Robert Smith, Author

The Kings of Ayutthaya

www.amazon.com/Kings-Ayutthaya-Creative-Retelling-Siamese-ebook/dp/B07954KL25

A book such as “The Kings of Ayutthaya” is, as it says on the cover, “A Creative Retelling of Siamese History.” As such it is my interpretation and the portrayal of events that together build to give a picture of Ayutthaya throughout the centuries. I am not steeped in Thai history and I feel that coming from outside perspective enabled me to interpret the history in a fresh manner and, hopefully, an accurate manner. Time has taken its toll on many historic records which are often incomplete or contradictory depending on the source. As the book concerns Ayutthaya I have tended to follow the Thai narrative in most instances.

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Our book begins with the foundation of Sukhothai set against the backdrop of a declining Khmer Empire which has governed the region, through their state of Lavo (Lopburi), for many years. With two armies looking to combine, one local and one from Angkor, the time to strike is before they merge. The defeat of these armies paves the way for the kingdom of Sukhothai. As the Khmer forces withdraw a power vacuum develops. It is one that Sukhothai is well positioned to exploit, which it does under the auspices of a number of competent and able kings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vHn1HaDCXM&t=149s

The villages that merged to form Sukhothai lie along the central plain and sit either side of the Yom and Nan River basins. Evidence suggests that many of these villages had formed loose alliances as early as the year 1150. The area sat astride trade routes moving goods from the middle east into the south-east Asia region, and onwards to the south of China. The peace that came about by this loose union of villages enabled the area to prosper. The prosperity attracted the attention of the then fast expanding kingdom of the Khmer who annexed Sukhothai under its remit.

Tai warriors reinforced Sukhothai against the Khmer empire and fought to gain control of Sukhothai and the central plain that surrounded it. To the north another group of Tai warriors later conquered the Mon state of Haripunjaya founding the kingdom of Lan Na with its capital of Chiang Mai.

It was in the late thirteenth century when the people of the central plain first took the name “Thai,” meaning "free," in order to set themselves apart from other Tai speakers still held under foreign rule. The Thai have traditionally regarded the founding of the kingdom of Sukhothai as marking their emergence as a nation.

The decline of the Khmer and the eventual fall of its capital city of Angkor Wat is much debated. Religious change, the impact of the invasions of Kublai Khan in China, emphasis on building rather than improving irrigation, and a severe drought are perhaps some of the factors that led to the dominant power of the South-east Asia region losing the eminent position it had held in the previous centuries.

Both the Khmer Empire and the Sukhothai Empire have influenced the growth, the governance and the culture of the Kingdom of Ayutthaya. Our journey in this book begins where the nation of Thailand first developed its roots, in Sukhothai.

The manner in which Pho Khun Pha Mu'ang offered the throne to King Si Inthrathit set the scene for what would become an enlightened kingdom. It was a time of plenty, but it was also a time when a number of factors conspired. Good harvests, new people fleeing the wars to the north and entering the kingdom keen to rebuild their lives, no one power filling the vacuum created by the retrenching Khmer, and a style of leadership revered to this day.

When Lopburi (the capital of the Khmer province of Lavo) fell under the remit of Sukhothai it clearly caused consternation in the city. Lavo had been a semi-autonomous state under of the Khmer Empire and ruled over much of the region that it was now subservient to. King Ram Khamhaeng was schooled in Lopburi, which was a center of education and religious thinking at the time. When Lopburi fell under his suzerainty the former slave was now the master. This becomes evident over the following centuries when Ayutthaya comes to dominate, the faction from Lopburi sees the conquest of Sukhothai as paramount, while the rival focus of the city ofSuphanburi is on the Khmer in Angkor.

The term "chakravartin" derives from the dharma chakra or wheel of dharma, and refers to “he who turns the wheel” of dharma. He who maintains the universal law (dharma) across the whole world, or more practically the world under the king. The importance of the approach used in Sukhothai was that the goodwill within the term Pho continued through the generations and the centuries. Thai monarchs still use the term “Pho” as fathers of their people. The picture shows the sitting Buddha at the ruins of the Wat Chana Songkram temple in Sukhothai historical park.

After the fall of the Pagan Empire, modern day Burma, (1287) to the invading Mongols, the Mon, under King Wareru, regained their independence and captured Martaban and Pegu, regaining much of their previously held territory. The next 200 years witnessed incessant warfare between the Mon and the Burmans, but the Mon managed to retain their independence until 1539, when they came under the domination of the Burman Toungoo Empire. Both the Ayutthayan and the Burmans laid claim to the Mon lands, a region that became a battleground, particulary in the time of the Burman kings, King Tabinshwehti, King Bayinnaung, King Nanda Bayin and the Ayutthayan king, King Naresuan.

