Sunanda Kumariratana ( th, สุนันทากุมารีรัตน์, , ; 10 November 1860 – 31 May 1880) was a queen consort of

Siam Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

. She was well known as "''The Wrecked Queen''".

Background

She was a daughter and fiftieth child of

ese King Mongkut (Rama IV) and Princess Consort Piam. She was the half-sister and first wife of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) of Siam (now

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is b ...

). The kings's other two wives were her younger sisters, Queen Savang Vadhana and Queen

Saovabha Queen Saovabha Phongsri ( th, เสาวภาผ่องศรี; RTGS: Saowapha PhongsiPronunciation) was an agnatic half-sister and queen of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) of Thailand, and mother of both King Vajiravudh (Rama VI) and King Pr ...

Bhongsi. The queen and her daughter Kannabhorn Bejaratana drowned when the steam boat ''Sorawan'' collided with their royal boat towed by the steam yacht ''Pan Marut'' on the way to the

Bang Pa-In Royal Palace Bang Pa-In Royal Palace ( th, พระราชวังบางปะอิน), also known as the Summer Palace, is a palace complex formerly used by the Chakri dynasty, Thai kings. It lies beside the Chao Phraya River in Bang Pa-in District, P ...

(Summer Palace). There is an often repeated myth that the many witnesses to the accident did not dare to touch the queen, a

capital offense Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

—not even to save her life. However, this was not the case; the King's diary records that boatmen dived into the water, pulled the queen and her daughter from the entangling curtains, and carried them to another boat, where attendants worked in vain to resuscitate them. No one else died in the accident.

Funeral

The grief-stricken Chulalongkorn demanded a resplendent funeral for them. Preparations for the funeral took 10 months and the funeral ceremony did not begin until 10 March 1881. The bodies of the queen and princess were dried with injections of quicksilver and stored in golden urns while precious woods were collected for the construction of a funeral pyre; royal facilities where the king and entourage resided during the cremation ceremonies were also constructed in a location referred to as ''Pra Mane''. The funeral pyre was reported to be tall and was built over an altar where the urns were placed for cremation. The proceedings and celebrations were opulent, attended by many, and documented in great detail. Chulalongkorn lit the funeral pyre around 6:00p.m. on 15 March to the sound of horns, and the pyre burned throughout the night. Celebrations ended on 20 March with a procession to the Grand Palace.

Ancestors

References

External links

Thai queens consort Consorts of Chulalongkorn 19th-century Thai women 19th-century Chakri dynasty Deaths by drowning Accidental deaths in Thailand 1860 births 1880 deaths Thai female Phra Ong Chao Thai princesses consort Children of Mongkut {{thailand-bio-stub