New Kingdom
Ay (Kheperkheperure)
18th Dynasty · 1550-1295 BCE
Open full-size illustration →Source: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Background
Ay's brief reign closed out the Amarna succession crisis and, if the reconstruction of his family favored by many Egyptologists is correct, is one of ancient Egypt's stranger family stories: a grandfather appears to have ended up marrying his own granddaughter to keep the throne. Research: UCL Digital Egypt; Ancient Egypt Online.
Dates from: Shaw, Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (2000)
Full profile
Seizing the throne
Ay was an elderly, highly influential vizier under Tutankhamun. When the young king died unexpectedly without an heir, the throne was contested between Ay and the supreme military commander Horemheb. Because Horemheb was away fighting the Hittites in the Levant, Ay quickly seized the opportunity to crown himself pharaoh.
The Hittite letter
To legitimize his rule, Ay likely forced Tutankhamun's widow, Ankhesenamun, to marry him. Desperate to avoid marrying a "servant" three times her age, she secretly wrote to the Hittite king requesting one of his sons for marriage. A Hittite prince, usually identified as Zannanza, son of the Hittite king Suppiluliuma I, was sent, but he was killed before reaching Egypt—likely on the orders of Ay or Horemheb. Ay ruled for only four years before his death.
Possibly Ankhesenamun's own grandfather
An inscription in Ay's own Theban tomb (TT192) names him as the father of Queen Nefertiti, a reconstruction many, though not all, Egyptologists accept. If correct, Ay would have been the grandfather of Ankhesenamun, Nefertiti's daughter by Akhenaten, meaning his marriage to her to secure the throne joined him to his own granddaughter. His royal tomb in the West Valley of the Kings, WV23, was decorated with a hunting-in-the-marshes scene more typical of a private nobleman's tomb than a king's, hinting at how suddenly, and how late in life, Ay's status changed.
Sources for this profile
- Baker, D. D. (2008). The Encyclopedia of the Pharaohs: Volume 1. Stacey International.
- Shaw, I. (Ed.). (2000). The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford University Press.
- University College London. Kings of the New Kingdom.
- Reeves, N., & Wilkinson, R. H. (1996). The Complete Valley of the Kings. Thames & Hudson.
- Dodson, A., & Hilton, D. (2004). The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt. Thames & Hudson.
The complete, APA-formatted reference list is on the Academic Sources & Bibliography page.