Two theories are commonly cited in relation to Seqenenre Tao's death: either that he was assassinated while sleeping or that he was killed fighting alongside his troops on the battlefield. In this article all evidence relating to Seqenenre's body is presented, from the unwrapping of the mummy by Maspero to the most recent analyses by medical professionals. This is followed by a critical analysis of the arguments for and against the two commonly cited theories in which it is shown that neither fully take into consideration all the available evidence relating to Seqenenre's death. Then, based on an analysis of the technology available to the Thebans during the late Second Intermediate Period, the statistical likelihood of death by hand-to-hand combat and by blows to the head in battlefield situations, the textual evidence for kings personally fighting alongside their troops, evidence for the king's personal body-armor, and the physical evidence of the Eighteenth Dynasty royal mummies, it is concluded that kings of this period did not personally act as frontline war leaders, fighting alongside their troops. Finally, by combining all of the available evidence, it is argued that the most likely cause of Seqenenre's death is ceremonial execution at the hands of an enemy commander, following a Theban defeat on the battlefield.