Background
Hatshepsut and her lover Senmut hid their true relationship from everyone in Egypt throughout their lives. Hatshepsut became a great ruler - mainly as an administrator. Senmut became a great construc
|
The Queen was puzzled - and curious. Who was this Lady Hatnefret, wife of the Protector of the Royal Vineyards and Trade Routes, at the Oasis of Dakhla? Merytre had never heard of the person or the place. Her first instinct was to refuse an audience. Still, her chief steward had handed her a small strip of papyrus from the woman, which only held two words; 'Mut- Mut'. It was what she called her old nurse, Sitre-In, when she was a child. Although a few of the palace staff at the time knew this, she was curious as to how this stranger from Dakhla, dare use it to gain an audience.
"Very well then, I will grant her a short audience, but I want two Nubian guards to attend while I do so," she told Dedu.
After the steward had left the room, Merytre continued to ponder the question of who this Lady might be.
'It could be an old palace handmaiden,' she thought. 'Or, perhaps even one of the Kap from her childhood.'
Merytre recalled there was a constant turnover of both in the palace. The handmaidens often made suitable matches through palace contacts, and their children were of the Kap - wives of the nobility. These offspring - for one reason or other - spent their childhood being educated by the palace tutors.
'Kap, I think,' the Queen decided. 'She announces herself as a Lady, and is married to a Protector of a Royal Vineyard, so must be of high blood. I hope this 'Lady' is not asking for some favour for her husband. If she thinks spending a little time in my company all those years ago will compel me to help her, there is a rude awaking in store for her.'
The door to her chamber opened, and the steward entered, followed by a slim, well-dressed woman escorted by two Nubian guards. Merytre saw, and was annoyed by the audacity of the woman approaching. Against all protocol, she dared to keep the lower half of her face covered with a delicate, almost see-through veil. The entourage proceeded until they were twelve-feet from the Queen and then stopped. Immediately, her female guest dropped to her knees and lowered her head to the floor.
"The Lady Hatnefret, Your Majesty," the steward announced.
With a flash of her eyes and a slight nod of her head Merytre dismissed the man, and he left the room.
"Please stand and present your case, Madam," Merytre said in a cold voice. "But before you do, please explain this cryptic note." She threw the piece of papyrus Dedu had given her on the floor in front of the woman.
Her guest retrieved the papyrus and got to her feet.
"And, remove your veil before addressing your Queen," Merytre commanded.
The woman undid her veil and let it fall down the side of her face. The Queen could see her caller was pretty, obviously high-bred, and in her late twenties or early thirties.
'She is a handsome woman,' Merytre thought, 'and somewhat familiar.' However, she still had no idea who the woman in front of her was. The room fell silent for a few moments.
'Perhaps she expects me to recognise her and greet her as a long-lost friend,' the Queen thought sarcastically. 'Well I don't - and I won't.'
"Well, Madam. I have not got all day to waste, what is your cause?" she demanded.
The last words Queen Merytre heard before fainting, were, "Greetings, sister!"
When Merytre regained consciousness, she found herself lying on a couch in an antechamber off the main reception room, surrounded by concerned handmaidens.
"Where is Nef ... Lady Hatnefret?" she demanded. The handmaiden looked confused.
"Lady Hatnefret, you fool! The Lady who I was in an audience with, where is she?" she barked. "Get her at once, and bring her to me NOW!"
Several handmaidens left the Queen's side to do her bidding; Merytre brushed the others aside as she got to her feet.
"I am perfectly well," she insisted impatiently, as her servants fussed around her. "Leave me alone -- AND GET OUT OF HERE!"
When she was alone, she shook her head a few times to clear it.
'Neferure, alive! After all these years -- what, thirteen was it? How?' Her mind raced with questions. 'Where had she been? Who else knew? Her mother would have known of course, and probably the now dead, Senmut, would have known. Who else? Did Menkheperre know, and if he did, what of her own position?'
She heard voices out in the reception room, and almost stumbled in her eagerness to attend. Entering the larger room, she saw Neferure, still accompanied by the two guards, three handmaidens, and Dedu - who was looking distressed.
"OUT!" the Queen shouted. "OUT, all of you except Lady Hatnefret, OUT!"
Dedu began to object, obviously concerned about Merytre's welfare, but she cut him short -- pointing at him and shouting, "OUT! And I don't want to be disturbed until I call for you."
