mother, Empress Menen Asfaw in 1961, Princess Tenagnework became the most visible and foremost woman at the imperial court and played an ever-increasing advisory role to the monarch. The princess was often described as the child most like her father in temperament and character. A strong personality credited with mostly conservative views, she was widely regarded as a guardian of the institution of the monarchy. She was perceived as a leader of the traditionalist element within the nobility, which was seen as opposing constitutional and land tenure reform. Imprisonment Princess Tenagnework and the rest of the imperial family were arrested on 11 September 1974, the day before Emperor Haile Selassie was formally deposed by the Derg. After a brief time when the family were kept under house arrest at the home of the late Duke of Harar, they were then moved to the Akaki Prison, also known as "Alem Bekagn" which translates to "I have had enough of this world". Princess Tenagnework and the other royal women were kept in the separate women's section of the prison, and Princess Tenagnework received the distinction of being listed as "Prisoner #1" in all Ethiopia. On 23 November 1974, the Derg executed sixty-one former officials of the imperial government without trial. Among the many relatives, friends and associates of the Princess to die at this time, was her remaining son, Rear Admiral Iskinder (Alexander) Desta. The Princess was allowed a final visit with her father only a few days before his death in August 1975. That same year her daughter Tsige Mariam Abebe Retta had committed suicide by slitting her throat. Her niece Princess Ijigayehu Asfaw Wossen also died in that year under imprisonment due to untreated illness. Princess Tenagnework’s husband, Ras Andargachew Messai, who had been outside Ethiopia when the monarchy fell, died after a long illness in London a few years later (16 August 1981). After an imprisonment of fifteen years, the women of the imperial family were freed in 1989. A year later, the imprisoned males of the family were also released. After living in Addis Ababa quietly for a little over a year, Princess Tenagnework and a few of the other members of the imperial family were allowed to depart into exile. Princess Tenagnework travelled to London and from there joined her only surviving brother, Crown Prince Asfaw Wossen in the Virginia suburbs of Washington DC. Later life Princess