Ethiopian emperor Na'od, the second son of…

Ethiopian emperor Na'od, the second son of Baeda Maryam I and his second wife Kalyupe (also called "Calliope"), was born at Gabarge.

Like Eskender before him, he relies on the counsel of the Queen Mother Eleni.

Despite her help, his reign has been marked by internal dissension.

Na'od has begun construction on a lavish church in the Amhara province, which was decorated with gold leaf and known as Mekane Selassie.

However, he dies before it is completed— killed near Jejeno (possibly Mekane Selassie) while campaigning against Muslim forces—and he is buried in a tomb inside the church.

Ethiopia had sought in the early fifteenth century to make diplomatic contact with European kingdoms for the first time since the Aksumite era.

A letter from King Henry IV of England to the Emperor of Abyssinia survives.

In 1428, the Emperor Yeshaq had sent two emissaries to Alfonso V of Aragon, who sent return emissaries.

They failed to complete the return trip.

The first continuous relations with a European country begin in 1508 with Portugal under Emperor Dawit II (Lebna Dengel), who had just inherited the throne from his father, Na'od.

The Empress Mother Eleni, although she is well into her seventies, had stepped in to act as her step-great-grandson's regent.

The daughter of the King of Hadiya, Eleni had converted to Christianity upon marrying Zara Yaqob.

Although the Portuguese historian Baltazar Téllez wrote that she had no children, in some manuscripts of Francisco Álvares's The Prester John of the Indies, a male relative of Lebna Dengel who escaped from Amba Geshen is described as her son, according to the translator but not the original text.

With his own mother Tsion Mogasa dead, Emperor Baeda Maryam I had given Eleni the title of Queen Mother.

She proved to be an effective member of the royal family; Paul B. Henze comments that she "was practically co-monarch" during his reign When Eskender succeeded his father Emperor Baeda Maryam I, at first Empress Eleni was pushed out of power by the Bitwoded Amda Mikael.

However, around 1486 she had participated in a palace coup that led to his deposition and execution, and Queen Eleni hereafter had played a leading role in the Emperor's government, which continues into the reign of Emperor Na'od.

Alvarez was told by the Abuna Marqos, that upon Emperor Na'od's death in combat "he and Queen Eleni made him [Lebna Dengel] King, because they had all of the great men in their hands" This statement points to the power Eleni wields.

Likewise Eleni, understanding the increasing threat that Ethiopia faced from the growing Ottoman influence in the region, dispatches Mateus (an Ethiopian of Armenian origin, also known as Matthew the Armenian) as an ambassador to the King of Portugal and the Pope in Rome, following the arrival of two Portuguese at Ethiopia in search of Pêro da Covilhã in 1508.

These envoys, including priest João Gomes, João Sanches, and Sid Mohammed, had been sent by Tristão da Cunha in 1506.

Having failed to cross Malindi, they had returned to Socotra, from where Afonso de Albuquerque managed to land them in Filuk, arriving in Shewa, Ethiopia.

They are killed or disappear on their return journey.

Mateus, is sent to the Portuguese in India transporting a pious letter from Eleni to king Manuel I of Portugal and a piece of the True Cross.

He travels with his wife, brother-in-law, and servants.