Tiye: The Queen Who Murdered Her Pharaoh | Ramesses III | Queen Tiye

Egypt's Pharaohs were never complete without a great Royal wife by their side the principal wife of his Harin together they would fulfill both Regal and religious Duty as well as securing a stable future for Egypt through the succession of their children but what would happen if a pharaoh couldn't decide which of his wives would become the great Royal wife especially if they had sons in 1155 BCE that situation would create the assassination of a pharaoh the uncertainty of a dynasty and the death of many Nobles known as The harim Conspiracy Ramesses III came to power in 1186 BCE amongst a potentially unstable political background his father had claimed the throne seemingly without being directly related to the previous pharaohs and had reigned for just three years due to political unrest by the time his son Ramesses III took the throne Egypt was more stable but only just it wasn't long before people outside his lungs tried to take advantage of the uncertain situation in the fifth year of his Reign Ramesses faced threats from Libyan tribes along the western Delta of the Nile they invaded Egypt on the pretext that the Pharaoh had interfered with the succession of one of their Chiefs this was untrue and they were defeated soundly in battle but it wasn't the only military situation the Pharaoh would face there were just two more years of Peace before a new threat emerged with the sea people these were a coalition of people from Asia Minor in the mediter Iranian and they were feared with good reason their conquests included the hittite Empire and large swathes of Syria attacking not only from land but also from the sea Ramesses saw off this new enemy easily sending his land Army to trap the sea people's advance in Palestine their ships were easily taken out after being lured into the waterways of the Delta where the Egyptians had a better understanding of the geography of the area however while Egypt had prevented invasion they were unable to stop some of the sea people settling an area on the coast of Palestine it created an air of tension and ended the idea that Egypt would have dominion over those lands two more years went by and in Ramesses 11th year of his Reign the Libyan tribes reappeared once more at the West Western Delta once again War was fought and only ended when Ramesses captured their Chief putting a stop to the Bloodshed many years had gone by now and many battles had been fought the people of Egypt looked upon their Pharaoh as a hero King and he was well liked in this early part of his Reign but constant War had its price although Egypt needed to defend itself it was fast running out of funds armies needed feeding administrative centers needed rebuilding and they all required money this was compounded by Ramesses requirement to build as all pharaohs before him had done work started on his tomb as soon as his Reign began and after the second defeated the Libyan tribes his huge funerary Temple Town and Palace were completed at medinet Habu he also built a temple complex at Karnak over 200 feet long and made up of three bark chapels decorated with several statues Ramesses even found time to send an expedition to punt using large sums of money to fund his ships the people began to look less on Ramesses III as a hero as their economy crumbled in the 28th year of his Reign the vizier of Lower Egypt was found guilty of corruption and removed and just a month later the workers at dear El Medina went on strike because there was a delay in their wages the first strike in recorded history and along with all these new problems his extensive walls and building had created with their expense Ramesses had another problem much closer to home all pharaohs had harems several wives who ensured the continuity of the pharaoh's Royal line by creating heirs to his throne but over the centuries the Royal Harem had grown from merely a section of the palace filled with mute wives to a complex with its own Administration farms and rules the women who filled the Harem were the daughters of Nobles and royalty and many were politically involved with Egypt even if through using men as their mouthpiece but within the harim there was always one woman above the others the great Royal wife there were two main reasons for this the first was that the great Royal wife's son was the next in line for the throne and another wife's son would only take that position if the great Royal wife had only surviving daughters the second was as the spiritual partner to the Pharaoh carrying out the tasks alongside her husband required to ensure the gods were kept happy and that the sun rose over Egypt each morning Ramesses III seemed to take a special interest in his Harem highlighted in the carvings he left behind in the temple Gatehouse at madinat Habu there are images showing Ramesses sat with different wives in tender poses these are unprecedented in Egyptian art there is another carving at the same Temple hidden away that shows Ramesses in all his glory with an image of his great Royal wife above him but her Cartouche to show her name is blank some historians believe this shows that Ramesses was unable to make the decision between two of his wives one named Isis and the other tea this was a dangerous thing to do as it would have created tension in the court and most likely created doubt over the succession of the next Pharaoh both women gave birth to Sons about the same time which probably compounded this but eventually Ramesses does seem to have made a decision choosing Isis as his great Royal wife this also meant that her son amen her cap Chef became the chosen heir of Ramesses III although he would not live to take the throne dying at 15 years old competition between the two women was likely to have been Fierce and it would seem tea did not take this decision well it wasn't long before tea started to plot her revenge against the Pharaoh planning something Unthinkable in ancient Egypt the assassination of her husband Ramesses III her plot would be in two parts the first was simply to murder Ramesses III and the second was to create an uprising from the chaos this murder would bring in order to place her son pentawaret on the throne T was obviously a woman of noble birth and some power as she immediately went about recruiting those who were closest to the Pharaoh first compelling them to follow her in order to have influence over these officials T must have been a powerful woman in her own right to convince them to move against the Pharaoh she also recruited the women of the harim pendua a clerk of the harim as well as the overseer of the harim panuk next came per Beckerman a pantry Chief a master Surya a butler the women of the Haring joined the call for action against Ramesses III by writing to family and friends they could trust outside the Harem inciting them to join the rebellion and Riot when the time came these wives were nobility and their families included many high up in the court and army tea also had to convince several Generals in the Egyptian Army to commit treason against a pharaoh who had successfully fought by their side