Tea at Trianon: First Known Female Pharaoh

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, April 29, 2022

First Known Female Pharaoh

From My Modern Met:

The title of pharaoh is synonymous with the grandeur of the ancient Egyptian civilization. This name—which means “great house” in hieroglyphics—was given to the rulers who led this large empire. And while the majority of these figures were men like King Tut and Ramesses II, there were a few influential women who earned the title. The first recorded female pharaoh was Sobekneferu.

After the death of Amenemhat IV, who may or may not have been her brother and husband, Sobekneferu assumed the throne. Although her reign only lasted about four years, she was the first known female ruler to adopt the full royal titulary and to be recorded in the Turin King List—a recording of ancient Egyptian kings written on papyrus. Her end as ruler marks the end of the Twelfth Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt.

Sobekneferu was the first recorded female pharaoh to rule ancient Egypt and the last ruler of the Twelfth Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom (c. 2055 BCE – 1650 BCE). She was one of the daughters of the pharaoh Amenemhat III, although it is unknown which of his wives was her mother.

Her ascension to the throne is also unclear, but it is postulated that after Amenemhat IV died—the heir of Sobekneferu's father who may or may not have been her brother—she was put forth as the next pharaoh in absence of another male heir. Her relationship to Amenenhat III helped her assert legitimacy as a ruler (Read more.)