Isetnofret (or Isis-nofret or Isitnofret) (Ancient Egyptian: "the beautiful/good Isis" or "Isis is beautiful/good") was one of the Great Royal Wives of Pharaoh Ramesses II and was the mother of his successor, Merneptah. She may have become, around the same time as Nefertari, one of the many wives of Ramesses II before he was pharaoh (In the first year of his tenure as crown prince, Ramesses II was granted an entire harem by his father, Seti I). All evidence confirming Isetnofret's title of Chief Queen comes from after her death, suggesting that she was likely posthumously granted the title, around the 30th to 33rd/34th year of Ramesses II's reign.
Family The parents of Isetnofret are not known. There is substantial evidence suggesting that she had blood relationship with Pharaoh Horemheb. She is believed to have originated from Memphis and may have been closely related to Tanedjemet, the wife of Seti I and daughter of Horemheb. A block from Horemheb's tomb at Saqqara depicts an "Isetnofret" dressed as a princess. In Saqqara, this "Isetnofret" also appears on a block belonging to a male officer, bearing the title "Mistress of the House."Nozomu Kawai, « The Tomb of Isisnofret at Northwest Saqqara », dans Miroslav Bàrta, Filip Coppens & Jaromír Krejci (éd.), Abusir and Saqqara in the Year 2010, I, 2011, p. 508-509. She may have been a daughter born to Horemheb before he became pharaoh, who later married the officer and gave birth to the Isetnofret who eventually married Ramesses II. She must have married Ramesses II even before he came to the throne as her three children were born during the reign of Seti I. She had at least three sons and one daughter. Her children include: Prince Ramesses, Crown Prince from the death of Amunherkhepeshef(the specifics remain disputed) to Year 52 of Ramesses II Princess-Queen Bintanath, firstborn daughter and later wife of RamessesDodson & Hilton, p.170 Prince Khaemwaset, High Priest of Ptah. Crown Prince from Year 53 to 55 of Ramesses II Pharaoh Merneptah, Ramesses' 13th son and ultimate successor (he outlived the first 12 princes) Princess Isetnofret (?), possible wife of Merenptah as Isetnofret II,Dodson & Hilton, p.171 However, although this view has been proposed, the theory has been refuted by other scholars. Merneptah's wives never held the titles of "King's Daughter" or "King's Sister," and his age makes it impossible for him to have married his older sisters. When Merneptah was young, he was not considered the heir to the throne, and princesses would only marry the pharaoh himself or the crown prince.
Prince Sethi and Princess Nebettawy have been suggested as further children of Isetnofret, but they are more likely to be the children of Nefertari (or even some other mother).Dodson & Hilton, p.167
Titles Queen Isetnofret's titles include: Hereditary Princess (iryt-p't), Great of Praises (wrt-hzwt), King's Mother (mwt-niswt), Mistress of the entire Two Lands (hnwt-t3wy-tm), King's Wife (hmt-nisw), Great King's Wife (hmt-niswt-wrt)
Of these, only the title "King's Wife" can be definitively attested during her lifetime. While monuments depicting Isetnofret as "Great King's Wife" are known, these monuments were all produced by her sons, and not by the pharaoh himself, and their chronological position is uncertain and may have been accorded posthumously.Peter Brand, Ramesses II: Egypt's Ultimate Pharaoh (2013) 223-225 In the reign of her son, Merneptah, the titles "Hereditary Princess," "Great of Praises," "King's Mother," and "Mistress of the Entire Two Lands" were all conferred upon her in a relief at the foot of a statue of the king.
Life Isetnofret is known from several inscriptions and small statues. Before the 30th year of Ramesses II's reign, the only clear evidence of her existence is the existence of her children themselves. In fact, she never appears in Ramesses II's constructions and is only attested through the monuments of her sons and her own funerary equipment.
