section_path: Family
section_name: Family
paragraph_text: Family
  
  The name Thutmose II is read as Thutmosis or Tuthmosis II, Thothmes in older history works in Latinized Greek, and derives from Ancient Egyptian: / ḏḥwty.ms / Djehutymes, meaning " Thoth is born".
  
  Thutmose II was the son of Thutmose I and his minor wife, Mutnofret, who was probably a daughter of Ahmose I. He was, therefore, a lesser son of Thutmose I and chose to marry his fully royal half-sister, Hatshepsut, in order to secure his kingship. Because Mutnofret was a princess and Thutmose I was common born, they most likely married only after Thutmose became king, hence their son would be born after his father's coronation, and probably after his half-sister Hatshepsut, who was the pharaoh's daughter by his primary wife. That would mean Thutmose II was in his early teens when he became pharaoh himself. While he successfully put down rebellions in Nubia and the Levant and defeated a group of nomadic Bedouins, these campaigns were specifically carried out by the king's generals, and not by Thutmose II himself. This is often interpreted as evidence that Thutmose II was still a minor at his accession.
  
  Thutmose II fathered Neferure with Hatshepsut, and Thutmose III, by a lesser wife named Iset.
  
  Some archaeologists believe that Hatshepsut was the real power behind the throne during Thutmose II's rule because of the similar domestic and foreign policies that were later pursued under her reign and because of her claim that she was her father's intended heir. She is depicted in several raised relief scenes from a Karnak gateway dating to Thutmose II's reign both together with her husband and alone. She later had herself crowned pharaoh several years into the rule of her husband's young successor Thutmose III; this is confirmed by the fact that "the queen's agents actually replaced the king's name in a few places with her own cartouches" on the gateway.
  
  If Thutmose II had indeed been born after his father's coronation, he would either have been in his early teens (short reign) or early twenties (long reign) upon his death.