "the bodies of all his ancestors". Once his brother Tewoflos became Emperor, he initiated Iyasu's canonization. Legacy Consenquences for the Kingdom The political history of Gondar after the assassination of Iyasu I is that of a fairly steady decline. The power of the monarchy was weakened by frequent coups d'etat: no fewer than twenty-five emperors were deposed in the century and a half between Iyasu I and Tewodros II. Family Spouse and concubines In September 1683, Iyasu married Walatta Seyon, a native from the northern region of Hamasien, located in modern day Eritrea. They had a son and a daughter. Walatta Seyon died in May 1693. She