Monuments that mention Isetnofret: Isetnofret is shown on a family stela from Aswan. The upper register shows Ramesses II, Isetnofret and Khaemwaset before the god Khnum. The lower register shows Prince Ramesses, Merneptah and Princess Queen Bintanath. The stela was created by and centers on Khaemwaset, with the titles of the princes and princesses beginning respectively with "his brother", "his sister", and "his younger brother". The stela is believed to have been created after the 30th year of Ramesses II's reign, but before his 33rd/34th year. At this time, Isetnofret was undoubtedly still alive, her eldest son had already become crown prince, and her eldest daughter had attained the title of Great King's Wife. Yet Isetnofret is referred to only as "King's Wife." Some scholars argue that this may be due to limited space for a longer inscription, as a Great King's Wife was often simply called "King's Wife." However, there is sufficient blank space before Isetnofret’s head and before her legs, and on the stela at Silsila, Bintanath's title demonstrates a compact form of "Great King's Wife," occupying a space equivalent to that of "King's Wife." Moreover, in cases where both mother and daughter held the title of Great King's Wife—such as Tiye and Sitamun, or Nefertari and the daughters of Ramesses II—when their names appear together, the mother's name always retains the title Great King's Wife, while the daughter is referred to as King's Wife or by another designation. In contrast, Isetnofret's stela presents the opposite situation, which more likely indicates that she had not yet acquired the title of Great King's Wife at that time. A family stela from the Speos at West Silsila shows Ramesses II, Isetnofret and Bintanath with a much smaller Khaemwaset before the gods Ptah and Nefertem. The lower register shows Prince Ramesses and Prince (later Pharaoh) Merenptah.Kitchen, K.A., Ramesside Inscriptions, Translated & Annotated, Translations, Volume II, Blackwell Publishers, 1996. The stela was created by and centers on Khaemwaset. On this stela, Isetnofret is depicted as a woman holding the Ankh symbol, which may indicate that she had already died at the time of its creation. Here, like her daughter, she is shown holding the title of Great King's Wife. However, Bintanath here holds a richer and more important set of titles. A Statue with Prince's Figure (Brussels E.7500). Her son is named on the statue: the Sem-Priest and King's Son Khaemwaset. This is Khaemwaset's work. The reverse side records Isetnofret participating in the worship of Sekhmet and Ptah (with Néséret/Nesret being another name for Sekhmet). Here, only her title of King's Wife can be confirmed: "...the Horus, master of the palace, she who fills the audience hall with her mere fragrance. Her scents are like those of Punt when its limbs are anointed (?), the Royal Wife [...].[...] the sanctuary of Néséret, her perfection envelops the private chambers, the audience hall is under the influence of her pleasant perfumes, beside her father who rejoices at seeing her, the Royal Wife [...]." However, this statue appears to be a commemorative work by her son Khaemwaset after Isetnofret's death, because it bears Khaemwaset's title of Iunmutef-priest,a title that was first granted to him appears on the family stela of Khaemwaset, at which time Isetnofret was already in her later years. A Statue group with Sons (Louvre 2272): A "hetep-di-nesu" offering for the King's Son, Sem priest of Ptah, Khaemwaset and the royal scribe, Generalissimo and King's Son Ramesses. The text mentions Queen Isetnofret (the princes' mother). Referring to Khaemwaset's speech at his mother's funeral, the inscription indicates that Isetnofret held the title of Great King's Wife during the ceremony and that she was buried at Saqqara in Memphis rather than in Thebes:"May the king make Sokar-Osiris, master of Ânkh-Taouy(Another name for Memphis), satisfied in the repose of the necropolis of the Beautiful West in Hout-ka-khénem-nétjérou, which conceals the body after the time of life and gathers the limbs for eternity. The royal son, the Sem priest of Ptah, Khaemwaset, true of voice, says: 'May you live as Sothis, Great Royal Wife Isetnofret. May you be chosen (?) in the sky among the stars. May you complete Orion opposite Khepri as a single star on the thighs of Nut, Osiris Isetnofret, living as the manifestation of Him who is protected in Busiris.' The royal scribe and great general, the royal son Ramses, true of voice." Isetnofret is also mentioned at the Serapeum, on a block discovered in 1986 among others bearing the names of Ramesses II and Khaemwaset. This block depicts offerings being presented by the genii of two nomes, accompanied by the repeated mention of "the King's Wife Isetnofret." The relief was likely part of the base of a local sanctuary that displayed all the nomes bringing their offerings. The queen's mention in place of the king suggests that, during her lifetime, she had been involved in the management of this sanctuary, which would make sense if she were indeed of Memphite origin. Moreover, after the 30th year of Ramesses II's reign, Khaemwaset became the administrator of the Serapeum, and his name also appears on similar blocks depicting the nomes presenting offerings, his mother may have been able to step out of the harem to assist him in his duties. However, the hypothesis that this could demonstrate Isetnofret's active religious participation is not very plausible, because these blocks recording Khaemwaset and Isetnofret more likely derive from a tomb near the temple; according to the reconstruction, they originally belonged to a funerary chapel of Khaemwaset in the Saqqara necropolis, or at least to some memorial monument of the prince in that area. The two private geographical procession blocks of the queen and the prince either belonged to one and the same geographical procession, with their names decorating the sections relating to Upper and Lower Egypt respectively, or they were two twin geographical processions constructed according to the same criteria, belonging to the same memorial monument of Khaemwaset. The imagery on the blocks conveys the same information as almost all other monuments related to Isetnofret: Khaemwaset actively incorporated his mother into his own commemorative and posthumous ritual system and attempted to construct a commemorative family grouping centered on Ramesses II, Isetnofret, and himself, most likely in the service of his own political or religious ambitions. At this point Isetnofret must have long been deceased; she is here called only "King's Wife," which may seem incongruous with other monuments that Khaemwaset produced after her death, but Khaemwaset's own private geographical procession likewise records only his title "King's Son" and not the sem-priest title he most frequently used. These two most basic titles both define them solely through their relationship to the king, without any additional elements. A naophorous Statue of Prince Khaemwaset mentions his mother. On the dorsal pillar it reads: "Iunmutef-priest, born of the Great Royal Wife Isetnofret, the Sem-priest of Ptah Khaemwaset." This was created during the later period of Ramesses II's reign. Relief for offering for Prince Khaemwaset in Horemheb's Speos. The text above the prince reads: "Sitting at table, making purification with natron and reading out the (funerary) menu, every good offering, for the King's Son of Usermaatre Setepenre, born of the Great Royal Wife, Isetnofret, the Sem-priest Khaemwaset." This was created during the later period of Ramesses II's reign.