Neferneferuaten:
Glorious is the Splendour
of the Sun
By Robin Gordon
Auksford 2024
©
Copyright
Robin Gordon, 2024
PART VI:
KHEPERKHEPERURE
26.
The King’s Speech
Ay was delighted. He frisked and sniggered with his
wife Tey and his crony Nakhtmin.
“It’s just as I
suspected,” he said. “Horemheb is so
innocent that
he really didn’t want to kill off that brat while he was
still heir presumptive.
Mmnngh-mmnngh, he really believes in maat and his duty
to uphold the will of the King, whoever
that might be, sheee-heee-heee-heee.
“Now I shall put the next
part of my
plan into action and get rid
of him completely. Sheee-heee-heee.
He thinks he’s still
going to be King.
Well, I’m
King now, and I’ll
decide who comes after me
– and it’s going to be my dearest friend, YOU, Nakhtmin.
“I’ve had letters from the King of Hatti, and
he’s not at all pleased that someone invited his
son to become King of the Two Lands and then killed him on the
way. I wonder who that
could have been, sheee-heee-heee-heee.”
Nakhtmin looked a bit shifty, wondering what was coming next.
“I should think it must
have been done by a squadron of soldiers,
don’t you agree?” continued Ay.
“Er…um…”
“Quite,
so the person in charge
of those soldiers is responsible for
the murder of
the son of one of the Great
Kings.”
“Um…”
“So it behoves me,
as King,
to discover who was responsible and
denounce the wretch to
my dear brother, the King of
Hatti.”
“Ah …”
“And we all know who it was
that was responsible, don’t we?”
“Er…”
“Yes, the Commander-in-Chief,
the man responsible for
the whole army and for
maintaining correct discipline.”
“Oh, yes!” grated Naktmin.
“Horemheb!”
“Mmnngh,
yes! Shee-hee-hee. So now we need to
prepare the ground,
and then I’ll give a big
speech. Remember King Honky’s
incoherent ramblings about the worst
thing he’d ever heard? I’ll terrify the court
as much as he
did, and then my supporters
will blame it all on Horemheb,
and when I agree,
they’ll all be so delighted not to be blamed themselves that
they’ll kick him out
without a second thought.”
Ay called together a full assembly of viziers, ministers, courtiers,
senior army officers, senior scribes and senior priests, in fact the
whole of the upper echelons of the administration of the Two
Lands. He swept in, wearing the magnificent royal collars and
the
Blue Crown with its golden sequins. The whole assembly fell
on
their faces and grovelled on the ground before him, just as they had
done for Akhenaten, for Nebmaatre-Amenhotep, for the God-Kings of Kemet
right back to the builders of the great pyramids, right back to King
Narmer who had united the Two Lands so many hundreds of years ago,
His speech recalled that of King
Neferkheperure-Waenre-Akhenaten.
He spoke of having heard news that was worse than anything he had heard
since becoming King, worse than anything he had heard in his whole
life, worse than anything King Nebkheperure-Tutankhamun had ever heard,
worse than anything King Nebmaatre-Amenhotep had ever heard, worse than
anything any King of the Two Lands had ever heard since King
Neb-pehty-re- Ahmose had driven out the hekau khasut, those
foreign rulers who had invaded Kemet and subjected it to their alien
tyrannical rule.
This terrible news was that some person or persons unknown had forged a
letter to the Great King of Hatti, allegedly from Queen Ankhesenamun,
saying that her husband was dead and that she had no son, claiming that
the throne of Kemet was vacant, and inviting him to send one of his
sons to marry her and become King so that he could add the Two Lands to
his rapidly growing empire.
“Mmnngh!
These wicked
conspirators, these evil
traitors were, it seemed, plotting to subject our beloved country to a
ruler from
a foreign land whose tyranny would be much worse than that of the foreign
princes that King Neb-pehty-re drove out when he re-founded the unity of the Two Lands.
“As
you already know, Queen Ankhesenamun was so terrified that this evil
faction had used her name and that
others might think that she herself was a traitor, that
she begged
me to take her under
my care and to marry
her.
“All
that is bad enough, but worse was to come. King Suppiluliuma
was naturally suspicious
that the only great kingdom left able to challenge his overweening
ambition to dominate the whole
world should suddenly capitulate and invite him to become its
overlord, but the evil conspirators were able, by, nnngh, deceit after
deceit, to
convince him of
the truth of
their wicked and treacherous lies.
