History of Ayutthaya: Siam in the Early Modern World by Baker Chris; Phongpaichit Pasuk

Author:Baker, Chris; Phongpaichit, Pasuk [Baker, Chris; Phongpaichit, Pasuk]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2017-05-10T18:30:00+00:00

Phra Phetracha, Monks, and the Mob

From 1683 Narai sickened, and another succession battle approached. Narai had no son. Following the purges of recent reigns, his only close male kin were two half-brothers. One of these, Aphaithot, was deformed or “paralytic” and “subject to passionate outburst of temper and much addicted to strong drink.”220 The other, Noi, was reputedly caught with one of the king’s consorts in 1683 and flogged so badly that he either lost the power of speech or pretended to.221 Narai had adopted Pi, the son of a courtier, and was expected by some at court to nominate him as heir.

In the mid-1680s, the plots started. A refugee Macassar prince resident in Ayutthaya planned to seize the palace and control the succession. The plot was discovered but two months were required to quell the fierce Macassar fighters. Factions in court were suspected to lie behind the failed coup.222 A noble usurper and plots involving the foreign troops at Ayutthaya were standard components of Ayutthaya succession struggles. Two new elements, presaging the future, were the monkhood and the mob.

In the latter part of Narai’s reign the economy had been strained, first by the wars of the 1660s and early 1670s, and then by the extension of royal taxes and monopolies. The mid-1660s saw a series of local famines and epidemics, and the years from 1680 to 1700 were a phase of low average rainfall.223 In 1681–82, a smallpox epidemic ravaged Ayutthaya and Lopburi. In 1685, a French missionary reported that “trade has been disrupted to the point where the Chinese and Moors had to depart, leaving only those who have no ready capital for trade.”224 Narai’s decision to intervene in a succession battle in Cambodia resulted in renewed mobilizations in 1684–85, and a bloody defeat of the Siamese army.225 In 1685, in a recurring pattern in such times of stress, a dumb simpleton was heralded as a phumibun (man of merit) who “would one day become a God,” and “People flocked to him from all Parts, to adore him,” until the court put a stop to it.226

A leader emerged in the traditional nobility. Phra Phetracha came from an established noble family. His mother had been Narai’s wet nurse, while his sister and another close relative were royal consorts. He had been a prominent soldier, especially in the Chiang Mai expeditions, a confidant of the king, and now held the post of keeper of the royal elephants.227 Narai appointed him as regent during his final sickness.228 La Loubère noted in 1685, “The people … think him invulnerable, because he expressed a great deal of Courage in some fight against the Peguins.”229 He had twice spent time in the monkhood and was admired within the nobility and sangha for his religious devotion.230 When the contingent of French troops was about to enter Siam in 1687, Phetracha raised the specter of colonial aggression while addressing the King’s council:

In a speech of ninety minutes duration he enlarged upon the fate of each Eastern

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.