Gesturing to the two Nubian guards -- who did not understand the Queen's request -- and ushering the handmaidens before him, the steward left the room and closed the door. Alone with her sister, Neferure stood as tall as she could, back straight, facing her front. Merytre circled her at a distance of five feet.
Eventually, after a long silence, she came to a stop in front of her guest and asked, "Well, dear sister, what is the afterlife like? Come tell, it is not often we get the chance to talk to so solid a spirit."
Neferure sagged a little before addressing her sister. "Our mother is dead," she said quietly.
"Oh!" Merytre replied, sarcasm creeping into her voice. "And when can I expect her to appear and demand an audience?"
"Stop it!" Neferure demanded. "Our mother is dead, and I require your help to ensure she receives proper burial rights -- those appropriate to a Pharaoh."
"Well she is not a Pharaoh, is she? She is nothing, does not exist, and has not for over a year. The people of Khem have forgotten her--and are better for it. Let her be buried where she lies."
"Have you no feelings for the woman who gave birth to you? Neferure said passionately. "Who loved you, nurtured you -- gave you your life?"
"Love!" Merytre spat the word back at her. "She loved no-one but herself, and the power she could wield. If she loved me - us, why didn't she become The Queen Dowager, and spend more time with us? No! The daughter of Amun-Re was far too high and mighty for that - so great in fact, she can even make the dead reappear!"
"We can discuss me later, what is important now is getting our mother a proper burial place. She needs a place where she can rest forever--a place with her ancestors," Neferure pleaded.
"The dead are dead -- and have no need of haste," Merytre said casually. "What I want to know is what happened to you? Where have you been? What necessitated your apparent death? These, sister dear, are questions the living demand answering."
Neferure visually sagged. "Very well, Merytre, if I mu ... "
Merytre interrupted her. "I believe, Your Majesty, or Your Highness, is how I should be addressed," she said sarcastically.
Her sister glared at her. "Forgive me ... Your Majesty, I am a little out of practice with court protocol," she sneered. "For the past thirteen years I have lived in the desert oasis of Dakhla, as Lady Hatnefret - wife of Meketra, son of Lord Nenwef ..."
The words took Merytre's breath away, and she interrupted Neferure with a gasp.
"Meketra! I always wondered what happened to him. I thought he might have married some nobody in Nubia, and settled there. Now I see his eyes were set on higher quarry -- the Pharaoh's wife!"
Neferure dropped her eyes to the floor; comprehension came to Merytre - and she was staggered by it.
"You ... you were impregnated by Meketra, weren't you! You deceived Menkheperre, and slept with Meketra while you were Queen."
Neferure stayed silent -- her eyes still averted from those of her sister.
"Of course!" Merytre continued, while pacing backwards and forwards in front of Neferure. "It all makes sense now; your absence from court, your frequent bouts of illness, and the reason mother did not allow your body interred in the western valley. You were pregnant by another man, and had to be whisked away. If it had been known, not only you, but all of us -- mother, I, and even Menkheperre might not have survived the scandal."
Another thought flashed through Merytre's mind, and she articulated it immediately.
"Children! What children do you have?" She demanded her heart racing.
Merytre had been pregnant three times in the last seven years, and only one child had survived -- a daughter, now five years old.
"Two children," Neferure answered, straightening her back and raising her eyes. "Both are girls. Khemsayet is thirteen-years-old--Meresan is nine."
Merytre's heart-rate slowed a little. "It seems all the women of our line struggle to produce males," she remarked quietly.
"We both have time to rectify that situation," Neferure whispered.
"You -- maybe," Merytre retorted. "But I will be fortunate to ever share the Pharaoh's bed again. I found out, what you did not have time to discover -- Menkheperre is an uncouth animal ... "
Neferure interrupted. "I found out," she said with disgust.
Merytre stared at her before continuing. "Yes, I remember some of the court whispers at the time. But what you don't know is he likes his women young; young girls, or earthy women. Apparently, the women who follow the army camps are more to his taste than his Queen. I am twenty-three-years old, and already he leaves my bed empty. I once swore to you I would be the mother of the next Pharaoh--that now seems to be a lost dream."
