After four reigns of Hittite princes killing each other, King Telipinu wrote the order of succession into law and spared the men who had plotted against him

The Proclamation of Telipinu sets out the history behind its own law. It says King Mursili destroyed Aleppo and Babylon and brought their captives and goods to Hattusa. His cup-bearer Hantili, married to Mursili's sister, plotted with Zidanta, and they killed Mursili. When Hantili was old, Zidanta killed Hantili's son Pisheni along with Pisheni's sons. Zidanta's own son Ammuna killed him. After Ammuna died, the chief of the royal bodyguard sent men who killed the family of Tittiya, and then Hantili and his sons. Huzziya became king. Telipinu was married to Istapariya, Huzziya's eldest sister. Huzziya planned to kill them, the plan was discovered, and Telipinu drove him out. He gave Huzziya's five brothers houses and said, "They did me harm, and I do not do them harm." When the council condemned the killers, Telipinu asked, "Why should they die?" and made them farmers. His queen Istapariya died, then his son Ammuna. He called an assembly at Hattusa and decreed: a prince, a son of the first wife, shall be king; if there is none, a son of the second rank; if there is no prince, a husband shall be taken for a first-rank daughter, and he shall be king. A king who harmed his brothers or sisters risked his head before the assembly, and a condemned prince's house, fields and cattle were not to be taken. The edict survives in several copies, catalogued as CTH 19.