Menelik II's death was kept secret in 1913, and his named heir Lij Iyasu was deposed in 1916 and died a prisoner

Emperor Menelik II was incapacitated from 1910. His will, proclaimed in 1909, named his grandson Iyasu as heir, with Ras Tessema Nadew as regent^†. Menelik died on the night of 12 to 13 December 1913. The court kept the death secret, with no announcement or mourning rites. News leaked by mid-January 1914^†. Iyasu was acknowledged emperor but never crowned, so he is called Lij, a title for a child of royal blood. His enemies said he had embraced Islam. The 1922 Encyclopaedia Britannica states this as fact. Mohammed Ali, a historian at Addis Ababa University, said in 2020 that there was no proof he converted. On 27 September 1916 a proclamation by the Abuna, the head of the church, declared him dethroned on the ground of apostasy. Menelik's daughter Zewditu was proclaimed empress. Dejazmach Tafari Makonnen was made Ras, regent and heir. Iyasu fled Harar on 8 October 1916. His father, Negus Mikael, lost the Battle of Segale to Ras Tafari's army on 27 October 1916. Government forces captured Iyasu in January 1921. He was held at Fiche, escaped in 1931, and was then held at Gara Muleta^†. Tafari was crowned Emperor Haile Selassie I in 1930. Iyasu's death was announced in November 1935. Rumours said guards killed him on the emperor's order; others said he died of natural causes^†. In 2026 his burial place is unknown^†.