with his own mother dead, baeda maryam i gave eleni, a wife of his father, the title of queen mother. she proved to be an effective member of the royal family, and paul b. henze comments that she "was practically co-monarch" during his reign. however, edward ullendorff notes baeda maryam i was unable to hold together the far-flung empire his father left him: "some of the outlying provinces recently conquered began to grow restive; the feudal lords whom zar'a ya'qob had only ephemerally brought under central control reasserted their regional authority; and the senior clergy relapsed into some of the old-established ways of conduct and ecclesiastical organization."