TAA i.12.01

                                                                                          (2)

18| Those are about all the facts we know of his life and 
      reign.       

19| To summarise them briefly: he was but a boy, enthroned
      at a very young age, and in very early manhood – who knows
      under what tragic circumstances? – he started on his last
      journey from full life into the gloom of that tremenduous^sic 
      Underworld.

      As there was no male issue by Akh.en.Aten’s official wife,
      Queen Nefer.teti, the question of a successor must have been
      a vital one, and we may be sure that intrigue was rampant.

11| Hense^sic, to save the Dynasty, the ultimate heir, Tut.ankh.Aten
12| was married to the Crown Princess. And ./<,> as this Princess was
14| born in the eighth year of her father’s reign, she cannot have
15| been more than about nine when she was married. We therefore
      have every reason to believe that both Tut.ankh.Aten and Ankh.
      es.en.pa.Aten were but children when they succeeded Ahk.en.Aten.

      Clearly during the first years of this reign of children,
      there must have been a power behind the throne, and from the
16| monuments we gather that power was the Grand Chamberlain,
17| Ay, a close and personal friend of Akh.en.Aten who by becoming
      Regent secured the throne for himself after Tut.ankh.Amen’s 
      death. It may be that Ay was largely responsible for establish-
      ing the boy king upon the throne; however, with King Ay ends
      that famous Eighteenth Egyptian Dynasty.

      Before the discovery of Tut.ankh.Amen’s tomb we knew little
20| more than his name.