Naresuan
Naresuan the Great (full title: Somdet Phra Naresuan Maharat, Thai : สมเด็จ พระนเรศวร มหาราช , Sanskrit : Nareśvara (Mahārāja) ; * 1555 in Phitsanulok ; † April 25, 1605 in Mueang Hang) was king of the Siamese kingdom of Ayutthaya (now in Thailand ).
Origin and youth
Naresuan was the son of Maha Thammaracha (Khun Phirenthorathep), the governor of Phitsanulok and viceroy of the northern provinces. This was a descendant of the royal house of Sukhothai . The older Sukhothai Kingdom was annexed by Ayutthaya in the 15th century. However, the ancient nobility of Sukhothai continued to have great influence in the northern provinces, among which Phitsanulok was the most important.
Naresuan's mother was Princess Sawatdirat, later Queen Wisutkasat , daughter of King Chakkraphat and Queen Suriyothai . In 1548, Khun Phirenthorathep, along with other nobles from the north, overthrew the usurper Worawongsa and helped Chakkraphat to the throne. For this he had got the title Maha Thammaracha - based on the titles of the earlier kings of Sukhothai -, the rank of viceroy and the king's daughter as a wife.
Naresuan had an older sister, Princess Suphankanlaya , and a younger brother, Ekathotsarot . The two brothers had a close relationship throughout their lives and are referred to in Thai chronicles as the "Black Prince" (Naresuan) and the "White Prince" (Ekathotsarot).
The second half of the 16th century is characterized by the intensifying rivalries between the Second Burmese Empire under the Taungu dynasty (also known as Pegu or Hongsawadi / Hanthawaddy after its capital ) and Ayutthaya. During the first military campaign of the militarily extremely successful Burmese King Bayinnaung against Ayutthaya in 1563/64, Naresuan's father either supported the Burmese or took a wait-and-see role (the chronicles are so divided). From this time on, Maha Thammaracha was believed to be a vassal of Bayinnaung. In any case, the 8 or 9-year-old Naresuan and his brother Ekathotsarot were then brought to the Burmese court in Pegu (Hongsawadi) as “royal hostages”. They served there as pages - like the sons of Burmese princes - and enjoyed military training that was among the best in Southeast Asia.
After King Chakkraphat had tried to shake off the Burmese supremacy, King Bayinnaung moved again against Ayutthaya in 1568/69 and was able to take the Siamese capital. This time Naresuan's father openly supported the Burmese. These were apparently also supported by high traitors within Ayutthaya who opened the gates for them. Maha Thammaracha then moved from Phitsanulok to Ayutthaya and ascended the throne there in December 1569 with the recognition of the Burmese ruler as King Phrachao Sanphet I. His two sons remained hostage in Pegu to ensure the loyalty of the vassal ruler. In 1571 Naresuan's father offered his daughter Suphankanlaya to the Burmese King Bayinnaung as his (secondary) wife. After the Burmese had convinced themselves of Ayutthaya's compliance, Naresuan and Ekathotsarot returned to what is now Thailand in return.
Viceroy
Immediately after his return from Pegu, his father named the 15 or 16 year old Uparaja (viceroy and designated heir to the throne) and governor of Phitsanulok, where he was supposed to secure the northern flank. Here Naresuan mainly had to deal with opposing Khmer from Cambodia, to whom he inflicted several defeats. At the same time, however, he had to realize that Ayutthaya was not able to break the Burmese supremacy either in terms of troop strength or equipment. He built up an army of volunteers whom he had to fight with novel tactics; Speed and the element of surprise should be on your side. The troop was therefore called the "Wild Tiger". During Bayinnaung's campaign against Vientiane , the capital of Lan Xang (today's Laos), Naresuan served as a troop leader in the Burmese army. However, when he became infected with smallpox, he was allowed to cancel the mission and return to Ayutthaya.