“Nnngh!
The King of Hatti sent one of
his sons, Prince
Zannanza, who came in all innocence,
expecting to be hailed by
the
people of Kemet and enthroned as
our King, but instead was ambushed and
murdered by a squad of soldiers
acting as
bandits.
“Nnngh, nnngh,
nnngh! Following intensive nngh
investigations there are good reasons to suppose that this whole
affair, from
the forgery of the letter
to the murder of Prince
Zannanza, was plotted by
a faction convinced that the only way to
restore the greatness of
Kemet was to provoke a war between
our country
and Hatti so that
the army of the Two Lands, under
the command of
Prince Horemheb, could repeat the successes of King Menkheperre*1
and
extend our empire to the very borders of Hatti itself.
“Mmnnh,
I myself have never believed that such a policy was
advisable or
wise. After seventeen years of misrule by the Enemy
at Akhetaten*2
our beloved homeland has lost much
of its power.
It was abandoned by
the gods for
neglecting their service, failing to
worship them, and even
destroying their temples. Maat was
neglected, order was overthrown, chaos threatened.
“Under
our beloved boy, King Nebkheperure, we attempted to restore order,
truth and
justice. I myself was his chief adviser with the help
of Prince
Horemheb, and we restored as far as
was humanly possible the
worship of
the gods and rebuilt their temples. That we were in
part
successful is evident from
the changing fortunes of
our
armies. No longer totally abandoned by the gods they
were able to
restore the beginnings of
good order in the nearer parts
of our empire.
“Nngh,
nevertheless, the economic damage caused to Kemet by the seventeen
years of misrule by the Heretic of
Akhetaten has severely limited our
ability in all
these fields, and it has to be admitted that Kemet is no
longer the greatest of
all the great Kingdoms.
“My hope
was that
King Nebkheperure, when he had achieved his maturity, would be
the King we needed to inspire his people to restore their
greatness,
that he would lead them to war, as
his great ancestors had done, that
he would restore our influence in
the lands east of the Great Green
Sea, regain the support of
our allies and once again dominate
our
vassals.
“Nnngh,
nnngh! Alas! It was not to
be. Our beloved
Tutankhamun went off to
war much too soon under
the protection of
Prince Horemheb, and there, nnngh-nnngh-nnngh,
met his death in
mysterious circumstances.
“Since
then, all
has gone awry. The power of
Hatti has grown. King
Suppiluliuma has been joined by
our former allies. He has
conquered many of
our former vassals. The valiant efforts of
Prince Horemheb have only succeeded in punishing
bandits, while Hatti
has continued its advance, even recently taking Amqa.
“It had
always been my policy, given the parlous state of our finances and our
armies, to negotiate peaceful terms with King
Suppiluliuma, but now
that a
treacherous faction has invited him to send a son of
his to be
our King and then ambushed
and murdered
that son, there can be no hope
of peaceful
coexistence. The conspirators intended to provoke war
in the hope that Prince Horemheb
would lead our armies to victory, but
this is clearly now impossible. I am a man of peace, but I am
faced with the inevitability
of war,
and a war that we are extremely
unlikely to win.
“Please, my people, rise to your feet and advise your King.”
The assembled
dignitaries rose to their feet. Agents planted by Ay,
scattered
here and there among the crowd to conceal their pre-prepared unity and
to make their views seem to be more universally held than they actually
were, began to speak. They expressed deeply held horror at
the
wickedness of the dastardly plot to provoke war with Hatti by deceiving
its King and murdering his son. They expressed sympathy with
their own King faced with such an impossible situation.
Obviously, they said, Kemet could not go to war in its present
condition and must seek peace.
Then others
spoke up. Tutankhamun had reigned for ten years with Horemheb
as
his deputy, his heir presumptive and Commander-in-Chief of his
army. Why was the army still in such a state that it could
not
stand up to Hatti? Was Horemheb’s reputation as a
commander
exaggerated? Everyone know that the boy king had complete
faith
in him, but who was it that had told him how great a commander Horemheb
was? Could it have been Horemheb himself? The total
defeat
at Amqa surely showed that Horemheb was not a great commander.
Here Nakhtmin spoke up as instructed by Ay.
“One
cannot blame Horemheb for the defeat at Amqa,” he
said.
