In the ancient social life, there have been many kings, these monarchs will choose an heir to inherit their throne before their death, because the ancient kings have many heirs, so as to who will inherit this throne, it is extremely easy for brothers to "compete" for the throne, which eventually leads to brothers fighting each other and both lose, so that the country falls into a chaotic situation of leaderlessness, and even if an heir is designated, it is easy to have a great war for the throne, because the heir designated by the king does not necessarily conform to the wishes of the courtiers and some royal nobles There are also some incidents that are prone to usurpation of power by the opposite sex or usurpation of power by the same sect, these events are many on the stage of history, such as the emergence of nine sons and wives in the Yongzheng period, except for the winners who ended in fiasco, but in the ancient Egyptian period, there was a political phenomenon of "father-son co-rule", and the co-rule of father and son effectively avoided the situation of cannibalism because of the competition for the throne.
In order to ensure the smooth progress of the succession and the transfer of rights, the king changed the principle of succession of "father's death and succession", and chose "father and son co-rule", and "father and son co-rule" became the most important co-governance method of the era at that time
"Co-rule", that is, co-rule, is a political phenomenon that often appeared in ancient Egypt, and it can even be said that "co-rule" has become a tradition of ancient Egyptian throne inheritance, and "father-son co-rule" was the most important co-governance method of the era at that time, and the fundamental reason for the co-rule of father and son was that the king needed to ensure the smooth progress of the succession to the throne, in order to replace the traditional way of succession between father and son, such a way of passing on the throne is more conducive to maintaining the authority of the throne and social stability.
The phenomenon of co-rule is not only in Egypt, in ancient Sparta also put the "rule of the two kings" as a traditional system to implement, the relationship between the emperor and the emperor in Chinese history and the phenomenon of father-son co-rule in Egypt and the ancient Spartan double king rule are all of the same type, but in the entire historical stage, this co-rule, double king rule, sitting in the curtain to listen to the government phenomenon is not a common phenomenon of society.
In the succession order of ancient Egypt, generally also follow the "father dies and inherit" succession principle, generally the long-lived kings will not rush to choose heirs, but more inclined to establish a prince in the early period, the selection of the position of "prince" is more secure than the king to select the heir, can only say that the "prince" may be the future heir, there is no certain deterministic factor in it, so the general king in the prince period, It will be judged through the handling of some events and moral integrity whether he will be a good king in the future, and whether he is suitable for this position to assume this responsibility, but there will also be some kings who are forced by the oppression and formal needs of the forces of the group and have to carry out the transfer of power in a co-governance manner.
Ancient Egyptians may not have realized that it is different from "one-man rule" in ancient Egyptian literature and official history books they have left special observations and reflections on "co-rule", and it is still difficult to verify the period when "co-rule" appeared in ancient Egypt, but relevant scholars have confirmed that as early as the Ancient Kingdom period, there may have been father-son co-rule, about one-quarter of the time ancient Egypt was under co-rule, which was the most concentrated era of father-son co-rule in Egypt. In the later dynastic development, when the monarchs of the middle and late Ptolemaic dynasty wanted to rule in other forms, they not only did not succeed, but instead broke out several infighting, hastening the demise of their dynasty.
Second, in ancient Egypt, the main form of father-son co-rule was ancient Egypt, and in the middle of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the form and nature of co-rule underwent great changes
Nowadays, when people determine whether the kings of ancient Egypt have co-rule experience, they mainly rely on some archaeological data, which are mainly divided into stone tablets, statues, reliefs, and some other porcelain utensils, archaeologists mainly determine whether there has been "father-son co-rule" based on the co-governance year number and personal name or portrait on the stele, but due to the long age, only a small number of historical documents and buildings can prove that there has been co-governance or related to co-governance. Around 2055 BC, the Twelfth Dynasty left a large number of historical materials in Egypt that two kings ruled at the same time, providing sufficient evidence for studying the chronology of co-rule at that time.
In the era of co-governance in ancient Egypt, the form and nature of co-governance underwent great changes in the middle of the Ptolemaic dynasty In the previous period, in the long period of co-governance, ancient Egypt took father-son co-rule as the main form, and the king had a certain decision on whether to start co-rule with whom, in the subsequent development of the times, co-governance was mainly changed to the form of husband and wife, mother and child or women, and women began to be active in the political arena, because co-governance has become the social norm at this time. During the reign of some kings, they were sometimes forced to passively accept it as the object of co-governance under pressure, and with the development of society and different opinions on the handling of government affairs, the two sides began to have contradictions, and with the long-term accumulation of contradictions, the two sides eventually began to fight each other, and also accelerated the demise of the ancient Egyptian dynasty.
"Father-son co-rule" was practiced many times in ancient Egypt, and flourished most in the Ptolemaic dynasty, however, later kings did not define father-son co-rule as an inviolable system, and father-son co-rule was generally implemented when both parties were about to transfer power, the fundamental reason was mainly to ensure the continuation of family and royal power, its essence was a way of succession, it can be said that this form is also a replacement model for father and son succession, and also makes up for the shortcomings of the traditional father-son succession system.
