The Chevalier de Beauregard (c.1665–c.1692) was a 17th-century French officer who was active in

Siam Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

(modern

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

). He became Governor of

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estim ...

and

Mergui Myeik (, or ; , ; , , ; formerly Mergui, ) is a rural city in Tanintharyi Region, Myanmar, located in the extreme south of the country on the coast off an island on the Andaman Sea. , the estimated population was over 209,000. ''World Gazett ...

, but was eventually captured by the Siamese during the 1688 Siamese revolution. Siege of Bangkok

De Beauregard went to Siam in 1685, with the embassy of

Chevalier de Chaumont Alexandre, Chevalier de Chaumont (1640 – 28 January 1710 in Paris) was the first French ambassador for King Louis XIV in Siam in 1685.Chakrabongse, C., 1960, Lords of Life, London: Alvin Redman Limited He was accompanied on his mission by Abbé ...

. He was transferred to the garrison of

, under the command of Chevalier

Claude de Forbin Claude, comte de Forbin-Gardanne (6 August 1656 – 4 March 1733) was a French Navy officer, nobleman and diplomat. From 1685 to 1688, he led a diplomatic mission to the Ayutthaya Kingdom. He became governor of Bangkok and a general in the Siamese ...

. In July 1686, when the fort was attacked by a band of pirates from

Makassar Makassar ( ), formerly Ujung Pandang ( ), is the capital of the Indonesian Provinces of Indonesia, province of South Sulawesi. It is the largest city in the region of Eastern Indonesia and the country's fifth-largest urban center after Jakarta, ...

, de Beauregard's belly was slit open with a dagger, but his commander de Forbin managed to replace the viscera and sew him up, making him the first recorded case of a Western-style surgical intervention in Thailand.

As I drew near the bed and examined the young man more strictly, I saw that he breathed still, but he could not speak and his mouth as all in a froth. I found his belly open and his very entrails and stomach hanging out upon his thighs. Not knowing what to do to help him, because I had no remedy nor surgeon, I ventured to manage him in the best manner I could myself. Having to this end provided a couple of needles and some silk, I restored his entrails to their place, and sew the wound up, in the manner as I had before observed on the like occasions. I then made a couple of ligatures, which I tied together, and after having beat the white of an egg and mingled it with some fied icit for ten days together upon the patient, with such success that he was cured. Indeed Beauregard never had any fever, or other bad symptom. I observed that when I replaced his entrails in his belly, they were grown as dry as parchment, and clotted with coagulated blood, yet it did not hinder the perfect cure which followed in a few days.

In 1687 de Beauregard briefly replaced Forbin as governor of

De Beauregard was then made governor of the city of

after the revolt against the English there in July 1687. De Beauregard was named governor by King

Narai King Narai the Great (, , ) or Ramathibodi III ( ) was the 27th monarch of Ayutthaya Kingdom, the 4th and last monarch of the Prasat Thong dynasty. He was the king of Ayutthaya Kingdom from 1656 to 1688 and arguably the most famous king of the ...

of Siam in the place of the Englishman, Samuel White. De Beauregard was part of the retreat of the French troops of De Bruant there, following the 1688 Siamese revolution. Large-scale attacks were launched on the two French fortresses in Siam,

and Mergui, and on 24 June, the French had to abandon their garrison at Mergui. Du Bruant and de Beauregard managed to escape under fire and with many casualties by seizing a Siamese warship, the ''Mergui''. De Beauregard was eventually captured by the Siamese in Tavoy when the French ships from Mergui tried to obtain some victuals there, together with four soldiers and the

Jesuit The Society of Jesus (; abbreviation: S.J. or SJ), also known as the Jesuit Order or the Jesuits ( ; ), is a religious order (Catholic), religious order of clerics regular of pontifical right for men in the Catholic Church headquartered in Rom ...

Pierre d'Espagnac. The captives seem to have been enslaved.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beauregard, Chevalier De Expatriates in the Ayutthaya Kingdom 17th-century French people 1660s births 1690s deaths

See also

References