Thonburi Kingdom

Government

Thonburi government organization was centred on a loose-knit organization of city-states, whose provincial lords were appointed through 'personal ties' to the king, similar to Ayutthaya and, later, Rattanakosin administrations. Thonburi inherited most of the government apparatus from the Late Ayutthaya. Two prime ministers; Samuha Nayok the prime minister and Samuha Kalahom the minister of military, led the central government. In the early years of Thonburi, Chaophraya Chakri Mud the Muslim of Persian descent hold the position of Samuha Nayok until his death in 1774. Chakri Mut was succeeded as prime minister by Chaophraya Chakri Thongduang who later became King Rama I. Below the prime minister were the four ministers of Chatusadom.

Like in Ayutthaya, the regional government was organized in the hierarchy of cities, in which smaller towns were under jurisdiction of larger cities. The provincial government was an association of local lords tied by personal ties to the king. The regional administrative centre of Northern Siam was Phitsanulok, while for Southern Siam was Nakhon Si Thammarat. After his conquest of Hua Mueang Nuea or Northern Siam in 1770, King Taksin installed his early followers who had distinguished themselves in battles as the governors of Northern Siamese cities. Governors of Sawankhalok, Nakhon Sawan and Sankhaburi were given exceptionally high rank of Chaophraya, while the central Chatusadom ministers were ranked lower as Phraya. Chaophraya Surasi Boonma was the governor of Phitsanulok during Thonburi times. Phitsanulok and other Northern Siamese towns were devastated by Maha Thiha Thura's invasion in 1775–1776.

After his conquest of the Ligor regime in 1769, Taksin made his nephew Prince Nara Suriyawong the ruler of Nakhon Si Thammarat. Prince Nara Suriyawong of Ligor died in 1776 and King Taksin made Chaophraya Nakhon Nu, the former leader of the Ligor regime, an autonomous ruler of Nakhon Si Thammarat. Ligor would enjoy autonomy until the end of Thonburi Period in 1782 when King Rama I curbed the power of the Ligor by demoting the ruler of Ligor to be the 'governor' instead.

With the exception of Bunma (later Chao Phraya Surisi and later Maha Sura Singhanat), a member of the old Ayutthaya artistocracy who had joined Taksin early on in his campaigns of reunification, and later Bunma's brother, Thongduang (later Chao Phraya Chakri and later King Rama I), high political positions and titles within the Thonburi Kingdom were mainly given to Taksin's early followers, instead of the already established Siamese nobility who survived after the fall of Ayutthaya, many of whom having supported Thepphiphit, the governor of Phitsanulok and an Ayutthaya aristocrat, during the Siamese civil war. In the Northern cities, centred on Sukhothai and Phitsanulok, Taksin installed early supporters of his who had distinguished themselves in battle, many of whom were allowed to establish their own local dynasties afterwards, but elsewhere, several noble families had kept their titles and positions within the new kingdom (Nakhon Si Thammarat, Lan Na), (the ruler of Nakhon Si Thammarat that Taksin defeated during the civil war was reinstated as its ruler) whose personal connections made them a formidable force within the Thonburi court.

Kingship

The Thonburi period saw the return of 'personal kingship', a style of ruling that was used by Naresuan but was abandoned by Naresuan's successors after his death. Taksin, similar to Naresuan, personally led armies into battle and often revealed himself to the common folk by partaking in public activities and traditional festivities, thereby abandoning the shroud of mysticism as adopted by many Ayutthaya monarchs. Also similar to Naresuan, Taksin was known for being a cruel and authoritarian monarch. Taksin reigned rather plainly, doing little to emphasize his new capital as the spiritual successor to Ayutthaya and adopted an existing wat besides his palace, Wat Jaeng (also spelled Wat Chaeng, later Wat Arun), as the principal temple of his kingdom. Taksin largely emphasized the building of moats and defensive walls in Thonburi, all while only building a modest Chinese-style residence and adding a pavilion to house the Emerald Buddha and Phra Bang images at Wat Jaeng, recently taken in 1778 from the Lao states (Vientiane and Luang Prabang, respectively).

Territories

After the Fall of Ayutthaya in 1767, the Siamese mandala system was in disarray and its former tributary states faced political uncertainties. The Malay sultanates that used to pay bunga mas tributes to Ayutthaya initially nullified their tributary ties and refused any further allegiance. After the establishment of Thonburi and the momentous rebirth of Siam, the sultanates of Pattani, Terengganu and possibly Kedah sent tributes to Thonburi in 1769. Francis Light mentioned that Kedah had sent tributes to Siam but did not specify a year. Despite the bunga mas tributes, the degree of actual Siamese control over the Malay sultanates in the Thonburi Period was doubtful. King Taksin requested military and monetary obligations from Pattani, Kelantan and Terengganu to aid Siam against the Burmese invasion in 1776. However, the Malay sultans ignored this order and did not face any repercussions. In 1777, Nakhon Nu the ruler of Ligor proposed to King Taksin to send expedition to subjugate the Malay sultanates. King Taksin refused, however, stating that the defense of frontiers against Burmese incursions was more of priority. Siam only resumed real political control over the Northern Malay sultanates in 1786 in the Rattanakosin Period.

