Maha Thammaracha

Maha Thammaracha ( Thai : มหา ธรรมราชา , also: Somdet Phra Maha Thammarachathirat สมเด็จ พระมหา ธรรม ราชาธิราช , also: Somdet Phrachao Sanphet I. สมเด็จ พระเจ้า สรร เพ ช ญ์ ที่ 1 ; *  1514 ; † June 1590 ) was from August 1569 to 1590 ( CS 931–952) the 19th king of the Siamese kingdom of Ayutthaya . He was the founder of the so-called Sukhothai dynasty.

origin

Maha Thammaracha is mentioned for the first time in the chronicles under the name Khun Phirenthorathep . Khun Phirenthorathep was of royal origin, he is said to have been a descendant of the famous Phra Ruang dynasty of Sukhothai . This was connected with the king Ayutthaya in 1438. However, it was not suddenly annexed, but the two kingdoms merged with each other over a longer period of time. The old nobility of Sukhothai continued to have great power in the "northern provinces" or "northern city-states" ( Müang Nüa) . The most important of these was no longer Sukhothai itself, but Phitsanulok - then called Song Khwae - which functioned as the “second capital” of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya and the residence of the Viceroy ( Uparaja ) in the 15th to 16th centuries .

King Chairacha (r. 1534-1546) endeavored to strengthen the ties of the northern city-states to Ayutthaya and brought nobles from the north to his court in Ayutthaya. Among them was Khun Phirenthorathep, who became the commander of the royal guard. After Chairacha's death, the actually designated successor (Uparaja) , Chairacha's younger half-brother Prince Thianracha , fled to the monastery. Instead, Chairacha's underage son, Yot Fa, became the new king under the tutelage of his mother, Thao Si Sudachan. Soon after, however, Si Sudachan helped her lover Khun Worawongsa to the throne, and Yot Fa was poisoned.

Khun Phirenthorathep and three other nobles from the north did not want to accept the usurpation of the Siamese throne by Khun Worawongsa. One night they gathered a few loyal followers and followed Worawongsa, who was with his queen Si Sudachan by boat on the way to the elephant hunt outside the city. In a quiet side channel they overpowered the hunting party and killed the usurper and his queen. They then took Prince Thianracha out of the monastery and brought him to the capital, where he was crowned King Maha Chakkraphat .

Viceroy in Phitsanulok

The grateful new king gave Khun Phirenthorathep the old Sukhothai title "Prince Thammaracha" and gave him his daughter Princess Sawatdirat (who later became Queen Wisutkasat ) as his wife. He also set him up as governor in Phitsanulok and viceroy of the northern provinces. Chakkraphat would probably not have been able to control this without the help of the well-connected Thammaracha. With Princess Sawatdirat, Thammaracha had a daughter, Suphankanlaya , and two sons, Naresuan and Ekathotsarot .

In the course of the following years "Okya Phitsanulok", as it was now also called, became more and more powerful. Multiple attacks by the Burmese and animosity between him and the royal family in Ayutthaya, culminating in kidnapping and blackmail, made Maha Thammaracha an ally of the charismatic and militarily successful Burmese King Bayinnaung .

Maha Thammaracha's role in Bayinnaung's campaigns against Ayutthaya in 1563/64 and 1568/69 varies somewhat in the chronicles. According to the Dutch chronicler Jeremias Van Vliet , Maha Thammaracha is said to have beaten his wife Wisutkasat in the dispute. Their father, King Chakkraphat, then tried to kill their son-in-law, who fled to Burma and “asked the King of Pegu to wage war against Siam”. Bayinnaung then moved with his troops first to Phitsanulok and from there on against Ayutthaya. Maha Thammaracha, as field marshal, commanded the entire infantry in Bayinnaung's army. In the Royal Chronicles of Ayutthaya, however , Maha Thammaracha is on the side of Siam, but seems strangely holding back. Maha Thammaracha's sons Naresuan and Ekathotsarot were at the Burmese court in Pegu from 1564 - as royal hostages and as pages, as was customary for the sons of Burmese princes. This suggests that Maha Thammaracha was considered a vassal of Bayinnaung from this time on. King Chakkhraphat was also brought to Pegu as a prisoner, instead his son Mahin was installed as a vassal ruler in Ayutthaya.

In early 1568, Bayinnaung allowed Chakkhraphat to return to Siam on the pretext that he wanted to become a monk there. However, he soon took off the robe and took the throne again himself, thereby rebelling against the Burmese supremacy. Chakkhraphat sought an alliance with Lan Xang (in present-day Laos). He offered the local ruler Setthathirath his daughter Thepkasattri (a younger sister of Wisutkasat) to wife. Maha Thammaracha sabotaged this alliance by kidnapping the princess on her way to Vientiane. According to Van Vliet, Maha Thammaracha again advised the Burmese King Bayinnaung to resume the war against Siam, again leading part of the Burmese army and using Phitsanulok as a base for the attack against Ayutthaya.

