Page 318 - Four Thousand Years Ago by Geoffrey Bibby

[1370—1300 b.c.] The Philosopher King 265

to the new pharaoh and his consort, and Ai had not felt himself
strong enough to insist upon them. In the north no corruption
was tolerated, and the priests of Ra in Memphis held their
temples and estates unsequestered.
For four years Horemheb made no move. But the army he

had gathered and trained for the campaign to regain Palestine
and Syria remained encamped on Egyptian territory. And around
Horemheb a clique of high-ranking officers, prominent among
them his chief of staff General Rameses, were in constant com­

munication with the officers of the southern garrisons. Ai had
shown them the way by which a commoner could reach the
throne of Egypt, and what the priests had done the army, too,
could do.
Finally in 1345 the army decided that corruption in the
state had gone far enough. Horemheb declared himself governor

of all Egypt and marched south from Memphis. The country was
ripe for revolution, and the army was welcomed in every town
along the Nile.

To Ankhesenamon in the palace at Thebes the news of the
advancing army came almost as a relief. And yet—she had been
queen of Egypt for thirteen years, and now her time as first lady
of the land was clearly at an end. For Horemheb had married
Princess Mutnesmet, sister to Nefertiti, and herself daughter of

Amenhotep III. Through Mutnesmet Horemheb could make the
same claim to the throne as Ai had made through her.
And so indeed it happened. The army of Horemheb was
welcomed in Thebes without a blow, the palace was occupied,

and Horemheb’s officers took pains to ensure that Ai was ac­
cidentally killed. Thereupon the way was cleared for Horemheb
to ascend the throne, and the priests of Amon made all haste
to proclaim him pharaoh at the great Opet festival which was
due in those days.

Ankhesenamon was treated with respect by the conqueror
and by her aunt, the new Queen Mutnesmet. But her position
was anomalous. To legitimize the right of the daughter of

Amenhotep III to confer the crown upon her husband, it was
necessary officially to ignore the previous descendants of that
monarch who had ruled. As Tutankhamon had been proclaimed