ssie's vaunted "constitutional monarchy" consisted of few rights granted to the people and many obligations - to the emperor instead of to their feudal lords. During the fifty-four years of his rule, Haile Selassie succeeded in breaking the grip of the various tribal overlords - by replacing them with new overlords from among the noble families of his own Amhara tribal relations. Those relations were to fight for, and achieve, increased participation in the emperor's centralized government, but it was always in deference to his person.
Indeed, when the Dergue seized power in 1974, they originally did so in the name of the emperor. Rather than immediately depose him, they made the near-senile, totally confused ruler their figurehead for several months. In at least one instance a court minister resistant to the Dergue, the nobleman Ras Mesfin, was personally ordered by Haile Selassie to the Grand Palace to surrender his weapons and himself. The emperor's order was obeyed. There was no aristocratic resistance to
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