Queen Tausret: The Last Powerful Ruler of Egypt’s 19th Dynasty
Queen Tausret was among the few women who reigned as pharaoh in ancient Egypt. She was living in the late 19 th Dynasty and initially worked as the Great Royal Wife of Seti II. She assumed power after King Siptah died and she ruled Egypt under her name. Her reign was just a couple of years and was forced to end at a time when there was political instability that had resulted in the ascendancy of the 20 th Dynasty.
Tawosret, Tausret or twosret was the latter pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt and the last ruler. She is reported to have had a reign of seven years in Egypt although this marked a combination of the almost six years of reign of Siptah who ruled in Egypt. Tausret merely claimed to have been the queen during the years of King Siptah, as her own.
Queen Tausret
Queen Tausret was among the few female pharaohs who ruled Egypt. She was the child of the later years of the 19 th Dynasty when the political situation and the succession conflicts established the atmosphere of uncertainty in the royal court.
Tausret had worked as the Great Royal Wife to Seti II, the pharaoh, before she assumed power as ruler. This post made her very powerful in the palace and made her one of the best-ranked women in the kingdom. With the death of Seti II, Egypt plunged into a complex succession process which ultimately took the young king Siptah to power. Tausret significantly contributed to the ruling of the country during his reign.
After the demise of Siptah, Tausret became a direct pharaoh and reigned in Egypt directly. Her reign did not last long, but it was the last episode of the 19 th Dynasty. She is still significant today in terms of comprehending the political changes which took place in the latter part of the New Kingdom.
Egypt During the Late 19th Dynasty
This era of Tausret was quite different compared to the previous decades of the New Kingdom. After pharaohs such as Ramesses II, Egypt had been successful in the military and in establishing central authority. Nevertheless, towards the end of the 13 th century BCE, infighting started influencing the integrity of the royal government.
The throne was given to his son Merneptah who had succeeded Ramesses II. A succession to the throne was complicated after the death of Merneptah. There were several individuals in the royal family who had claims to the throne and various groups in the court were supporting the various individuals.
At the time that Seti II became king, the politics were quite strained. The cohesion of the government was undermined by disagreements among rival claims and disagreements within the government. All of these tensions were not gone with the death of Seti II. Rather, they went on when Queen Siptah and then Queen Tausret ruled.
Since the monarchial court had numerous influential personnel and conflicting interests, the monarch was required to have close associates in the court. The ascendancy of Tausret to power should be seen in the background of changing alliances and political insecurity.
Queen Tausret Family
Twosret or Tausret’s birth date is unknown. She did not hold the title of “King’s Daughter”, meaning she was not the daughter of any Pharaoh and her later claim to kingship would come solely through her marriage to Seti II.
King Seti II
She was thought to be the second royal wife of Seti II. There are no children for Tausret and Seti II, unless tomb KV56 represents the burial of their child.
Unidentified KV 56
The name of Theodore Davis discovered the name of Tausret and her husband in the cache of jewellery discovered in tomb KV56 in the Valley of the Kings. This tomb also had items with the name of Rameses II. The nature of this tomb is not in agreement. Some (Aldred) believed that this was the tomb of a daughter of Seti II and Tawosret; others (Maspero) believed that this was a store of items that had been in the tomb of Tawosret herself originally.
Tausret and the Reign of Siptah
King Siptah
Following the death of Seti II, the throne was inherited by a young king, Siptah who was of rather unclear family origin. Since he was still a child, senior court officials assumed the role of leading the government.
Tausret had a significant part in this process. Being the widow of the former king and a very esteemed member of the royal family, she contributed to the stability in the transition. She acted in a very much the same way as a regent or senior advisor to Siptah.
Another powerful figure during this period was the Chancellor Bay. He held an important administrative position and helped establish Siptah’s rule. Inscriptions suggest that Bay had considerable influence in the early years of the reign.
Despite Bay’s prominence, Tausret remained one of the most important individuals in the court. Her royal connections gave her authority that few others possessed. Together with other officials, she helped oversee the government while the young king matured.
This period allowed Tausret to gain political experience that would later prepare her to rule Egypt herself.
The Fall of Chancellor Bay
The power of Chancellor Bay eventually came to an abrupt end during Siptah’s reign. Inscriptions from Deir el-Medina indicate that Bay was executed by order of the king.
The exact reasons for his execution remain unclear. According to some historians, Bay was trying to build his power too intensively, which put him at loggerheads with other members of the royal court. Some believe that there are other competitors in the government who might have acted against him.
Notwithstanding the reason, the removal of Bay greatly altered the power balance in the palace. The political situation changed with the loss of one of the most influential officials.
Tausret also seems to have gained importance in the later years of the reign of Siptah. She was a stabilizing figure in the government as she was the widow of a respectable royal figure as well as being herself a respectable royal figure. This increasing power was useful in preparing the groundwork towards the next phase of her career as the pharaoh of Egypt.
