Aakheperenra Thutmose II is not one of the better-known pharaohs, overshadowed by his father Thutmose I, his half-sister Hatshepsut, and his son Thutmose III. Aakheperkara, the first Thutmose, had ascended the throne c.1504 BC as successor to the apparently childless Amenhotep I. Nothing is known about Thutmose’s claim to the throne, but he may have been a descendant of an earlier king, perhaps via the mysterious Prince Ahmose-Sipair, a possible brother of Ahmose I. The length of his reign is unclear, but Thutmose I was responsible for extending Egyptian control up to the Euphrates in northern Syria, and between the Fourth and Fifth Cataracts in Upper Nubia.
Thutmose I had at least two wives, both of uncertain antecedents. Ahmose gave him two daughters, Hatshepsut and Neferubity, and another wife, Mutnofret, bore him a son, Thutmose (II). He had at least two other sons, Amenmose and Wadjmose, but their mothers are unknown. It was Thutmose II who became king on his father’s death, with Hatshepsut as his Great Wife. The length of Thutmose II’s reign, like that of his father, is also unknown, with most Egyptologists agreeing that it lasted no more than three years. The only attested events during his reign seem to be the suppression of a Nubian rebellion in Year 1, and a campaign against shasu-nomads in Palestine. A number of structures were begun at the Temple of Karnak, too.
With Hatshepsut, Thutmose II had a daughter Neferura and, with a secondary wife Iset, a son Thutmose. The latter, still only a child, became king as Menkheperra Thutmose III on his father’s death (c.1479 BC), Hatshepsut becoming regent. Seven years later, Hatshepsut promoted herself to pharaonic status, ruling alongside Thutmose for 14 years, at which point she is assumed to have died. Two decades later, Hatshepsut’s memory was attacked and her monuments mutilated, for reasons that remain a matter for debate.
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