Besides taking a back seat to his aunt, Thutmose III was not a fortunate man when it came to siring sons. While he had a vertible flock of daughters, he is recorded to have had no more then five boys in his 53 year reign. Because he had three successive chief queens in his lifetime, several of these daughters would, at one time or another, have been heiress. But it would appear that with the death of each queen who had no living son, the eldest daughter(s) would lose their status and the next queen would be given the chance to produce heirs of both sexes. The winner was to be Meritre, third and final queen.

It appears that in the case of Neferure being a direct heiress, her daughter(s) could not lose her status because her blood assured her positon. With any other wife that was elevated to queenship, she needed to produce a male heir. If she did not, there was no brother for that daughter to marry and this opened the way for next wife. Death had the none of these consequences on direct heirs. In egyptian royalty, the eldest son was heir. If he died before succeding his father, his children had no claim to the throne. The crown would pass to the next eldest surviving son.

Two daughter's of Thutmose, however, were not to be dismissed. The first was "Ahmose Meritamen". Although around 20+ years older then her spouse and half-brother, she became "great wife" for a year or so before passing away, probably childless. In order for her to have maintained her status throughout her lifetime [45], she had to be the daughter of an heiress. The only direct heiress he'd married was "Neferure".

Another daughter was Sitamen I, who was a probable sister or half-sister of Ahmose. She carried the title of "Gods Wife" in Amenhotep II's reign. With this queen, it is a bit difficult to surmise whom her mother was, though quite probably Neferure. She may still have been older then her husband, though not as excessively so as her predecessor. She was to produce the crown prince Amenhotep, and the heiress Yaret. Had Sitamen's status been less then royal, her daughter would not have become a chief queen. Yaret was briefly Thutmose IV's chief wife. This pairing may have produced Sitamen II, which recently started a controversy among egyptologists on exactly whom her father was. She was an heiress daughter. But was she a sister of Amenhotep III, being passed off as a daughter of Tiye? And did she become the mother of a king [Smenkhkare]?

The Great Royal Wives

Neferure [yr11], Sitioh / Setyah [yr23], Meritre Hatshepsut [yr34]
Neferure, d. of Thutmose II & Hatshepsut
Sitioh, d. of the Royal Nurse Ipu
Meritre, d. of Yey & Huy - Superintendant of the Harim of Amun & Adorer of Amun and Atum

Lesser Wives [Kings Wife]

Neb(e)tu, d. of Prince Setum - unusual in that princes' are not generally mentioned,
it remains unclear if he was the son of Thutmose I, II or even III.
Meritamen, a pressumed half-sister
Yabet, of unknown parentage
Menhet, Menwi, Merti, daughters of a Chieftain Of Syria

Daughter's Of the God

Ahmose Meritamen II, Sitamen I, Toui, Sathora, Uiey, Petpui, Henutan,
Takhete, Petkeie, Neferamen, Meryptah

The above being just a sample of his more prominent girls.

 

Food for thought: With all the daughters that Thutmose had, it remains of great interest that when the two major queens of his son died, there was no woman royal enough to elevate to queenship. His heir would be a son of the little known "Kings Wife, Tiaa". It has been proven that she was not a royal daughter. The same situation was to present itself with Thutmose IV, upon Yaret's death. Mutemwiya was fortunate in that she had produced a male heir and was already a secondary wife. She was thus elevated to the lofty position of Great Wife. This appears to justify the heiress theory to some extent. If any daughter could've been an heiress, Amenhotep II had many half-sisters he could have chosen from. In the case of his father, Neferure's death gave him little choice but to select the nearest related female, even if by adoption.

It is regretable that I have no names for his first four sons. Most egyptologists assume no one is interested and
so it usually goes unrecorded. Thutmose's eventual heir would be the son of Meritre, Amenhotep II.

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