Latest / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History / Ramses the Greats Diplomatic Marriage to a Hittite Princess
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Ramses as a warrior, as a builder, as a father and husband. But one aspect of his reign that often gets overlooked is just how skilled he was at turning a bad situation into a victory he could sell to the public. Luna: Are you thinking about Kadesh — that whole 'propaganda vs reality' thing we covered a few episodes ago? Lucas: Exactly, but today I want to look at what happened after Kadesh, after the dust settled and both sides realised neither was going to crush the other. Ramses and the Hittite king, Hattusili III, ended up signing the first known peace treaty in history, around 1259 BCE. And then, to seal the deal, Ramses married a Hittite princess. Luna: Wait — a Hittite princess? The same Hittites he'd been fighting for years? Lucas: The very same. And this wasn't just a footnote. It was a massive diplomatic event. The princess travelled all the way from Anatolia to Egypt with a huge entourage, and Ramses went out of his way to stage it as a triumph. He had temples carved with scenes of her arrival, and he gave her an Egyptian name: Maathorneferure, which means 'She who sees Horus, the visible beauty of Re'. Luna: That's a mouthful. But also fascinating — renaming her, almost like she was being reborn as an Egyptian queen. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the genius of Ramses's propaganda. He took what could have been seen as a concession — marrying a foreign princess from a rival power — and turned it into a symbol of Egypt's dominance. The official story was that the Hittites had begged for peace and offered their daughter as tribute. But the reality was much more of a mutual deal. Luna: So how did the negotiations actually work? I mean, they didn't just send a letter saying 'hey, want to marry my daughter?' Lucas: Well, actually, they kind of did. We have copies of the correspondence that went back and forth between Ramses and Hattusili. It took years. Hattusili initially proposed the marriage as a way to solidify the peace treaty. Ramses, ever the negotiator, played hard to get — he demanded that the princess be sent immediately, and when the Hittites delayed, he complained that they were being insincere. There's a letter where Ramses writes something like, 'Why do you keep saying you'll send your daughter but then you don't? I've been waiting for months.' Luna: Oh wow, so it was like a protracted royal courtship with a lot of diplomatic posturing. Lucas: Exactly. And behind the scenes, the Hittite queen, Puduhepa, was heavily involved. She was Hattusili's wife and a formidable diplomat in her own right. She wrote letters directly to Ramses, sometimes in more personal terms, trying to smooth things over. So this marriage wasn't just a transaction between two kings — it was also a negotiation between a queen and a pharaoh. Luna: And this is where I want to mention something. This kind of in-depth research takes time and resources, and we're able to bring it to you ad-free thanks to listeners who support the show at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. If you've been enjoying our deep dives into Ramses's world, that's the best way to keep us going. Every contribution, even a small one, helps us keep digging into these stories. Lucas: Absolutely. And it's because of that support that we can spend time on these nuanced details — like the fact that when the princess finally arrived, Ramses was so impressed by her beauty and her retinue that he wrote a stela celebrating the event. He described her as 'beautiful in her heart, lovely in her form,' and said that her arrival was like a divine blessing. He even claimed that the gods Amun-Re and Seth had ordained the union. Luna: So he wove it into his divine kingship narrative, just like everything else. Lucas: Exactly. But here's the thing — we don't actually know what happened to her after the marriage. She disappears from the historical record. She might have died young, or maybe she just wasn't considered important enough to record. Either way, she didn't achieve the same prominence as Nefertari. But her arrival marked a turning point in Egyptian-Hittite relations, and it opened a period of peaceful trade and diplomacy that lasted for decades. Luna: That's such a human story — two families trying to make peace after a generation of war. And it's all preserved in clay tablets and temple walls. Lucas: And those tablets give us a real sense of the personalities involved. For example, in one letter, Hattusili complains to Ramses that he's being treated like a vassal, not an equal. Ramses writes back insisting that he sees Hattusili as a brother. There's a lot of pride and ego at play. But eventually, they managed to put it aside for the sake of stability. Luna: So what was the ceremony like? Did Ramses go all out? Lucas: Oh, absolutely. The princess was escorted by Hittite and Egyptian officials all the way from the border at Sile to the capital, Per-Ramesses. Ramses met her in a grand procession, and they were married in a temple. The wedding was celebrated with feasts and offerings to the gods. Ramses even had a scene carved at Abu Simbel showing the princess arriving, with the gods blessing the marriage. It was a spectacle designed to show that Egypt was still on top, even though the reality was a compromise. Luna: And what about the Hittite perspective? Was this seen as a humiliation or a strategic win? Lucas: Probably a bit of both. On one hand, they were sending a princess to a foreign court, which could be seen as submissive. On the other hand, they had secured a peace treaty with the most powerful empire of the time, and the marriage gave them a direct line to the pharaoh. Hattusili's letters show he was proud of the alliance. And the princess herself, despite being a pawn, would have become a queen of Egypt, with all the prestige that entailed. Luna: It is amazing how much we know about this, thanks to the archaeological record. The treaty itself was found both in Egypt and in Hattusa. Lucas: Right, we have two versions — one in hieroglyphs on the walls of Karnak and the Ramesseum, and one in Akkadian cuneiform on clay tablets found at the Hittite capital. They don't match exactly, which is fascinating. The Egyptian version emphasises Ramses's might, while the Hittite version is more about mutual respect. But both agree on the core terms: no more war, extradition of fugitives, and mutual defence against external enemies. Luna: So it was really a win-win, even if both sides spun it their own way. Lucas: Exactly. And the marriage was the capstone. It's actually surprising that we haven't talked about it before, because it's such a clear example of how Ramses used every tool at his disposal — not just military might, but diplomacy, marriage, and propaganda — to secure his legacy. And it set a precedent for future pharaohs, who sometimes married foreign princesses to seal alliances. Luna: Were there any other such marriages in Egyptian history? Lucas: A few, but they were rare. Egyptian kings typically didn't marry foreign women, because they were seen as inferior. Ramses himself had a second Hittite princess later, but again, details are scant. So this marriage was really exceptional. It shows how much the world had changed after the battle of Kadesh. The old idea of Egypt as isolated and supreme was giving way to a more interconnected, if more fragile, world. Luna: And it's a reminder that history isn't just about battles and monuments. It's also about people trying to figure out how to live together. Lucas: Exactly right. And that's what I love about this episode — it gives us a glimpse of the human side of Ramses, the diplomat and the husband, not just the warrior king. It also shows us the quiet power of people like Queen Puduhepa, who helped make this peace happen. So the next time you think of Ramses the Great, remember that one of his greatest triumphs wasn't a battle — it was a wedding.