Chettathirat (, ) or (upon accession to the Ayutthayan throne) Ramathibodi II (; 1472/73 – July/10 October 1529) was the King of Sukhothai from 1485 and King of Ayutthaya from 1491 to 1529. His reign was marked by the first Western Contact with the Portuguese.

King of Sukhothai

Prince Chettathirat was the youngest of Trailokanat's three sons. His eldest brother, Prince Borommaracha, was appointed the regent of Ayutthaya during his father's campaigns against Lanna kingdom. His other brother, Prince Indraracha, died during the wars with Lanna. In 1485, Prince Chettathirat was appointed the Uparaja, or

Crown Prince A crown prince or hereditary prince is the heir apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The female form of the title, crown princess, is held by a woman who is heir apparent or is married to the heir apparent. ''Crown prince ...

, and was crowned as the King of Sukhothai (The title King of Sukhothai was the title of Ayutthayan Crown Prince.) In 1488, Trailokanat died. Though Chettathirat was the Crown Prince, the Ayutthayan throne was inherited by his brother Prince Borommaracha, as Borommaracha III. In 1491, Borommaracha III died, leaving the throne to Chettathirat, thus reuniting the two kingdoms.

King of Ayutthaya

Chettathiraj took the reigning name in Ayutthaya as Ramathibodi II.

Invasion of Malacca

In 1500, Ramathibodi II sent the Siamese armies to

subjugate Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...

the

Sultanate of Malacca The Malacca Sultanate (; Jawi script: ) was a Malays (ethnic group), Malay sultanate based in the modern-day state of Malacca, Malaysia. Conventional historical thesis marks as the founding year of the sultanate by King of Singapura, Parameswa ...

. Though unable to conquer Malacca, Siam managed to exact tributes from the Malacca sultanate and other sultanates like Pattani,

Pahang {{Infobox political division , name = Pahang , official_name = Pahang Darul Makmur , native_name = , settlement_type = States and federal territories of Malaysia, State , image_skyline = , imagesize ...

, and

Kelantan Kelantan (; Kelantan-Pattani Malay, Kelantanese Malay: ''Klate''; ) is a state in Malaysia. The capital, Kota Bharu, includes the royal seat of Kubang Kerian. The honorific, honorific name of the state is ''Darul Naim'' ("The Blissful Abode"). ...

. In 1511, however, Malacca fell to the Portuguese under

Afonso de Albuquerque Afonso de Albuquerque, 1st Duke of Goa ( – 16 December 1515), was a Portuguese general, admiral, statesman and ''conquistador''. He served as viceroy of Portuguese India from 1509 to 1515, during which he expanded Portuguese influence across ...

. Albuquerque's embassy, under the leadership of Duarte Fernandes, arrived in Siam in 1518. These were the first Europeans in Siam. Rama Tibodi II signed a treaty with them giving the Portuguese "complete commercial freedom", the right to establish Christian missions and build churches.Chakrabongse, C., 1960, Lords of Life, London: Alvin Redman Limited

War with Lanna

In 1513, King Kaew of Lanna invaded Sukhothai. Ramathibodi II led the Siamese armies to crush the invading armies and proceeded further to Lanna heartlands. In 1515, he sacked Lampang (a Southeast Asian practice to sack but not to occupy). He then appointed his son, Prince Athittayawong as King of Sukhothai.

Establishment of Corvée system

In Southeast Asia, manpower was the source of other powers. In 1518, Ramathibodi II established the Siamese

Corvée Corvée () is a form of unpaid forced labour that is intermittent in nature, lasting for limited periods of time, typically only a certain number of days' work each year. Statute labour is a corvée imposed by a state (polity), state for the ...

system, the very system that lasted until its abolition by Chulalongkorn in 1905. The Siamese commoners - called ''phrai'' () - were subjected to lifelong labour service to the government. All Siamese men aged 18 would be registered to be conscripted - to be sent to war (Phrai Thaan) or public construction (Phrai luang). It was similar to modern form of conscription. However, the Siamese Corvée system existed in various forms. ''Krom Phra Suratsawadi'', a department of the royal

bureaucracy Bureaucracy ( ) is a system of organization where laws or regulatory authority are implemented by civil servants or non-elected officials (most of the time). Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments ...

, oversaw

conscription Conscription, also known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it conti ...

Death

Ramathibodi II died in July/10 October 1529, during which a great

comet A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or Coma (cometary), coma surrounding ...

appeared as recorded in the Siamese Chronicles: His son, Prince Athittayawong, succeeded to the throne as Borommaracha IV. Phrarajaphongsawadan chabap Luang Prasoet he Luang Prasoet Chronicle of Ayutthaya(BE 2542 /AD 1999) In Prachumphongsawadan chabapkanchanaphisek lem nueng hronicle of Golden Jubilee Volume 1 pp. 209-233. Bangkok : Division of Literature and History, Fine Arts Department, Ministry of Education.

Ancestry

References

;Notes ;Written sources * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Ramathibodi 2 1470s births 1529 deaths Suphannaphum dynasty Kings of Ayutthaya 15th-century monarchs in Asia 16th-century monarchs in Asia Princes of Ayutthaya 16th-century Thai people 15th-century Thai people