Ramses III, the 2nd king of the 20th Dynasty, ruled for about 31 years during the period known as the New Kingdom. He ruled during a time when the rest of the Mediterranean World was in flux. The fall of Mycenae and the Trojan War caused many displaced peoples to relocate. During the fifth year of his reign, a combination of several different peoples, known as the "Sea People," ravaged the Near East and headed south towards Egypt. The Sea Peoples were defeated by Ramses III
Shortly before his death, there was a conspiracy to kill the king by several members of his household including one of his minor wives. The minor wife was Queen Tiy and it was essentially an attempt to ensure her sons rise to the throne. Ramses III commissioned 14 people to judge over 40 people who were implicated in the conspiracy. Because of the large number of people, they were tried in three groups. It should be noted that this commission was given the necessary powers to collect evidence and carry out the punishment which included the possibility of the death sentence-which was something that was normally reserved to the king himself. By the end of the trial, most of the accused were sentenced to death.
It is believed that Ramses III never lived to see the end of the trials. He was buried in the Valley of the Kings. His mortuary temple was unique in that the entrance was a copy of a Syrian migdol.
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