Great Royal Wife

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Great Royal Wife or Chief King's Wife (Ancient Egyptian: ḥmt nswt wrt) is the term used to refer to the chief wife of a male pharaoh of Ancient Egypt on the day of his coronation, as her status in the royal lineage was essential to gaining the position of pharaoh. Initially, the royal wife of a male pharaoh was not called by this title, but once the tradition began, it continued to be used for centuries, although not continuously.

Meretseger, the chief wife of Senusret III, is the earliest queen whose name appears with this title; she also was the first consort known to write her name in a cartouche ^[1] However, she is only attested in the New Kingdom^[2] so the title might be an anachronism. Perhaps the first holder of its title was Nubkhaes of the Second Intermediate Period.

The Great Royal Wife was an official state consort and often, would be a sister or even a daughter of the pharaoh, to keep the royal bloodline descending in the female line, pure. She held the highest ranking religious and governmental position, officiating alongside of the the pharaoh at ceremonies and rituals. This role had to be filled when the pharaoh was a woman as well, usually with her royal daughter taking the title and fulfilling the duties.

While most Ancient Egyptians were monogamous, the pharaoh would have had other, lesser wives and concubines in addition to the Great Royal Wife. This arrangement would allow the pharaoh to enter into diplomatic marriages with the daughters of allies, as was the custom of ancient kings.

The order of succession in Ancient Egypt passed through the royal women. Offspring of the royal wife (the highest ranking woman in the royal lineage, later called the great royal wife) were first in line for becoming the new pharaoh upon the death of the current pharaoh (whether female or male), but the oldest male offspring usually would take precedence over a female.

Ahmose-Nefertari, the great royal wife of Ahmose I, became the regent for her son, Amenhotep I, upon the death of her husband, reigning until he could attain the age to ascend the throne, she was recognized as a formidable warrior and given special honors at her burial for her accomplishments in war; she also was the mother of Ahmose-Meritamon

If male, marriage to a woman of the royal lineage was necessary to gain the crown, even if the pharaoh came from outside of the lineage, as happened occasionally. The higher the status of his wife, the more likely that a male offspring in the lineage had a chance of becoming the pharaoh.

Secondary unions with other women in the royal family assured that there would be heirs from the lineage and more women who could become the royal wives. This is the reason for all of the intermarriages as well as the access to the throne availed by marriage to a royal Egyptian princess—which is why marriage of a royal princess to a foreigner or a male, not born to a woman of the royal lineage, was discouraged, only occurring in extremely rare circumstances.

The royal women also played a pivotal role in the religion and government of Ancient Egypt. The royal wife, or later, the Great Royal Wife, officiated at the rites in the temples, as priestess, in a culture where religion was inexorably interwoven with the roles of the rulers. ^[3] This is why a woman who was pharaoh required a royal wife and why if she had one, her male consort could not fulfill the duties that had to be filled by a woman from the royal lineage, as the highest priestess in the temple and other official roles.

The mother of the heir to the throne was not always the Great Royal Wife, but once a pharaoh was crowned, it was possible to grant a less-than-royal mother the title of Great Royal Wife, along with other titles, even if she was not entitled to it during her husband's lifetime because of lack of any status in the royal lineage or her lesser status in the royal family. An example of just that is Mutemwia, the mother of Amenhotep III),^[4]

Sometimes the title was given posthumously to a pharaoh's mother (such as Iset, the mother of Thutmose III), being used for the first time in her tomb.^[5] She never performed the duties of the royal wife.

Hatschepsut was great royal wife to two different pharaohs and later, she became pharaoh as well - Deir el-Bahari, Egypt

The greatest known summit of power reached by any Great Royal Wife was by Hatshepsut. She followed her mother as Great Royal Wife to her father, Thutmose I, and participated fully in the strong roles exercised by the great royal wife during that time, often being referred to as, God's Wife. Upon the death of her father, her half brother, who had a weak royal connection through his mother, was married to Hatshepsut to become Thutmose II and she retained the title of great royal wife throughout his reign, continuing her strong roles. Some researchers believe that she could be viewed almost as a co-ruler to her husband. After the death of her husband, she initially became regent because of the minority of her stepson and cousin, the only male heir (born to a lesser member of the royal lineage), who eventually would become Thutmose III. While he was still very young, however, Hatshepsut was crowned as pharaoh and ruled in her own right very successfully for many years. This seems to have been dictated through the religious leadership of the temple of Amun, which was closely tied to the government at the time. Once crowned pharaoh, a person remained pharaoh for life. Although other women before her had ruled Egypt, Hatshepsut was the first woman to take the title, pharaoh, as it was a new term being used for the rulers, not having been used before the eighteenth dynasty. When she became pharaoh, she designated her daughter, Neferure, as Great Royal Wife to perform the duties of the royal consort. Her daughter most likely was the great royal wife of Thutmose III when he assumed the throne, although she is not believed to have lived for long after that and their son, the heir to the throne of Thutmose III, died before his father.

Bust of Nefertiti, Great Royal Wife of Akhenaten, Altes Museum, Berlin

During the Amarna period, the pharaoh Akhenaten elevated his Great Royal Wife Nefertiti to a position very near his own, so that she could be said to be a co-regent with him, and shared much more prominently in religious rituals than any other Great Royal Wife. After his death, she also may have served as pharaoh, assuming the throne name Ankhkheperure Smenkhkare.

Although Ramasses II did not grant his Great Royal Wife Nefertari any extraordinary powers, he had great love for her and built for a temple dedicated to her at Abu Simbel, as an act of devotion.

Often, secondary wives of the pharaoh are not mentioned in monumental inscriptions; one known exception is, Kiya, a secondary wife of Akhenaten. She was given the unique title of Greatly Beloved Wife in inscriptions related to him, ^[6] and it is thought that he built a temple dedicated to her in Amarna, the Maru-Aten that was rededicated to someone else in later times.

[edit] Great Royal Wives

[edit] Middle Kingdom

[edit] Second Intermediate Period

[edit] New Kingdom

[edit] Third Intermediate Period

[edit] Late Period

[edit] References

Nefertari, the Great Royal Wife of Ramasses II, from the temple he built to her at Abu Simbel, she holds a sistrum and a sacred lotus

1. ^ Aidan Dodson & Dyan Hilton: The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson, 2004, ISBN 0-500-05128-3, pp.25-26
2. ^ L. Holden, in: Egypt’s Golden Age: The Art of Living in the New Kingdom, 1558-1085 B.C., Boston 1982, S. 302f.
3. ^ Seawright, Caroline (1999-2004), "Hatshepsut, Female Pharaoh of Egypt", Tour Egypt, InterCity Oz, Inc., http://touregypt.net/historicalessays/hatshepsut.htm, retrieved on 2007-08-06 
4. ^ Joann Fletcher: Egypt's Sun King – Amenhotep III (Duncan Baird Publishers, London, 2000) ISBN 1-900131-09-9, p.167
5. ^ Dodson & Hilton, p.138
6. ^ Reeves, Nicholas (1990), The Complete Tutankhamun, London: Thames & Hudson Ltd, pp. 24 

[edit] See also

• God's Wife of Amun
• Divine Adoratrice of Amun

[edit] External links

• The Queens of Egypt by Dr. Sameh Arab