Zewditu, the daughter of Emperor Menelik II of Ethiopia, succeeded her father to the throne in 1916, three years after his death.She was formally crowned negestä negestat, queen of queens, in 1917. She was her father's sole surviving child. However, Ethiopian preference for male rulers had led the emperor, in his increasing incapacity, to name his grandson, Lej Iyasu, the son of another daughter, as his heir in 1909. The emperor died in 1913, and Iyasu succeeded him.