At the same time his father was working on the renewal of the fortifications of Ayutthaya and the northern cities of Burma. Burma did not feel provoked by this and trusted in its own strength. However, the Cambodian leadership felt compelled to attack Ayutthaya in 1575 . Again it was Naresuan who was able to repel this attack and all others and who earned the reputation of a gifted strategist. Around 1577 he had the Chandra Kasem Palace built on the northeast corner of Ayutthaya - also known as the "Front Palace " (Wang Na) - after his father had surrounded this area with an extended city wall. The prince preferred to live there rather than in the Grand Palace.
In 1581 Naresuan went to Cambodia and subsequently captured Portuguese and Spanish mercenaries, including snipers. These were used a little later when a holy man had instigated a peasant revolt and Naresuan had him shot by a "foreign" - probably Portuguese - sniper.
In 1581 or 1582 Naresuan traveled to Pegu as his father's representative to pay homage to the new Burmese king Nandabayin , son of the late Bayinnaung. During this time, Naresuan was also used as a commander in the Burmese army. In a campaign against a Shan principality, according to a Thai legend, he was said to have captured a city where the Burmese Uparaja ("Crown Prince") Mingyi Swa had previously failed. This is said to have harbored a jealous enmity against Naresuan. In the Chronicles of Ayutthaya , the following conflict between Burma and Siam is illustrated by the personal rivalry between the two men.
In 1584 Naresuan was called to Burma again to assist King Nandabayin in a punitive expedition against the rebellious Prince of Ava. At first he obeyed this order and moved with his troops to Unterbirma. There he was told, however, that the Burmese wanted to attack and murder him on this occasion. Thereupon he returned to Phitsanulok and was in breach of orders against the Burmese supremacy. 1584 is therefore the date of the termination of the vassal relationship and Ayutthaya's "declaration of independence" from Burma. A formal declaration of independence by Naresuan - often symbolized in stories and illustrations by the ceremonial pouring of consecrated water - is not documented and is more likely to be poetic decoration.
Then the Burmese marched with a huge force in the north. Naresuan tactically withdrew, leaving them only scorched earth: towns and villages were burned down, fields were left devastated, and cattle were taken or poisoned. So the Burmese did not benefit from their "conquests". With guerrilla attacks he weakened the morale of the enemy and killed hundreds of them. The Burmese then withdrew.
In 1586, Naresuan finally took the initiative and conquered Chiang Mai , the capital of the buffer state Lan Na . Naresuan had moved the Ayutthaya border straight to Burma. The attack by Burmese troops a year later was aimed directly at Ayutthaya, but failed again, as did a subsequent Cambodian attack.
king
Securing sovereignty
After King Phrachao Sanphet I (Maha Thammaracha) died in July 1590, Prince Naresuan, who had previously been the ruler of the empire, took over the royal dignity of Ayutthaya. King Naresuan reorganized Ayutthaya again and strengthened the regional defense forces in order to be able to react even more flexibly to attacks from outside.
But Burma had also learned. In 1591 a new attack was launched, this time by two separate units marching towards Ayutthaya from the north and south. In January 1593, Naresuan faced the enemy at Nong Sarai (possibly in what is now Amphoe Don Chedi , Suphan Buri province ). According to Thai tradition, Naresuan challenged the Burmese Crown Prince Mingyi Swa to a duel on the backs of their war elephants. In this duel he is said to have killed the opponent with his glaive (ngao) . However, the historian and Thaiist Barend Jan Terwiel considers this to be a legend: although ten historical accounts of the battle have come down to us in Thai, Burmese, European and Persian sources, the unusual duel is only mentioned in a single one. According to the Burmese chronicles, however, Mingyi Swa was simply shot.
In any case, the defeat and loss of his son caused the Burmese King Nandabayin to withdraw his troops completely. According to Thai tradition, Nandabayin killed his concubine Suphankanlaya, Naresuan's sister, who was pregnant by the Burmese king at the time, in revenge. In Burmese sources, however, neither a marriage between Nandabayin and Suphankanlaya nor their killing is documented.
expansion
Burma has apparently had enough of the constant setbacks in Siam. Naresuan still prepared for further arguments and armored in astonishing way. Eventually he was able to take the initiative himself and enter Burmese territory. In 1592 Siamese troops took Tenasserim and Tavoy .