With the exception of the western Tenasserim Coast, the Thonburi Kingdom reconquered most of the land previously held under the Ayutthaya Kingdom and expanded Siam to its greatest territorial extent up to that point. During the Thonburi period, Siam acquired new Prathetsarats or tributary kingdoms. Thonburi took control of Lanna in 1775, ending the 200 years of Burmese vassalage, which became Northern Thailand today. Taksin appointed his supporters against the Burmese, Phaya Chaban and Kawila, as the governors of Chiang Mai and Lampang respectively in 1775. The princedom of Nan also came under the power of Thonburi in 1775. However, Burma pushed on an intensive campaign to reclaim lost Lanna territories, resulting in the abandonment of Chiang Mai in 1777 and Nan in 1775 due to Burmese threats. Only Lampang under Kawila stood as the forefront citadel against Burmese incursions.

After the capture of Vientiane in 1779, all of the three Lao kingdoms of Luang Phrabang, Vientiane and Champasak became tributary kingdoms under Siamese suzerainty. King Taksin appointed the Lao prince Nanthasen as the new King of Vientiane in 1781. Vassal (mandala) states of the Thonburi Kingdom at its height in 1782, to varying degrees of autonomy, included the Nakhon Si Thammarat Kingdom, the Northern Thai principalities of Chiang Mai, Lampang, Nan, Lamphun, and Phrae, and the Lao Kingdoms of Champasak, Luang Phrabang, and Vientiane.

Economy

In the Late Ayutthaya Period, Siam was a prominent rice exporter to Qing China. After the Fall of Ayutthaya in 1767, the Siamese economy collapsed. Rice production and economic activities ceased. Thonburi period was the time of economic crisis as people died from warfare and starvation and inflation was prevalent. Siam became a rice importer. In 1767, after his reconquest of Ayutthaya, King Taksin donated to over 1,000 desolate people. He also ordered an Ayutthayan bronze cannon to be broken down into pieces to buy rice and distribute to the starving populace, earning him a great popularity. The rice commodity price in Thonburi period was high, reaching apex in 1770 at the price of three Chang per one Kwian of rice. Thonburi court purchased imported rice and distribute it to ease the famine crisis. The port city-state of Hà Tiên was the major rice exporter into Siam before 1771.

Qing China and the Dutch were the main trading partners of Siam in the Late Ayutthaya Period. The Ayutthayan court relied on trade with China under the Chinese tributary system as a source of revenue. The Dutch had earlier abandoned their factory in Ayutthaya and left Siam in 1765 due to the Burmese invasion. The Thonburi court sent a letter to the Supreme Government of Dutch East Indies Company at Batavia in 1769 in efforts to resume the trade but the Dutch were not interested. King Taksin, himself a Teochew Chinese, sought imperial recognition from the Qing Beijing court. However, the Qing court under Emperor Qianlong refused to accept Taksin as the rightful ruler of Siam because Mạc Thiên Tứ the ruler of Hà Tiên had told Beijing that remaining descendants of the fallen Ayutthayan dynasty were with him in Hà Tiên. This urged Taksin to conduct an expedition in 1771 to destroy Hà Tiên and to capture the scions of former dynasty. Only then the Qing finally recognized Taksin as the King of Siam in the Chinese tributary system in 1777.

Even though Siam did not procure successful relation with China until 1777, trade in private sectors flourished. A Chinese document from 1776 suggested a rapid revival of Sino-Siamese trade after the Burmese war. King Taksin employed his own personal Chinese merchants to trade at Guangzhou to acquire wealth into the royal revenue. Prominent royal merchants of King Taksin included Phra Aphaiwanit Ong Mua-seng (王満盛, a grandson of Ong Heng-Chuan 王興全 the Hokkien Chinese Phrakhlang of the Late Ayutthaya) and Phra Phichaiwari Lin Ngou (林伍). J. G. Koenig, the Danish botanist who visited Siam in 1779, observed that Siam "was amply provided with all sorts of articles from China" and that King Taksin made fortunes by "buying the best goods imported at a very low price and selling them again to the merchants of the town at 100 percent interest".

During the early years of Thonburi, a Teochew Chinese Phraya Phiphit Chen Lian was the acting Phrakhlang or the Minister of Trade. Chen Lian was appointed as the governor of Hà Tiên in 1771 and was succeeded as Phrakhlang by another Chinese Phraya Phichai Aisawan Yang Jinzong (楊進宗).

