Chakkraphat

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Maha Chakkraphat ( Thai : สมเด็จ พระ มหา จักรพรรดิ , spoken [ sŏmdèt pʰrá máhăː t͡ɕàkrápʰàt ]; * 1506 ; † January 1569 ) was King of the Siamese Kingdom of Ayutthaya from July 1548 to January 1569 ( CS 910-930). The chroniclers called him the king of the white elephants .

King Maha Chakkraphat is also known today because his queen Somdet Phra Si Suriyothai and her daughter lost their lives in a battle against the Burmese during the Siamese-Burmese War (1548–1549) when she wanted to defend her royal husband.

Struggles for power over the accession to the throne

When King Chairacha ( สมเด็จ พระ ไชย ราชาธิราช , ruled 1534–1547) died, he left two sons, born to him by his royal concubine Si Sudachan ( ท้าว ศรี สุดา จันทร์ ), and a younger half-brother, Prince Thianracha ( พระ เทียร ราชา ). The older of the two sons was named Prince Yot Fa and was eleven years old, the younger Prince Sri Sin was five years old. Prince Thianracha, as Uparat (“Viceroy”) the actual heir to the throne, feared for his life and after the king's cremation sought refuge as a Buddhist monk in Wat Ratchapraditsathan ( วัด ราช ประดิษฐาน ), Prince Yot Fa (r. 1546–1548) appointed king with his mother Sri Sudachan as regent.

The regent had a relationship with the major-domo of the exterior of the palace, Phanbut Sri Thep (for some time พัน บุตร ศรีเทพ ). She initially gave him the title Khun Chinnarat ( ขุน ชิน ราช ), and wanted to make him king. She had all the nobles who disapproved of this murdered. Finally, in June 1548, she also had King Yot Fat poisoned to put her lover, who now had the title Khun Worawongsa ( ขุน วร วงศา ธิ ราช ), on the royal throne. However, he only retained the office of King of Siam for six weeks (some chroniclers ascribe him a reign of five months). A conspiracy of four nobles, Khun Phirenthorathep ( ขุน พิ เร น ทร เทพ ), Khun Inthorathep ( ขุน อินทร เทพ ), Muen Ratchasena ( หมื่น ราช เสน่หา ) and Luang Si Yot ( หลวง ศรี ยศ ), murdered the usurper on a boat trip fetched Phra Thianracha from the monastery.

When he arrived at the palace of Ayutthaya in July 1548, on the advice of the court astrologers, he was crowned king on a auspicious day before the meeting of the highest Buddhist dignitaries, court brahmins , ministers, poets, advisers and astrologers, giving him the five royal insignia were presented. The court Brahmins recited mantras while washing him with the waters of the main rivers of Thailand. The king then accepted the title "Maha Chakkraphat". The name means something like : Great ruler, whose chariot can roll anywhere without obstacles , based on the ancient Indian ideal of Chakravartin , the universal, just ruler of the world with Buddhist character who sets the wheel of law ( Dhamma Chakra ) in motion.

Khun Phirenthorathep, to whom he owed the throne in the first place, gave Chakkraphat his eldest daughter in marriage and made him his viceroy for the northern provinces as Maha Thammaracha . Without him, who as governor of Phitsanulok and an ally of other northern provincial lords had great influence in the north of the empire, Chakkraphat would probably not have been able to control this area anyway.

Wars with Pegu and Lawaek

The power struggles at the Siamese court were also heard by King Tabinshweti of Pegu ( Hongsawadi in Thai ). He saw it as a good opportunity to incorporate Ayutthaya into his kingdom and therefore assembled an army of 30,000 foot soldiers, 300 war elephants and almost 3,000 horsemen who invaded Siam via the Three Pagoda Pass , barely seven months after the coronation of Chakkraphat were. He was able to quickly conquer Kanchanaburi and Suphan Buri , and now besieged the Siamese capital. At the same time, the king of Lawaek (near present-day Phnom Penh ) saw his chance and conquered Prachinburi from the east . King Chakkraphat was able to successfully withstand these attacks, which took place in the first months of 1549. Burmese morale continued to be undermined after losing multiple battles. One of these battles was led by Queen Phra Si Suriyothai with her daughter, who became the first woman in Thailand to become famous for her heroic death. Although allied troops from Phitsanulok soon arrived, the king of Hongsawadi managed to take two important prisoners: Maha Chakkraphat's eldest son, Prince Ramesuan , and his stepson, Prince Mahin . The prisoners were released after the Burmese had been granted free withdrawal , and the two white bull elephants Sri Mongkhon and Mongkhon Thawip had to be handed over to King Tabinshweti as a ransom .

As a consequence of this war, King Chakkraphat initially had the old earth walls around the capital removed and replaced with sturdy brick walls in early 1550. In the following years he expanded his naval forces, fortified strategically important provincial towns, reorganized the military leadership and undertook several campaigns to provide his army with additional war elephants .

After the conquest of Lan Na , the Burmese king Bayinnaung was able to attack and take Ayutthaya again in 1564 . He captured Chakkraphat and his family and instead installed his son Mahin as his vassal king in Ayutthaya. After Chakkraphat was allowed to return to Ayutthaya, actually to be consecrated there as a monk, he returned to the throne. His son-in-law and most powerful ally, Viceroy Maha Thammaracha, had meanwhile turned away from him and instead joined the more powerful Bayinnaung. In 1568, Chakkraphat attempted to retake the northern provinces, but was only partially successful and had to withdraw to Ayutthaya. At the end of the same year, the Burmese began another campaign , this time coming from the north. With an enormous army, reinforced by warriors from the Mon , Shan , Lü, Lao and from Lan Na as well as the troops of the Maha Thammaracha of Phitsanulok, King Bayinnaung finally succeeded in conquering the Siamese capital Ayutthaya. King Chakkraphat, old and discouraged, fell seriously ill and died during the siege in January 1569. His son Mahin succeeded him as the new king.

Description of a chronicler

The Dutch merchant and chronicler Jeremias Van Vliet described the reign of Chakkraphat without dates in his book "A Brief History of the Kings of Siam until 1640". He sets the length of the reign at 16 years. He described the king himself as follows:

“Maha Chakkraphat was the younger half-brother of King Chaerachathirat and cousin of King Yot Fa. When he came to the throne, he was 42 years old and his name was Phra Thianracha. He was a merciful king, very learned, and more inclined to improve the law and religion than the secular state. The jurisdiction of his time was just. He improved more temples than city fortifications in his kingdom, since he was not a warrior by nature. He was liberal and had a fruitful reign. He owned seven beautiful white elephants . "

- van Vliet

literature

  • Sunait Chutintaranond: Cakravartin. Ideology, Reason and Manifestation of Siamese and Burmese Kings in Traditional Warfare (1548–1605). Dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca NY 1990.
  • David K. Wyatt (Ed.); Richard D. Cushman: The Royal Chronicles Of Ayutthaya . The Siam Society , Bangkok 2000, ISBN 974-8298-48-5 .
  • 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 .
  • David K. Wyatt: Thailand. A short history . 2nd Edition. Silkworm Books , Chiang Mai 2004, ISBN 974-9575-44-X .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ GB McFarland: Thai-English Dictionary . Stanford University Press, Stanford 1944, ISBN 0-8047-0383-3 .
  2. Sunait Chutintaranond: Cakravartin. 1990, p. 161.
  3. Sunait Chutintaranond: Cakravartin. 1990, p. 148.
  4. Sunait Chutintaranond: Cakravartin. 1990, p. 162.
  5. ^ David K. Wyatt: Thailand. 2004, p. 82.