Then Naresuan invaded Cambodia in 1593 with more than 100,000 men and took the capital Longvek in January 1594 . Almost without a fight, he was able to drive the king and his family out, who turned to Vieng Chan ( Vientiane ) in Laos . Prisoners of war were resettled in the northern provinces of Siam or accepted into the Ayutthaya army. Cambodia ceased to be a power factor in Southeast Asia.
He then waged war against Burma again in 1594. His troops conquered the port city of Martaban (today Mottama) on the Indian Ocean , the most important city in the settlement area of the Mon in Unterbirma. With the support of the Mon and an army of 12,000 men, Naresuan marched against Pegu in December 1594. However, he broke off the siege when he learned that the viceroys of Prome, Taungu and Ava were coming to the aid of the Burmese capital.
Naresuan promoted trade relations with the Europeans: In 1595, at the instigation of the king, Dutch ships came to Ayutthaya to trade (mainly spices). The Spaniards , who had taken the Philippines in full possession since 1570 , saw Ayutthaya as a rising power and established trade relations in 1598.
From 1595 the empire of the Burmese King Nandabayin fell apart, as his vassal rulers and finally the Burmese princes gradually turned away from him. Naresuan took advantage of this and in 1598 undertook a successful campaign against Lan Na in what is now northern Thailand, which until then had been under Burmese rule and was ruled by a son of the Burmese king Bayinnaung, but was then a vassal of Ayutthaya. Afterwards Naresuan allied itself in 1599 with the kings of Arakan and Taungu and moved again against Pegu. However, his (supposed) allies got ahead of him and took Pegu without the Siamese. The troops of Taungu and Arakan divided the found treasures among themselves, the captured King Nandabayin was brought to Taungu. The Arakanese then plundered and pillaged the capital. When Naresuan and his troops reached Pegu, he found an empty and ruined city. He then moved on to Taungu, besieged the city and demanded the extradition of Nandabayin. The siege, however, was unsuccessful. Nandabayin was murdered a few months later by his nephew Natshinnaung , heir to the throne of Taungu.
After the fall of Pegus, the kingdom of Ava in Upper Burma under Nyaungyan Min , another son of Bayinnaung, became the leading power within Burma . Like Naresuan, he tried the Shan states that lay between Ava and Lan Na am Saluen . During the campaign triggered by this, King Naresuan died on May 16, 1605 in Müang Hang, a Shan principality, about 30 kilometers northwest of Fang on what is now the Thai-Burmese border. According to another theory, Naresuan's place of death was in Amphoe Wiang Haeng in the far north of Thailand's Chiang Mai province . He left behind neither a wife nor children. His brother Ekathotsarot was crowned as his successor .
Aftermath
Naresuan went down in history as one of the most gifted strategists in Southeast Asia's military history and one of the most intelligent rulers of Siam. Today he is one of the most revered rulers in Thai history and as one of six Thai kings he is nicknamed "the great". His role in restoring Siam's sovereignty over Burma has been glorified and romanticized. The story of the elephant duel with the Burmese crown prince during the battle of Nong Sarai is particularly emblematic of this. This was only added to the chronicles in the early Rattanakosin epoch, after Ayutthaya was taken for a second time and finally destroyed by the Burmese in 1767. In the Chronicle Phraratchaphongsawadan Krung Sayam of 1795 Naresuan was even compared with Buddha, his opponent, the Burmese Crown Prince, with Māra , the embodiment of evil in Buddhism. Krom Phra Pramanuchit Chinorot also compared Mingyi Swa with Māra in his classic poem "Defeat of the Mon" (Lilit Talaeng phai) , while Naresuan with the god Indra .
The works of Prince Damrong Rajanubhab , the "father of Thai historiography", were particularly influential in today's image of Naresuan . This published his main work "Thailand's wars against Burma" (Thai rop Phama) in 1917 and wrote in the last years before his death in 1943 "A biography of King Naresuan the great" (Phraprawat Somdet Phra Naresuan Maharat) , in which he played the role of king inflated and embellished.