Again she stared at Neferure for a few moments, before finally making up her mind. She was lonely, with little love in her life. Even her young daughter, Meritamon's affections were denied her -- transferred through closeness and breast, to her wet-nurse. Merytre knew she was referred to by many, as the 'Heartless Queen.'
"Come," she said, while taking Neferure's hand. Leading her sister to a couch, she sat her down and brought her a cup of wine. "Let us discuss what needs to be done, and maybe recount our lost years."
It was apparent - even to Neferure - her mother's mummified body could not be interned in her own sarcophagus. For all intents and purposes, Hatshepsut had already been dead to the people of Egypt for over a year. There was no-way to secrete her body into her tomb without word of it reaching the populace -- and the Pharaoh!
Nevertheless, empty tombs in the western valley could be utilised to inter their mother without invoking too much interest. Between them, Neferure and Merytre came up with what they considered a perfect solution. They would place a rather plain sarcophagus - containing their mother's body - in the tomb containing the remains of the royal nurse, Sitre-In. This seemed entirely appropriate to both women, since Sitre-In was both their mother's wet-nurse, and wey-nurse to both of them.
"She will nurture and care for our mother in the afterlife, as she did here in Khem," Merytre offered, and Neferure agreed.
Two days earlier, Hatshepsut's mummified remains, and her Canopic Jar holding her organs -- and her broken tooth, had been secretly transferred from Leucus Limen to a small temple outside of Thebes. People were told it was the remains of Sitre-In's sister.
Merytre -- as well the other members of Hatshepsut's family - attend the internment in the disguise of relatives of the deceased. The Queen informed all at in her Palace she was ill, and would spend the day alone in her chambers. However, there was still a shock or two in store for her. When they all gathered to escort. Hatshepsut's mummified body to Sitre-In's tomb, Merytre met Senmut again - someone she thought dead for over two years.
"Are all the dead people I've known to return to me?" she gasped at seeing him.
While they stood at the tomb of Sitre-In. Merytre refused to allow Hatshepsut's Canopic Jar - Canopic Box, which now also contained the tooth extracted in Punt, to be sealed in the chamber.
"I think, somehow, I will be able to get this small part of my mother into her own tomb; after all, I am a Queen," she stated.
And later, after the completion of her mother's internment, Neferure informed Merytre of Senmut actual status--as their father. The Queen cried, she cried, remembering the love he had shown her. She cried, regretting the trouble she had caused him, and cried, knowing she again had a father and sister. Merytre swore as long as they all lived, she would still be a sister and daughter to them. The gods decreed she would do more!
***
Senmut, now old and disinterested in a life devoid of Hatshepsut, spent his remaining three years quietly at the Oasis of Dakhla with Meketra, Neferure and his grandchildren by his side. He never saw Merytre again - although he and Neferure's family often received gifts sent from the palace.
When he passed quietly away, Merytre found a way of secretly burying him in a tomb in the western valley. It was not in the same vault as Hatshepsut, or even a vault he had built for himself. However, it was one close to the resting place of the love of his life. Shortly before Senmut's death, Neferure had another child - her third daughter; she named the girl Tiaa.
A year after the burial of her mother - on one of the Pharaoh's brief visits to Thebes, -- Merytre, disguised as common camp-follower, seduced him. Amused and excited by her performance, Thutmosis spent the rest of the month in her company--and her bed. As a result of their sexual encounters, Merytre became pregnant again. This time, she produced a male child - Senmut never saw the boy - who later became heir to the Pharaoh's Throne; they named him Amenhotep.
Final Words
Hatshepsut: One of the greatest women who ever lived.
Daughter of a Pharaoh, wife of a Pharaoh, step-mother of a Pharaoh and she was--the Pharaoh Ma'at-ka-re. History tells us she only had one child--Neferure, who was childless, and pre-deceased her mother.
Senmut: A commoner, great architect and adventurer. History tells he never married and left no progeny. But history also hints he was a lover of a Pharaoh--Hatshepsut.
My fictional story suggests other alternatives. I like to think both of these people would have preferred my version of their lives.
Author Notes
This is the final Chapter of this book. The last eight chapters, have been written in the last two months - during the lockdown period. All the other chapters were written over ten years ago. However, I have edited and revised earlier chapters, but I don't intend to update those chapters on this site. I will be trying to advance the total book in other places. Thank you to all who took part in its construction, both in the past and of late.
Written in British English.
|
|
