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Essay about Hatshepsut: Fifth Pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt

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Hatshepsut had little to fear when she claimed the throne as Egypt’s King in the Eighteenth Dynasty. She did not commit acts of Hubris or infernal behaviors towards her stepson Thutmosis III. On the contrary, to the belief that she was a wicked stepmother and a usurper, she protected Thutmosis III’s succession to the throne. When her husband/brother, the former king Thutmosis II died unexpectedly and left Hatshepsut with the infant successor. She dutifully protected her families’ name-claim to the throne when she became Pharaoh. Thutmosis III was still a child when she decided to succeed her husband. Thutmosis III’s biological mother was not fit to be regent to her son because of her low status. However Hatshepsut, his stepmother …show more content…

They could be legitimatized for the succession to the throne once they married a full blooded princess. She would become his “Principle Wife”, a title to distinguish the main wife with full royal-blood and mother to hopefully the next male heir from the lesser queens and concubines . Hatshepsut was a Crowned Princess with full royal-blood from her mother, Queen Amose. “Queen Amose was descended from a royal line so ancient that her earliest known ancestor was the sun” . Therefore Hatshepsut was a direct decedent of full royal-blood. Her role in life was to originally marry her half-brother, Thutmosis II to legitimize his succession after their father Thutmosis I. She would be her brother/husband’s Principle Wife and the Queen who would produce him a royal heir of full blooded royalty; hopefully a son. The Principle Wife role was an honorary position set by her ancestor who established the Eighteenth Dynasty, King Amose I . Hatshepsut perhaps learned about her ancestor and how he established a prosperous Dynasty for her family. She would have learned that women were very important. Her education about her ancestry and importance of her own blood may have contributed to her decision to become Pharaoh.
The Seventeenth Dynasty was during Egypt’s chaotic Second Intermediate Period. Mainly Hyksos, a nomadic tribe

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