The nationalist writer Wichit Wichitwathakan - chief ideologist of the dictators Phibunsongkhram and Sarit Thanarat - also dealt in detail with Naresuan, namely in his drama "King Naresuan declares independence" (Phra Naresuan Prakat Itsaraphap) from 1934. Above all, Phibunsongkhram saw the militarily successful and as Naresuan was a personal role model that was close to the people and had monuments erected in his honor. One of the most famous of these is the statue of the elephant duel in Don Chedi (the presumed site of the Battle of Nong Sarai), made by Phibunsongkhram's preferred sculptor, Italian-born Silpa Bhirasri (Corrado Feroci).
The six lavishly produced period films of the King Naresuan series by director Prince Chatrichalerm Yukol from 2006 to 2015 are among the most successful Thai films of all time.
The social critic Sulak Sivaraksa was charged by two retired generals in October 2014 for insulting majesty after he - with reference to a historical study by Barend Jan Terwiel - had questioned the truth of the story of the elephant duel. This illustrates the level of veneration Naresuan enjoyed over four centuries after his death, especially in military circles. In January 2018, however, the case before a military court was dropped.
Individual evidence
- ↑ OW Wolters : Ayudhya and the Rearward Part of the World. In: Early Southeast Asia. Selected essays. Cornell Southeast Asia Program, Ithaca NY 2008, pp. 149-161.
- ^ Hans Bräker: Southeast Asia. Walter Verlag, Olten 1974, p. 363.
- ↑ Chris Baker , Pasuk Phongpaichit : A History of Thailand. 3rd edition, Cambridge University Press, 2014, p. 10.
- ↑ Prince Damrong Rajanubhab: A biography of King Naresuan the Great. Toyota Thailand Foundation, 2008, p. 28.
- ↑ Garnier (2004), p. 40
- ↑ Garnier (2004), p. 71
- ^ A b David K. Wyatt : Thailand. A short history. 2nd edition, Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai 2004, p. 88.
- ↑ Barend Jan Terwiel: What Happened at Nong Sarai? Comparing Indigenous and European Sources for Late 16th Century Siam. In: Journal of the Siam Society , Volume 101 (2013).
- ↑ Jim Taylor: History, Simulacrum and the real. The making of a Thai princess. In: From Fact to Fiction. History of Thai-Myanmar Relations in Cultural Context. Institute of Asian Studies, Chulalongkorn University, Bangkok 2001, p. 6.
- ↑ Garnier (2004), p. 81
- ^ David K. Wyatt: Thailand. A short history. 2nd edition, Silkworm Books, Chiang Mai 2004, p. 92.
- ^ Sunait Chutintaranond: The Image of the Burmese Enemy in Thai Perceptions and Historical Writings. In: Journal of the Siam Society , Volume 80 (1992), pp. 89, 92.
- ^ Sunait Chutintaranond: The Image of the Burmese Enemy in Thai Perceptions and Historical Writings. In: Journal of the Siam Society , Volume 80 (1992), pp. 92-93.
- ^ Sunait Chutintaranond: The Image of the Burmese Enemy in Thai Perceptions and Historical Writings. In: Journal of the Siam Society , Volume 80 (1992), p. 98.
- ^ Volker Grabowsky : Brief history of Thailand. CH Beck, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-60129-3 , p. 158.
- ↑ But no trial against Thai historians for doubts about battle. In: Der Standard (online), January 17, 2018.
literature
- Derick Garnier: Ayutthaya: Venice of the east . Bangkok: River Books 2004. ISBN 9748225607 .
Web links
- The Nation: The story of the story of King Naresuan - Essay by " Chang Noi " on the fame of King Naresuan (in English). Retrieved November 28, 2019
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Naresuan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Naresuan the Great |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | King of Ayutthaya in Thailand |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1555 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Phitsanulok , Thailand |
| DATE OF DEATH | April 25, 1605 |
| Place of death | Mueang slope |