The Woman Who Would Be King

BOOK: The Woman Who Would Be King
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Copyright © 2014 by Kara Cooney

All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.

www.crownpublishing.com

CROWN and the Crown colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Cooney, Kara.
  The woman who would be king / Kara Cooney. —First edition.
       pages cm
1. Hatshepsut, Queen of Egypt. 2. Queens—Egypt—Biography. 3. Pharaohs—Biography. 4. Egypt—History—Eighteenth dynasty, ca. 1570–1320 B.C. 5. Egypt—Kings and rulers—Biography. I. Title.
  DT87.15.C66 2014
  932.014092—dc23

2014000243

ISBN 978-0-307-95676-7
eBook ISBN 978-0-307-95678-1

Map copyright © 2014 by David Cain
Illustration on
this page
and maps on
this page
and
this page
by Deborah Shieh
Jacket design by Chris Brand
Jacket photography by Sam Weber

v3.1

For Neil, with whom I have walked
through so many fires.

And for Julian, whose happiness
doesn’t yet make him cry.

CONTENTS
CHRONOLOGY
New Kingdom
       
1539–1077 BCE
Eighteenth Dynasty
1539–1292 BCE

Ahmose I (Nebpehtyre)

1539–1515 BCE

Amenhotep I (Djeserkare)

1514–1494 BCE

Thutmose I (Aakheperkare)

1493–1483 BCE

Thutmose II (Aakheperenre)

1482–1480 BCE

Thutmose III (Menkheperre/​Menkheperkare)

1479–1460 BCE

Hatshepsut (Maatkare)

1472–1458 BCE

Thutmose III (Menkheperre)

1460–1425 BCE

Amenhotep II (Aakheperure)

1425–1400 BCE

Thutmose IV (Menkheperure)

1400–1390 BCE

Amenhotep III (Nebmaatre)

1390–1353 BCE

Amenhotep IV/​Akhenaten (Neferkheperure)

1353–1336 BCE

Smenkhkare/​Neferneferuaten

1336–1334 BCE

Tutankhaten/​Tutankhamen (Nebkheperure)

?–1324 BCE

Itnetjer Ay (Kheperkheperure)

1323–1320 BCE

Horemheb (Djeserkheperure)

1319–1292 BCE
Nineteenth Dynasty
1292–1191 BCE

Ramses I (Menpehtyre)

1292–1291 BCE

Seti I (Menmaatre)

1290–1279 BCE

Ramses II (Usermaatre setepenre)

1279–1213 BCE

Merneptah (Baenre)

1213–1203 BCE

Seti II (Userkheperure)

1202–1198 BCE

Amenmesses (Menmire)

1202–1200 BCE

Siptah (Akhenre)

1197–1193 BCE

Tawosret (Sitre merytamen)

1192–1191 BCE
Twentieth Dynasty
1190–1077 BCE

Setnakht (Userkhaure)

1190–1188 BCE

Ramses III (Usermaatre meryamen)

1187–1157 BCE

Ramses IV (Heqamaatre setepenamen)

1156–1150 BCE

Ramses V (Usermaatre sekheperenre)

1149–1146 BCE

Ramses VI (Nebmaatre meryamen)

1145–1139 BCE

Ramses VII (Usermaatre setepenre meryamen)

1138–1131 BCE

Ramses VIII (Usermaatre akhenamen)

1130 BCE

Ramses IX (Neferkare setepenre)

1129–1111 BCE

Ramses X (Khepermaatre setepenre)

1110–1107 BCE

Ramses XI (Menmaatre setepenptah)

1106–1077 BCE

(Based on Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss, and David A. Warburton, eds.,
Ancient Egyptian Chronology
, Handbook of Oriental Studies, sec. 1, The Near and Middle East [Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2006].)

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Certainty plays little role in this history of Hatshepsut. The nature of the information passed down to us is uneven, and because so many of her monuments were destroyed, the jumble of perceptions we are left with are from other people, many of whom lived millennia after her death. I have had to break many rules of my Egyptological training in order to resurrect and reanimate Hatshepsut’s intentions, ambitions, and disappointments, by engaging in conjecture and speculation, and creating untestable hypotheses as I attempt to fill out her character and decision-making processes (even though I document my sources and accentuate my uncertainties). Any supposition on my part is warranted, I believe, because Hatshepsut remains an important example of humanity’s ambivalent perception of female authority. Even in the absence of exact historical details and reasons behind Hatshepsut’s actions, I can still track her rise to power by following the clues left behind by herself, other kings, courtiers, officials, and priests, thus filling out the circumstances of her life’s journey as I go.

I have decided to forgo any long-winded analysis of architectural history, reliefs, statuary, text, and genealogy, instead focusing solely on Hatshepsut’s narrative; you will find discussions of topics tangential to the main story in the notes. I have also eschewed reconstructions of Hatshepsut’s ambitious building program, because the extensive evidence of it already fills many volumes. (Indeed, Hatshepsut’s impressive architectural agenda has lured historians into creating a narrative of objects and buildings in lieu of a history of Hatshepsut herself.) This book is about a woman of antiquity and her interactions with Egyptian systems of government and power players, her decisions, her ambitions, her desperation, her triumphs, and her defeats. As I follow Hatshepsut’s story from her ancestral beginnings to her bitter end, I will watch what she did and how she did it, within the context of her times, and present my hypotheses explaining her motivations and thought processes.

Many historians will no doubt accuse me of fantasy: inventing emotions and feelings for which I have no evidence. And they will be right. As I try to get at the human core of Hatshepsut, I will put many ideas and assumptions on the page; this is the best way for me to reconstruct her decision-making process. My conjectures, founded on twenty years of Egyptological research, are bounded and informed. What I say about Hatshepsut’s emotions may not be right, but when I engage in conjecture, I do my best to qualify the statement, or to offer alternatives, or to clarify any uncertainty in my writing. The inexactitude remains, however, as is the case with any historical study of the ancient world.

This book is a kind of pause for me, something completely different from my previous Egyptological research dealing with funerary data sets and coffin studies. I have used all my skills as a researcher, but I have also allowed myself to think out loud, to infer and imagine, in a way I would not do in my other work. This book finds its origins in my intimate (and strange even to myself) connection to the ancient world, and I have to thank the countless scholars who share the same obsession with Egypt’s past—generations of archaeologists who uncovered Hatshepsut’s remnants in the dirt, philologists who translated and analyzed her texts, art historians who pieced together broken statues and found traces of her relief erased by chisels. They have paved the way for this biographical discussion of Hatshepsut’s relevance.

To view a full-size version of this image, click
HERE
.

Map of Hatshepsut’s funerary temple, Deir el-Bahri, Thebes, Eighteenth Dynasty. Map by Deborah Shieh.

To view a full-size version of this image, click
HERE
.

BOOK: The Woman Who Would Be King
7.45Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
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