Tausret Becomes Pharaoh
When Siptah died, Tausret officially assumed the throne for herself as the “Daughter of Re, Lady of Ta-merit, Twosret of Mut”, and assumed the role of a Pharaoh. While it was commonly believed that she ruled Egypt with the aid of Chancellor Bay, a recently published document by Pierre Grandet in a BIFAO 100 (2000) paper shows that Bay was executed on Siptah’s orders during Year 5 of this king’s reign. The document is a hieratic ostracon or inscribed potshard and contains an announcement to the workmen of Deir al Madinah of the king’s actions. No immediate reason was given to show what caused Siptah to turn against “the great enemy Bay,” as the ostracon states.
Queen Tausret
Although this act was nominally carried out in the name of the still young Siptah, one can probably safely assume that the initiative was taken by Tawosret, signaling her intention to share power no longer with her erstwhile colleague in regency [Bay]. While Bay’s name remained intact on many of his monuments, it was probably at this point that his extraordinary representations in the bark-shrine at Karnak were erased.
Meanwhile, Egyptian territories in Canaan seem to have become effectively independent under the overlordship of a man called Irsu. Papyrus Harris I, the main source on these events, claims that Irsu and Tausret had allied themselves, leaving Irsu free to plunder and neglect the land
End of Tausret’s reign
Tausret’s reign ended in a civil war, documented in the Elephantine stela of her successor Setnakhte, who became the founder of the Twentieth dynasty. While it is not known if she was overthrown by Setnakhte or whether she died peacefully in her own reign and a conflict broke out at court over her succession; the former scenario is the most likely. Her immediate 20th dynasty successor Setnakhte and his son Ramesses III described the late 19th dynasty as a time of chaos.
Setnakhte usurped the joint KV14 tomb of Seti II and Tausret but reburied Seti II in tomb KV15, while deliberately replastering and redrawing all images of Tausret in tomb KV14 with those of himself. Setnakhte’s decisions here may demonstrate his dislike and presumably hatred for Tausret since he chose to reinter Seti II but not Tausret.
Setnakhte himself does not seem to have harboured any animosity towards Siptah. Tausret likely erased Siptah’s own royal cartouches in his KV47 royal tomb and replaced the cartouches of Siptah with those of Seti II in KV14, Tausret’s own tomb, once she had presumably begun her own reign as pharaoh.
Building Projects and Monuments During the Reign of Queen Tausret
Like other rulers of the New Kingdom, Queen Tausret supported several building and restoration projects. These activities were an essential part of maintaining religious traditions and demonstrating royal authority.
Some monuments associated with her reign are located in Thebes, one of the main religious centers of Egypt. Temple inscriptions record offerings to important deities and mention her royal titles.
Queen Tausret at Thebes
Many of the building works begun during the reign of Siptah were also continued or completed during Tausret’s rule. This continuity suggests that she aimed to maintain stability in state projects and religious activities.
Although her reign was relatively short, the surviving monuments provide valuable evidence of her role as ruler. They confirm that she carried out many of the same responsibilities as other pharaohs.
Queen Tausret’s Death
Tomb of Queen Tausret
At Thebes, the Tomb of Queen Tausret (KV14) was located in the Valley of the Kings. Tausret’s KV14 tomb has a complicated history; it was started in the reign of Seti II. Tomb scenes show Tausret accompanying Siptah, but Siptah’s name had later been replaced by that of Seti II presumably by Tausret who wished to associate herself with her late husband. The tomb was then usurped by Setnakhte, and extended to become one of the deepest royal tombs in the valley while Queen Tausret’s sarcophagus was reused by Prince Amenherkhepeshef in KV13.
Relief of Horus and Geb from KV14
The tomb contains decorated corridors and chambers with scenes from religious texts describing the journey of the king through the afterlife. These texts were common in royal burials of the New Kingdom.
Later in Egyptian history, the tomb was reused by another ruler, Setnakhte, the founder of the 20th Dynasty. Because of this reuse, parts of the original decoration were altered or replaced. Despite these changes, KV14 remains an important archaeological source for understanding the reign of Tausret.
The Legacy of Queen Tausret
Queen Tausret remains one of the most intriguing female rulers of ancient Egypt. Her biography shows the way that royal women might contribute significantly to politics, government, and religious activities.
She was the first to be influential as the Great Royal Wife of Seti II and then a major leader during the reign of Siptah and lastly the ruler of Egypt. This evolution reveals her power, which gained strength as she evolved.
The issues of the Egyptian monarchy at the later years of the New Kingdom can also be seen in her reign. There were even political feuds, unpredictable succession and groups of supporters which added to the turmoil of the time.
Despite the shortness of her reign, Queen Tausret left monuments, inscriptions and a royal tomb, which even today give important information to historians and archaeologists. She is being remembered today as one of the few women who had the full power of a pharaoh in ancient Egypt.
Conclusion
Queen Tausret is one of the most outstanding representatives of ancient Egyptian history. Otherwise, as the queen became the pharaoh, she had to rule one of the most complicated periods in the New Kingdom. Her reign led to stability at a time when Egypt was experiencing political instability due to the reign of Siptah. She became a king after his death and she perpetuated the culture of kingship in Egypt.