through many years of battles as the plan progressed the conspirators turned to Magic the records left to us show that t used papyrus Scrolls from the pharaoh's own library to learn the Spells they would need to incapacitate the guards it would have been an act in itself punishable by death as though spells could be passed to Ramesses enemies it may seem silly now to put so much stock in spells but most of ancient Egypt deeply believed that magic affected their everyday lives and took it very seriously they first created wax figures to represent the guards binding their feet and hands with cotton and inscribing spells to slow them all along the figure's body or inserting a Papyrus scroll with the incantation tucked into the back of the figure civil unrest was likely in the later years of Ramesses III's Reign he had been a great Pharaoh a hero protecting his country against his Invaders but spending on these events his building and his indecision over the succession had made people wary of him at best and out right disliking him at worst the workers at dear El Medina who went on strike were paid in Grain but ironically their payment was late because Ramesses III was storing up the grain for a festival to celebrate the 30th year of his Reign the following year the murder was planned to take place during the beautiful Festival of the valley an annual celebration in Thebes dedicated to remembrance of the Dead we know from his mummified body that the assassination was successful for a long time however many historians believed the Pharaoh had survived the assault all that he had been killed in such a way that it was invisible such as poisoning this is because in the 1960s his body was x-rayed the only available technology at the time the X-rays showed no discernible means of death however ever very recently in 2011 a CT scan was done on his body revealing two injuries not seen before one of them fatal the scan showed that the mummifiers had placed several amulets of the Eye of Horus near Ramesses III's feet the placing of these amulets on a mummified body was to help heal it and make sure it was in its best shape for the journey to the afterlife closer looking showed that a prosthetic big toe had been created for him as his real big toe had been sliced off his left foot it also showed no signs of healing so this was something that had occurred just before death but the most revealing wound was around his neck the team doing the scan saw that there was an unusually large amount of bandages around Ramesses III's neck and the scan revealed a deep cut that had gone all the way down to the vertebrae in other words someone had cut ramessi's throat a fatal wound that was the likely cause of death this was a brutal and bloody death by several assailants but how do we know any of this the answer lies in a Papyrus scroll known as the judicial Papyrus of Turin it was pure chance that the scroll turned up appearing in the 19th century on the black markets of Cairo some parts of it are missing carefully cut up by the thief who tried to sell it in order to make more money but the remaining parts are undamaged and give enough details to work out what happened next the Papyrus deals with the trial after ramessey's death although the conspirators succeeded in killing the Pharaoh it would appear they failed to create an uprising and put Penta warrant on the throne this Papyrus is also the only way we know of Queen T as she is mentioned nowhere else after the assassination it seems Ramesses IV the son of one of Ramesses III's other wives Queen Titi gained control of the situation all of the conspirators were gathered up and put on trial there is some evidence that even at this point men any of the hiring wives who had been involved tried to use their feminine charms to win over at least four of the judges being discovered with them in a drunken Orgy at least two of the judges had their noses and ears cut off the other conspirators all those with knowledge of the crime would fare little better 28 people would be executed those who were not nobility such as peckerman and panuk army officials and Palace scribes were condemned to a permanent death this was most likely to have been burning to be burnt to death was Agony enough but to die with no body to return to meant no afterlife a double punishment for ancient Egyptians however those who were Nobles or royalty such as Tian pentawaret were permitted to death by Suicide side allowing the mummification after death this was probably through taking poison or even hanging another mummified body was found in the same tomb as Ramesses III along with other Royal mummies known as unknown man e this mummy is now believed to be that of pentawaret the pharaoh's son this was a strangely wrapped mummy as he had been hastily covered in a sheepskin or goat's skin and his body still contained his brain and internal organs the body had also been placed hastily in a cedar coffin that was hacked out to fit there was also evidence that the man had his hands and feet tied and marks around his neck showed signs of possible hanging but it was a mystery as to why someone who was obviously not given a proper burial would be in a tomb with members of royalty until a DNA analysis was done on the mummy which showed that he shared the paternal wide DNA hablo group e1b1a and half of his DNA with none other than Ramesses III this means he was a son of Ramesses and considering what was known from the Papyrus scroll means this is probably pentawaret but what of T no body has been found for her and no tune any mention of her any possible carving of her face was chiseled out of memory if she was buried somewhere it would probably be an unknown spot and her family would have done it quietly the royal family still made up of many children who had tea as a mother wanted to rid themselves of the events of the assassination or more of those connected with the crime T's only daughter do a tenterpet became a wife of her half-brother Ramesses IV so any children of hers would have to be unconnected to the events of their grandfather's death in order to be seen as legitimate rulers so Queen T succeeded in assassinating the Pharaoh but not in placing her son on the throne she must have believed was rightfully his the indecision of an otherwise remarkably capable Pharaoh created chaos and a crime unknown at that time in Egypt with Ramesses III's death like so many crimes committed in ancient Egypt those who had to live with the consequences attempted to bury it forever making tea and pentawaret disappear into the Sands of history but thanks to modern science and the Thai jealous work of egyptologists we can now know the truth of the queen who organized the killing of her pharaoh if you enjoyed this video don't forget to like And subscribe so 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Channel: History's Forgotten People

Views: 19,499

Keywords: ancient egypt, mummy, queen tiye, ramesses III, rameses III, ancient egyptian history, assassination of ramesses III, the harem conspiracy

Id: hZnHzVYX27M

Length: 18min 56sec (1136 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 03 2023