3-021-704 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The War in Abyssinia: King Theodore, as he lay dead at Magdala, April 13, 1868. Engraving of a sketch by Major H. A. Leveson. 'Theodore [Emperor Tewodros II, had] retired within [the fortress of] Magdala, and there awaited the advance of the British...Theodore, who had already dropped his Royal robe of silk to escape observation, fled from the gateway to a retired spot higher up on the citadel...after a desperate resistance, when the British troops forced their way into the fortress, [he] shot himself, putting the pistol into his mouth...His dead body was found...alone on the hill above...From the plainness of his dress the body was not at first recognised; but as soon as it was identified, and, on the approach of Sir Robert Napier, drawn forth into the principal pathway, an involuntary cheer burst forth from the soldiers around'. The British Expedition to Abyssinia was a rescue mission and punitive expedition by the armed forces of the British Empire against the Ethiopian Empire. Tewodros had imprisoned several missionaries and two representatives of the British government in an attempt to force it to comply with his requests for military assistance. When that failed, he shot himself with a duelling pistol given to him by Queen Victoria. From "Illustrated London News", 1868.