a break in tradition indicates a change in the dynastic line of succession. Further evidence is provided by the fact that Tuthmosis I was already middle-aged when he achieved supreme power and some believe that he legitimized his power by acting as Amenhotep?s co-regent during the last years of the latter?s reign. Tuthmosis? main claim to the throne was through his wife, princess Ahmose, who was the daughter of Ahmose I; in a matrilineal society, this meant that Tuthmosis had married into the royal bloodline. Although he reigned for only six years, he led a series of brilliant military campaigns that were to be hailed throughout the rest of the 18th Dynasty. Also under his rule, the god Amun (Amen) became prominent and Tuthmosis restored and remodeled the great temple at Karnak (Clayton, 1994:101-102).Tuthmosis II succeeded his father because his two older brothers had died and, in order to strengthen his position, he was married to his half-sister Hatshepsut (Hatchepsut) the eldest daughter of Tuthmosis I and Queen Ahmose. Together they reigned for about 14 years until he died in his early thirties. It appears that Tuthmosis II lead successful military campaigns in both Syria and Nubia but his reign is otherwise unremarkable except for the fact that he fathered a male child, not with Hatshepsut, but by Isis, a harem girl. Though he declared his son his successor before he died, the boy was too young to assume the pharaoh?s rule in the face of his powerful step-mother (Tyldesley, 1996:70).Historians are divided over whether Hatshepsut took power quickly from her step-son or attained over time. John Ray believes that, after she was declared co-regent with the young Tuthmosis III, she initially did her duty and shared power, but ?this soon changes. For the next twenty-two years she would reign under the throne-name Maatkare (?Truth is the genius of the sun-god?) (Ray, 1994:1). Joyce Tyldesley believes that she acted exactly as a co-regen...