“He was not in command there. He was elsewhere
pursuing the
Apiru suspected of killing King Nebkheperure.”
Again
Ay’s agents spoke up. Why was the
Commander-in-Chief
wasting time pursuing bandits when he should have been defending
Amqa. Why chase the Apiru when there was a major battle going
on?
Isn’t it the duty of a commander to assess where force is
most
needed? Wouldn’t any general with a proper grasp of
strategy give priority to defending an important city from
invaders? Couldn’t the Apiru have been mopped up
later? Surely they were not so vitally important, whatever
their
crime, that the defence of an important city could be ignored?
Others called
from elsewhere in the assembled crowd. Why was the King taken
into danger anyway? Who might have benefitted from his death
if
not his deputy and heir presumptive?
Horemheb,
called others, was leader of the war-party. He was
Commander-in-Chief of the army. His reputation was as a
military
leader, even if he were not as good as he claimed. War was to
his
advantage as more resources would be diverted to the armies that he
commanded. It must have been Horemheb’s agents who
forged
the letter to Suppiluliuma. It must have been on his orders
that
prince Zannanza was ambushed and murdered. War with Hatti
would
make Horemheb the most important man in the kingdom. He
should be
put on trial as a traitor.
No, cried others, he should be sent in chains to King Suppiluliuma.
At this point
General Nakhtmin spoke again. Although there was nothing he
would
like better than to see Horemheb bound in chains and shipped off to
Hatti for torture and execution, he said, as instructed by Ay, that it
would not be honourable for the great King of Kemet to hand over one of
his servants to another King. Nakhtmin wasn’t sure
why he
was expected to say this, but Ay always knew best. It was Ay
who
had made him purchase a beautiful and very expensive shabti for that
brat of a King, and he had to admit that it had been a good
move.
It established him as a true friend of the late King and diverted any
suspicion that he might have been responsible for his death.
Ay’s
agents set up a clamour. Horemheb was responsible for the
forged
letter. Horemheb was commander of the army, and it was a gang
of
soldiers who had murdered prince Zannanza. Horemheb was the
leader of the war party. Horemheb had set up the whole
conspiracy. Horemheb must be punished. Send him in
chains
to Hatti and let King Suppiluliuma deal with him as he
deserved.
It was the only way to avoid all-out war.
Ay raised his arms and signalled for the crowd to be silent.
“Nnnhgh!
I have heard a great deal of
advice from
my faithful subjects, and that
has helped me to decide
what I must do. I shall write to my
brother,
King Suppiluliuma of Hatti, expressing my deepest concern that
such a crime might possibly have been committed by any of our
people. I shall point out
to him that no-one knows what happened
to the
noble Prince Zannanza, and that if
he really was ambushed it
must have been by
undisciplined soldiers
acting as
bandits. I
shall express astonishment that
he could ever have thought that the
throne of the
Two Lands might have fallen vacant
without any successor
named. I shall assure him that now that I have
become King I
shall ensure that he and I will co-operate
in the friendliest fashion,
and point out to
him that, as
an earnest of
our good faith, I have
dismissed from
his post our Commander-in-Chief, since, if the crime had
actually been committed by soldiers,
the ultimate responsibility for
such indiscipline must lie with
the highest officer.
“I do
this with the greatest of sorrow,
for I have immense respect for
Prince
Horemheb. I shall certainly not send him in chains to Hatti.
For,
as your
King, I care for all
my subjects as if
they were my own
children.
“I
hope
that eventually I shall be able to
ease Prince Horemheb back into his
office as
Commander-in-Chief
of our
armed forces. In
the
meantime, because our army cannot be left without a
commander, I
appoint as interim
Commander-in-Chief General Nakhtmin.”
Ay’s
agents immediately set up a paean of praise, congratulating their King
for his wisdom and his generous clemency. No-one but Ay, they
said, could have devised so perfect a solution which preserved the
honour of Kemet, the life of its former Commander-in-Chief, the status
of the army under its new commander, and the peace on which the
prosperity of Kemet depended.
King
Suppiluliuma did not believe a word of Ay’s
protestations.
Consequently Hatti was at war with Kemet for the next six years.
Ay
Nakhtmin
Notes
*1 Menkheperre
Thutmose III
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*2 The Enemy
After the Restoration the name of Akhenaten was never spoken.
He
was always referred to as the Enemy from Akhetaten or the Heretic of
Akhetaten.
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