In the Thai chronicles, however, Maha Thammaracha is initially on the side of Ayutthaya, but changes sides as the war progresses. Towards the end of King Chakkraphat's reign, Bayinnaung's forces tightened the ring of siege around Ayutthaya. Prince Thammaracha supported them with another 70,000 men from Phitsanulok. Both representations agree that Maha Thammaracha made a significant contribution to the fall of Ayutthaya, as nobles and relatives of his wife allied with him opened the gates of the besieged capital on August 8, 1569, thus exposing them to the attackers from Burma and Phitsanulok.

coronation

King Bayinnaung installed Prince Thammaracha under the name "Maha Thammaracha" as a vassal king. Bayinnaung took thousands of prisoners of war as well as - to ensure his loyalty - the two sons of the new king as hostages back to Pegu (contemporary Hongsawadi ). The two princes served there as pages and received training (including military) that corresponded to that of Burmese princely sons. In 1571 they were able to return to Ayutthaya. Instead, Bayinnaung made Maha Thammaracha's daughter Suphankanlaya one of his concubines. This was also a measure to bind his vassal to himself.

The deportation of prisoners of war - both simple workers and members of the ruling class - to Pegu had considerably weakened the defense of the kingdom. The Cambodians tried to take advantage of this situation by raiding the wealthy eastern provinces and the provinces on the Gulf of Chanthaburi to Phetchaburi several times over the next two decades , each time rounding up prisoners to populate their own land. The Siamese faced these attacks with great difficulty.

Naresuan's rise

After his return from Pegu, Maha Thammaracha made his then 16-year-old son Naresuan Uparat (“viceroy” and designated heir to the throne) with residence in Phitsanulok. The prince was able to demonstrate his military skills in several campaigns against the Cambodians. In 1580 Maha Thammaracha had the city walls of Ayutthaya torn down and rebuilt larger than before. This shows that at this time - eleven years after the defeat and partial depopulation of Ayutthaya - the king was again able to dispose of very considerable resources in terms of manpower and material.

In 1581 and 1582, Maha Thammaracha's empire was in serious crisis. There was a popular uprising in the central plain between Ayutthaya and Lopburi under the leadership of a man whom the population venerated as a saint (phu mi bun) . One of the most important ministers, the Mahatthai , was killed. In the same year Ayutthaya lost the important city of Phetchaburi to Cambodia. From this time on, the king increasingly left the government to his son Naresuan. This is documented for the first time by the fact that after the death of the Burmese King Bayinnaung in 1581, Naresuan represented his father on the inaugural visit (and affirmation of the vassal oath) to the new King Nandabayin in Pegu.

However, three years later, Naresuan refused an order to serve King Nandabayin with military service. News had reached him that this was just an ambush and that he would be ambushed and killed on the way. This refusal of vassal duty in 1584 was interpreted by later Thai historians as a "declaration of independence" from Siam to Burma.

The subsequent repeated campaigns by the Pegus troops against Ayutthaya were able to repel Naresuan as well as another (smaller) attack by Cambodia .

King Maha Thammaracha died in June 1590. Naresuan was crowned King of Ayutthaya as his successor.

Description of a chronicler

The Dutch merchant and chronicler Jeremias Van Vliet described the reign of Maha Thammaracha without dates in his book "A Brief History of the Kings of Siam until 1640". He sets the length of the reign at 22 years. He described the king himself as follows:

“Maha Thammaracha was 54 years old when he became king. He was a hard-working and gracious king. He enlarged the capital Ayutthaya and built a stone wall around it. He also built five large watchtowers on the royal palace. He lived during a successful time, so that the areas made uninhabitable by the war with the Burmese became fertile again and the population grew "

literature

• David K. Wyatt : Thailand. A short history. 2nd edition Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai 2004.
• David K. Wyatt, Chris Baker , Dhiravat na Pombejra, Alfon van der Kraan: Van Vliet's Siam . Silkworm Books , Chiang Mai 2005, ISBN 974-9575-81-4 .
• Richard D. Cushman (David K. Wyatt Ed.): The Royal Chronicles Of Ayutthaya . The Siam Society, Bangkok 2000, ISBN 974-8298-48-5 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ C. P. 931–952 is written in the so-called Chronicle of Luang Prasoet. Other chronicles attribute a reign of King Maha Thammaracha from 918 to 940 ( A.D. 1569/1590). Even after Jeremias Van Vliet , the king ruled for 22 years.
2. ↑ Chris Baker , Pasuk Phongpaichit : A History of Ayutthaya. Siam in the Early Modern World. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2017, p. 63.
3. ↑ Chris Baker, Pasuk Phongpaichit: A History of Ayutthaya. Siam in the Early Modern World. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2017, p. 75.
4. ↑ Chris Baker, Pasuk Phongpaichit: A History of Ayutthaya. Siam in the Early Modern World. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2017, pp. 75–76.
5. ↑ Sunait Chutintaranond: Cakravartin. Ideology, Reason and Manifestation of Siamese and Burmese Kings in Traditional Warfare (1548–1605) . Dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca NY 1990, p. 161.
6. ^ Prince Chula Chakrabongse of Thailand: Lords Of Life, The Paternal Monarchy Of Bangkok . Alvin Redman Ltd., London 1960 (without ISBN), p. 42.
7. ↑ ^{a b} Chris Baker, Pasuk Phongpaichit: A History of Ayutthaya. Siam in the Early Modern World. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2017, p. 77.
8. ^ David K. Wyatt: Thailand. A short history. 2nd edition, Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai 2004, p. 81.
9. ^ Wyatt: Thailand. 2004, p. 87.
10. ^ Wyatt: Thailand. 2004, p. 88.