the Rasses Ali and Meru rebelled against him: when Wolde Gabriel protested that his men were exhausted after their campaign against the rebels, and could not march forth with the Emperor to Shewa, Tekle Giyorgis conspired with his captured foes to arrest and kept Wolde Gabriel in chains, until he had ransomed himself with "the last article of value he possessed". Life Of Amhara descent, Tekle Giyorgis gained and lost the Imperial throne five times after Hailu Adara and Kenfu Adam had him brought down from the royal prison at Wehni and made him emperor in 1779. According to E. A. Wallis Budge, the emperor proved unpopular from the beginning, and until he was deposed for the first time on 8 February 1784 by Ras Abeto of Gojjam, he was forced at times to seek a safe haven with Ras Wolde Selassie. However, the Royal Chronicle presents a very different picture, with the chronicler Alaqa Gabru stating that public opinion in Yebaba forced Kenfu Adam to elevate Tekle Giyorgis. In the first year of his reign he and Kenfu Adam had a falling out over the behavior of Kenfu's son-in-law Bajrond Tsadalu Egabet, who soon after his appointment was defeated in battle and had the signs of his office, the nagarit war drums, taken from him. Then an ally of Kenfu Adam, Gadlu, rebelled in Wolqayt and on 14 January 1780 the Emperor Tekle Giyorgis marched on Gadlu, putting the rebel's amba under siege and blocking access to the amba's water supply. Negotiations for Gadlu's surrender dragged on fitfully until 18 March when Gadlu fled with a small group of his men to Bergetta. At that point Tekle Giyorgis' was forced to disengage when he learned that Kenfu Adam had brought the former emperor, Salomon II, down from Wehni to be his candidate to replace Tekle Giyorgis. Tekle Giyorgis broke camp to face this threat, only to receive word that one of his other loyal nobles, Dejazmach Mebaras Boqatu, had defeated Kenfu Adam at Maryam Weha on 25 May, and both Kenfu Adam and Hailu Adara were now in custody. Later in 1780, Kenfu Adam escaped from his imprisonment and made his way to Gojjam; Tekle Giyrogis marched from Gondar on 4 November in pursuit. By 27 June 1781 he had reached Dangila, where he learned that Kenfu Adam had been recaptured. Although Kenfu Adam and his brother Hailu Adara