Approximately five years after her marriage, Ruqaiya became Empress of the Mughal Empire at the age of fourteen years following her husband's accession to the throne in 1556. Akbar, like his predecessors, was a polygamist, his sexuality was intense but short-lived and by early middle age he was sated. It was then that he expressed his regret on marrying again after his first marriage with Ruqaiya and even recommended monogamy, saying, "To seek more than one wife is to work one's own undoing. In case she [the first wife] were barren or bore no son, it might then be expedient."[14] Throughout her marriage, Ruqaiya remained childless, but assumed the primary responsibility for the upbringing of her grandson, Prince Khurram (the future Emper