Ayutthaya, after a bloody period of dynastic …

Years: 1765 - 1765
Ayutthaya, after a bloody period of dynastic struggle, had entered into what has been called the golden age, a relatively peaceful episode in the second quarter of the eighteenth century when art, literature, and learning flourished.

There were foreign wars—Ayutthaya had fought with the Nguyễn Lords (Vietnamese rulers of South Vietnam) for control of Cambodia starting around 1715—but a greater threat comes from Burma, where the new Alaungpaya dynasty (Konbaung dynasty) has subdued the Shan states.

The last fifty years of the kingdom have witnessed a bloody struggle among the princes, their prime target the throne.

Purges of court officials and able generals had followed.

The last monarch, Ekathat, originally known as Prince Anurakmontree, had forced the king, who was his younger brother, to step down and had taken the throne himself.

According to a French source, Ayutthaya in the eighteenth century comprises these principal cities: Martaban, Ligor or Nakhon Sri Thammarat, Tenasserim, Junk Ceylon or Phuket Island, Singora or Songkhla.

Her tributaries are Patani, Pahang, Perak, Kedah and Malacca.

In 1765, a combined forty thousand-strong force of Burmese armies invades the territories of Ayutthaya from the north and west.

Major outlying towns quickly capitulate.

The only notable example of successful resistance to these forces is found at the village of Bang Rajan.

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