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Queen Twosret

Tausret (died 1189 BC), also known as Twosret, was Pharaoh of Egypt from 1191 to 1189 BC, succeeding Siptah and preceding Setnakhte. The sister-wife of Pharaoh Seti II, she and Chancellor Bay were the powers behind the throne of Pharaoh Siptah during the 1190s BC. Tausret later maneuvered to have Bay executed in 119 BC, and she assumed the throne on her stepson Siptah's death a year later. Her reign was short-lived, as, despite her alliance with the Canaanite warlord Irsu, she was defeated in battle by the rebellious general Setnakhte and either killed on the field or assassinated in a palace intrigue.

Biography[]

Tausret was the daughter of Merneptah and Takhat and the sister of Amenmesse, and she married her brother Seti II. During Seti's war with Amenmesse, the Syrian-born chancellor Bay helped Seti triumph over his half-brother, and, on Seti's death in 1197 BC, the widowed Queen Tausret partnered with Bay to rule over Egypt. They installed the disabled boy Siptah, Tausret's stepson, as their puppet pharaoh as they attempted to crush the bandits and rebellious warlords who had risen up across the kingdom, while also battling external threats such as the Canaanite warlord Irsu. In 1192 BC, as Siptah neared an age of maturity, Tausret and Bay each realized that their puppet would soon align himself with one regent or the other, and Tausret moved first by having Siptah execute Bay, who had, by then, assumed command of Egypt's armies. The sickly Siptah died in 1191 BC, enabling Tausret to take the throne for herself. Tausret retroactively legitimized her reign by continuing to use Siptah's regnal years as her own, positioning herself as a continuation of her stepson's reign. With Egypt still in a state of anarchy, Tausret allied with the Canaanite chieftain Irsu as a means of obtaining the military support necessary to reunify the country, but this move alienated the general Setnakhte, who had been battling the Canaanite raiders in the Sinai for years. Setnakhte led his army to confront that of Queen Tausret, who personally led her troops from a chariot. In 1189 BC, she died, either in battle with Setnakhte or of a palace intrigue; a natural death was unlikely for her, given the circumstances of the time. Her death ended Egypt's Nineteenth Dynasty and ushered in Setnakhte and Ramesses III's Twentieth (Ramessid) Dynasty.

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