The theme of royal assassination forms the basis of the 12th Dynasty Instructions of King Amenemhat I to his son Senwosret I, in which the spirit of the king speaks directly to his successor, begging him to be aware of the potential treachery of his disloyal subjects. Experts originally believed that this piece had been composed by the king himself in the wake of an unsuccessful coup, but it is now thought to have been written by the royal scribe Khety following the assassination of Amenemhat in his thirtieth regnal year. The rhetorical questions ‘Has any woman previously raised troops? And has rebellion previously been raised in the palace?’ strongly imply that this was a plot hatched within the harem. Precise details of the fatal assault upon the king are included within the text, and it is made clear that he was killed by those whom he had previously trusted while alone and off his guard:
It was after supper and night had fallen. I was lying on my bed and resting, for I was very weary. As I began to drift into sleep, the very weapons which should have been used to protect me were turned against me… Had I been able to seize my weapon I would have beaten the cowards back single-handed. But no one is strong at night. No one can fight alone, and no success can be achieved without a helper.
Equally serious was the 20th Dynasty intrigue which threatened and possibly ended the life of Ramesses III. The 20th Dynasty was a period of sporadic civil unrest with high inflation leading to a succession of wildcat strikes in the Theban necropolis. The internal discontent was made worse by constant troubles along the western border and a spate of abortive invasions by the so-called ‘Sea Peoples’ who attempted to enter Egypt via the Mediterranean coast. A group of conspirators led by the royal concubine Tiy and the supervisor of the harem, Paibekkamen, attempted to capitalize on the mood of dissatisfaction by inciting a national uprising with the ultimate aim of placing Tiy’s son Pentawert on the throne. The plot was hatched in the ‘harem of the accompanying’, presumably the small harem which escorted the king in his travels, and involved many trusted officials including the deputy overseer, six inspectors and even the wives of the doorkeepers. We don’t know whether or not the conspirators succeeded in assassinating Ramesses III,9 but we do know that the planned national uprising failed and that Ramesses IV, the rightful heir to the throne, became the next king. The leaders of the plot were caught and sentenced to death either by execution or suicide, while the more minor participants had their noses and ears cut off.
The Prince of Nahrin had only one child, a daughter. He built for her a house whose windows were seventy cubits from the ground. He sent for all the sons of all the Princes of Syria, and said to them ‘Whoever leaps up and reaches my daughter’s window shall have her as a bride…’
From the New Kingdom Tale of the Doomed Prince
Although all Egyptian kings were polygamous, routinely marrying several women and maintaining a succession of royal concubines, only one wife was chosen from the harem to act as the official queen-consort and be the acknowledged queen of Egypt. Her name and image were linked with those of the king in the official records, she was the mother in the royal nuclear family and it was her children who would rightfully inherit the throne. The secondary wives and mistresses played a far more peripheral role in court life; although their presence added to the monarch’s prestige and, we must assume, provided him with an interesting diversion, they only became important at times of national crisis when the consort was unable to provide the king with a suitable son and heir.
Unfortunately, we have no idea how the principal queen was selected although it is clear that, as a general rule, the honour went most often to ladies of royal birth. Indeed, at least during the 18th Dynasty, the queen was often a full or half-sister of the king. However she was chosen, the ‘Great Royal Consort’ or ‘Great King’s Wife’ was undoubtedly the most important woman to reside within the royal harem. In private, she was likely to be a lady of considerable personal wealth and breeding who was able to use her feminine influence over one of the most powerful monarchs in the ancient Near East. In public, she was set apart from other wives as the companion and consort of a semi-divine ruler, and the potential mother of future semi-divine kings. Her political position was reinforced by her numerous honorary titles and by the granting of impressive privileges, such as the right to write her name in a cartouche10 or the right to be buried in a pyramid, which were otherwise reserved for the king alone. Given that the pharaoh was accepted as a living god, it is not surprising that the role of the queen-consort became very closely identified with several goddesses, principally Hathor and Maat, hinting at a divine origin for the queen herself and offering a further link between the secular and the sacred aspects of the monarchy.