Latest / Ramses the Great: Egypt's Most Powerful Pharaoh — Fexingo History / Ramses II's Diplomatic Harem and the Hittite Princess
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've talked a lot about Ramses's military campaigns and his building projects, but one of the most fascinating aspects of his reign is how he used marriage as a diplomatic tool. Today I want to focus on his marriage to a Hittite princess in his 34th year — a wedding that was really the capstone of the peace treaty we discussed in episode 48. Luna: Right, the treaty with Hattusili III. But I don't remember us talking about a marriage — was that part of the deal? Lucas: It came a few years after the treaty was signed. Hattusili III had a daughter — we don't know her name from Egyptian records, but Hittite sources might give us clues — and he offered her to Ramses as a bride. This was a huge deal because it sealed the alliance between the two great powers of the Bronze Age. The negotiations took place over several years, with envoys traveling between Hattusa and Per-Ramesses. Lucas: Ramses, of course, loved the propaganda value. He had a stela carved at Abu Simbel and another at Karnak — the 'Marriage Stela' — celebrating the event. And the text is really interesting because it describes the Hittite princess not as a political pawn, but as a gift from the Hittite gods to Egypt. It says something like, 'The great chief of Hatti sent his eldest daughter, bearing tribute of gold, silver, and precious stones.' Luna: So they framed it as the Hittites paying tribute, not as a diplomatic exchange? Lucas: Exactly. Egyptian propaganda always presented foreign brides as tribute, even when both sides knew it was a negotiated alliance. The stela says the princess was accompanied by thousands of servants, cattle, and gold — a huge dowry that Ramses probably had to match with a bride price of his own, though the stela doesn't mention that part. Lucas: We actually have a letter from the Hittite queen Puduhepa — Hattusili's wife and a formidable diplomat in her own right — to Ramses, discussing the marriage arrangements. She complains that Ramses's envoys didn't bring the gifts they promised, and she insists that her daughter be treated as a queen, not a concubine. So we get this rare glimpse into the real negotiations behind the official story. Luna: And did Ramses treat her as a queen? We know he had several chief wives — Nefertari, Isetnofret — what happened to her? Lucas: She was given the Egyptian name Maathorneferure — 'One who sees Horus, the invisible splendor of Ra' — which was actually the same name given to an earlier Hittite princess who married Ramses around year 33 or 34. Wait, let me clarify: there were two Hittite princesses. The first one, whose name we do know from Egyptian records, was Maathorneferure. She arrived around year 34, and then a second princess, whose name we don't know, came later, maybe in year 44. But some scholars think they might be the same person, because the records are confusing. Luna: So we're not even sure how many Hittite brides Ramses had? Lucas: Right. The evidence is fragmentary. But we do know that Maathorneferure is depicted on a stela at Abu Simbel, and she appears in the harem at Per-Ramesses. She likely had a household of her own, with Hittite servants and priests who could maintain her religious practices. Ramses was pragmatic — he allowed foreign wives to keep their own gods, as long as they also honored Egyptian deities. Lucas: This diplomatic marriage was part of a larger pattern. Ramses had a huge harem — probably hundreds of women — including daughters of Libyan chiefs, Syrian princes, and maybe even some from the Aegean. Each marriage brought a political alliance. But the Hittite princess was special because the Hittites were Egypt's equal, not a vassal state. Luna: Speaking of that — you mentioned the show is ad-free. We deliberately keep it that way, and if that matters to you, listener support at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo helps keep it going. Lucas: Yeah, it's a choice we've made so we can focus entirely on the history without interruptions. So back to the Hittite princess — she likely lived in Per-Ramesses, which was a cosmopolitan city with temples to foreign gods. There's evidence of a Hittite cult there, maybe even a temple to Teshub and Arinna. Lucas: One of the most touching records we have is a letter from the Hittite prince, her brother — who later became king — asking Ramses to send news of his sister. He writes, 'My sister is with you. Has she borne a child? Is she well?' So even in the midst of diplomacy, there were real family concerns. Luna: That's surprisingly human. Did she have any children? Lucas: We don't know. If she did, they're not recorded. Ramses had over a hundred children, but the mothers are often not listed. It's possible her children didn't survive, or they were not in the line of succession because her foreign blood might have been a political liability. The throne passed to Merenptah, son of Isetnofret, not to any Hittite-descended prince. Lucas: So ultimately, the marriage was a diplomatic success — it kept the peace between Egypt and Hatti for the rest of Ramses's reign — but personally, we don't know much about what the princess felt. She was a pawn in a game of empires, but she also had agency: she brought her culture, her religion, and she was honored as a queen in Egypt. Luna: It's amazing that we have letters and stelae that let us glimpse that story, even if it's incomplete. Lucas: Exactly. And that's the beauty of studying this period — we have diplomatic archives from Hattusa and monumental inscriptions from Egypt that give us two perspectives on the same event. It's rare in ancient history to have such a rich, multi-sided record.