The interplay between Lopburi and Suphanburi provided the backdrop for many of the events over the coming years with Suphanburi often the dominant player. It was a conflict that rose again many centuries after the founding of the city when the Lady Si Suda Chan made her ill-fated play for power. I must admit I did enjoy writing about her!

King Trailok was one of the most influential kings of the early/middle Ayutthayan period. He stands out as an able king and a deep thinker. His influence on the structure of society by promulgating the "laws of the palace," or the "sakdina system" as they are more commonly known built upon existing conventions and formalized a structured society that still influences Thai thinking today. His reign, under threat from a resurgent King Tilokkarat in Lan Na, ushered in many changes and stabilized Ayutthaya for many years to come.

As I have mentioned earlier on this website “The Kings of Ayutthaya” is in many ways, a development of my earlier novel “King Naresuan the Great.” I considered adapting my text for “King Naresuan the Great” into “The Kings of Ayutthaya” but when you have spent so much time and effort trying to ensure the text reads as you like it I finally accepted that the relevant text should be incorporated into “The Kings of Ayutthaya.” That decision meant that, unfortunately, I had to de-list the novel King Naresuan.

King Naresuan is Thailand's national hero and his victory of the Burmese crown prince Mingyi Swa is commemorated each year on the Royal Thai Armed Forces Day on January 18th or a surrounding date each year. The stories that surround him are the truth intermixed with myth, legend and exaggeration. He led Ayutthaya to freedom against the Hanthawaddy and was a man of proven military ability. His role is viewed from the Burman perspective in my third novel in the series "The Kings of the Toungoo Empire.”

King Bayinnaung was the third king of the first Toungoo Empire, which ended with his son Nanda Bayin. In writing these books I found him a fascinating character, a man of humble beginnings, a devout Buddhist, responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, a exceptional general, and a person of his time. Like “The Kings of Ayutthaya” I felt his story and that of the other three kings who forged, first a kingdom and then an empire, needed to be told. The Rise and Fall of the Toungoo Empire has been released and looks at the story of this period from a Burman perspective.

King Maha Thammaracha, the father of King Naresuan, struck me as a realist and also a man of a certain nobility, as when he allowed Prince Sri Sin to live after the overthrow of King Worawongsthirat and the Lady Si Suda Chan. He understood that the army of King Bayinnaung was too large and too well-organized to fail in capturing Ayutthaya and made his decision accordingly. It was the manner of the time, and I thought him often judged unfairly. I also felt his role in supporting the future King Naresuan had not been appreciated. For King Naresuan to achieve what he did would have required a strong base and support. My novel takes that approach. The "Kings of the Toungoo Empire views events from the Burmanperspective of Toungoo.

The death of King Naresuan, while on campaign supporting the Shan of northern Burma, marked a distinct shift in the role of the kings of Ayutthaya. The region, now more under the growing influence of western nations moved from the initial realization that modern weapons of the time could carve out vast empires, to one that embraced trade and the benefits it brings. The reign of his brother, King Ekathotsarot, marked that shift.

War was expensive and trade was beneficial. Trade did, however, bring other conflicts that lingered over Ayutthaya until its demise. The Portuguese and the Dutch dominated international trade in South-East Asia during this period. The Portuguese, who first arrived back in 1511, were the purveyors of the modern weapons that ignited what has been known as the period of “The Gunpowder Kings” particularly the Burman kings of Tabinshwehti and Bayinnaung, but they struggled against the mercantile ability of the Dutch when peace resumed.

The Spanish, the return to trade of the Chinese, the feared English, were more concentrated on the Murghal Empire of India, and Japan all feature in the historic record. It was the Dutch who traded over the years, and it was the Dutch who helped as King Phetracha drove the French from Siam. The Dutch, more than anyone persevered in what to them was a very strange land.

The controversial death of King Narai ushered in the Ban Phlu Luang Dynasty, the final dynasty to rule Ayutthaya, initially under the kingship of King Phetracha. I found King Phetracha to be an embittered man, but one who had a purpose, and that purpose was to become king and to retain his throne. His son, King Suriyenthrathibodi, the "Tiger King" was, arguably, the worst of the Ayutthayan kings. Having said that I found something in him. A fragment in the historic record, which seems unprovable, is that he was dethroned by his two sons following a short civil war. I took this as the basis for a fanciful novel on his life "The Tiger King of Siam," where the king is forced to flee to England and becomes a prizefighter in the stews of London.

The king was challenged to prove his worth against the ten royal virtues by both the nobles and the sangha. King Borommakot, after securing the throne, was a good king and was able to prove himself. His inability to make any meaningful changes to the status of private retainers in his reign did not bode well. As the power of the nobles and the new rich increased, the king found himself under a pressure that previous kings would not have understood. Too parallel it with English history, it was as if his rule by Divine Right was being questioned. Trade was bringing not only wealth, but new ideas.