In fact, ancient Egypt also followed the principle of succession of monarchs from concubines and elders, and a review of historical materials can be found that in ancient Egypt, the majority of monarchs were born or eldest son. Occasionally, there are some people who have left the throne, but basically they have been able to succeed to the throne because they have no brother-in-law or other reasons, which is in harmony with China's "primogeniture".
The principle of longevity is not obvious, but the succession of the younger son or the heir to the throne is often the death of the elder brother before being elected as the heir to the throne, there is no historical data to prove whether this "replacement" occurs automatically or is ordered by the monarch, and because there have been earlier incidents of mutual cannibalism caused by the struggle for favors and the seizure of the throne, so the later kings took the lead as a warning, and ancient Egypt never entrusted the young son and the general prince with heavy responsibility and real power, nor did he divide the seals, just to prevent the situation of competing for the king's power. To a certain extent, this kind of behavior avoided the possibility of brotherly struggle for royal power in the future, and had a certain favorable impact on the stability of the people and the political stability.
Third, in the past co-rule, the old king entrusted all important affairs to the new co-ruler, because it was easy to contradict the new co-ruler, indirectly leading to the demise of the dynasty, and the co-rule of father and son could effectively ensure the peaceful handover of the throne on the basis of a certain era
In fact, the original intention of the father-son co-rule is in order to be able to pass the throne smoothly, rather than subverting the original traditional way, so there are not too many regulations on the succession ceremony and rules that must be done when passing the throne, and Ramses has made several related statements for the enthronement ceremony when the father and son rule together
My father appeared before everyone, and I was the child in his arms, and he said, "Make him king, and let me see his beauty in my lifetime." The courtiers came forward and put the crown on my head and let me administer the land.
In the successive co-governance of the Twelve Dynasties, some old kings have actually retreated into the background, and the old king has entrusted some important affairs to the new co-rulers, and in view of the particularity of military and diplomacy, he still entrusts the experienced old king to take charge of some foreign affairs, and the two co-governing kings lead their respective administrative teams, but do not interact with each other, until the old king's death, their administrative teams are abolished, but their personnel will not be included in another administrative team, from the new kingdom era onwards, co-governance is mostly A temporary arrangement, the continuation of events is very short, almost only lasted for one or two years, two or three years, perhaps the old king feels that there are now new co-rulers have emerged, do not want to put too much energy into the political affairs, so only responsible for advice.
In general, compared with the co-rule of father and son, the biggest flaw in the succession of father and son is that once the king cannot control the succession process well, and cannot ensure that the next heir is selected by himself, it is easy to cause the heir to not be able to do as he wishes, and there may also be inherited by foreign surnames, in the ancient period, some monarchs who ascended the throne earlier and had a shorter life expectancy often faced the situation of no heirs after death, which led to having to give up the throne of the king, because the average life expectancy of human beings in the ancient period was relatively short. Therefore, the probability of the occurrence of the above situation has increased significantly.
According to historical records, ancient Egypt may appear the following ways of succession, that is, father and son co-rule, father death succession, young monarch succession, forced seizure of the throne between siblings and the opposite sex to seize the throne, the first three can be successfully succeeded, the next several successions may be accompanied by a certain war, in ancient times, all brothers vying for the throne and the opposite sex competing for the throne There will be a civil war in the court, but where there is a war, it will cause people's lives to be turbulent, fleeing everywhere, and will have a certain degree of impact on the peace of the country and society. Due to its age, there may be some court infighting that is not known to the world.
From the perspective of the implementation of co-governance, most of the co-rulers are equals, it is difficult to distinguish between size and master and subordinate, so when encountering contradictions, they refuse to give in easily, and the contradictions are more escalated, so the long-term co-governance is the primary reason for the instability of co-governance, because the duration of co-governance will inevitably lead to contradictions, in addition, due to Ptolemy's purge of the royal family and the short life of the monarch, resulting in the later royal family being sparse, can only barely continue the bloodline, generally for the father before the co-operation can self-help to decide the co-working candidates, Reduce the probability of contradictions with co-rulers, and when working together, they can rely on their elders and royal position to dominate, and suppress the emergence and emergence of contradictions.
The father-son co-rule of ancient Egypt is not the mainstream in terms of duration or frequency, because the so-called father-son co-rule is actually a stopgap measure adopted by the king to ensure the smooth progress of the succession, and the father-son co-rule is mostly at the beginning of the establishment of the dynasty, when the dynasty is not yet stable, after the dynastic rule is stable, some long-lived monarchs will still choose to elect a prince, do not co-rule with him, and give full power to the next monarch, in the late Ptolemaic dynasty, the form and nature of co-rule have undergone fundamental changes. In contrast to the fierce contradictions between the co-rulers, which led to the rapid demise of their dynasties, the co-rule of father and son was more effective in ensuring the peaceful transfer of thrones on the basis of a certain era, benefiting the entire people and society.
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Ancient Egyptian Civilization
History of Ancient Egypt
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