Siamese economic conditions improved over time as trade and production resumed. After the devastation of Central Siam by the Burmese invasion of 1775–1776, however, Siam was again plunged into another economic downturn. King Taksin ordered his high-ranking ministers to supervise the rice production in the outskirts of Thonburi and had to postpone tributary mission to China. During the Burmese Invasion of Ayutthaya, the elites of Ayutthaya found no way to protect their wealth and belongings other than by simply burying them in the grounds. However, not all of them returned to claim their wealth as they either died or were deported to Burma. Surviving owners and other hunters rushed to dig for treasures in the grounds of the former royal city. This Ayutthaya treasure rush was so widespread and lucrative that the Thonburi court intervened to tax.

Demography

Population of Siam decades before the Fall of Ayutthaya in 1767 was estimated to be around two million people, with 200,000 people in the royal city of Ayutthaya. It is also estimated that 30,000 inhabitants of the Ayutthaya city were deported to Burma. No direct records exist about the demographic change post-1767 but it is clear that a great number of Siamese people died in the Burmese invasion war and the overall Siamese population plummeted. Central Siam was the most affected region due to its position in the centre of warfare. Large number of people also escaped chaos by living in the jungles unreached by any government authorities. The general shortage of manpower put Siam into economic and military disadvantages. In 1782, the newfound city of Bangkok had a population of around 50,000 people, presumably what Thonburi city had at the end of the period.

Ineffective manpower control had been a problem since the Late Ayutthaya Period and was one of the factors that contributed to the Fall of Ayutthaya. In 1773, King Taksin introduced the Sak Lek Mai Mu or Conscription Tattooing, which had not been widely practiced before, to put stringent control over manpower. Able-bodied male Phrai commoners of eligible age were drafted and marked onto their wrists with small tattoos denoting their responsible departments – a form of universal conscription. Krom Suratsawadi or the Conscription Department would take the task of registering the recruits into Hangwow registers. This Sak Lek practice enabled more effective recruitment and made evasion harder. The Conscription Tattooing would continue into the Rattanakosin Period. The Phrai corvée obligations in Thonburi period was intensive due to lack of manpower. Unlike the Ayutthaya and Rattanakosin Periods when the Phrai served in alternating months and were allowed free time to return to their homes, the Phrai of Thonburi served government all year round.

Thonburi Kingdom also acquired its population through forced ethnic immigrations in the course of military subjugation of neighboring polities. Two major population influx events occurred in 1773 with 10,000 Cambodians and in 1779 with ten thousands of Lao people deported to resettle in Siam. These ethnic migrants were settled in various towns of Central Siam, where the manpower was in great demand. The Cambodians were settled in Thonburi and Ratchaburi, while the Lao were bound for Saraburi, Thonburi and Ratchaburi. People as far as the Tai Dam of Sipsong Chuthai were taken to settle in Phetchaburi. The Cambodian and the Lao people became the major labor force in the foundation of Bangkok in 1782. The failed Mon rebellion against Burma in 1774 propelled another Mon exodus into Siam, numbering thousands of people. King Taksin also encouraged immigration of his fellow Teochew Chinese people from Guangdong in his efforts to solve the manpower shortage problem.

Unlike Central Siam, the Hua Mueang Nuea or Northern Siam, the area comprising the former core territories of the Sukhothai kingdom in the Upper Chao Phraya Basin, was largely spared from the Burmese destruction in 1767. However, the Burmese invasion by general Maha Thiha Thura in 1775–1776 destroyed and devastated Northern Siam. Thai chronicles described available manpower in Northern Siamese cities before 1775 as 15,000 men in Phitsanulok, 7,000 men in Sawankhalok and 5,000 men in Sukhothai. A decade later, during the Nine Armies' War in 1786, Northern Siam was so depopulated that it cannot raise an army to defend itself against the Burmese invasion. In 1833, only 5,000 men from Phitsanulok, 500 men from Sawankhalok and 600 men from Sukhothai were drafted into the Siamese–Vietnamese War, showing significant drop in population.

Religion

Theravada Buddhism

After the Fall of Ayutthaya, the Ayutthayan monastic order dissolved and Buddhist monks were left unsupported. King Taksin made efforts, in his reconstruction of Siam, to rehabilitate Theravada Buddhism. Taksin ordered his officials to search for remaining learned monks of knowledge to give them new robes and honor, inviting them to stay in Thonburi. In 1768, King Taksin had the monks assembled at Wat Bangwayai temple (modern Wat Rakhang), where Taksin appointed the new monastic hierarchy in order to restore Siamese ecclesiastic organization and also appointed the venerable monk Dee from Wat Pradu Songtham as the Sangharaja or the Buddhist hierophant of Thonburi in 1769. However, an accusation was filed against the Sangharaja that he had previously collaborated with Burmese occupiers to forcibly extract money from the populace at Phosamton. The Sangharaja Dee was put into a judiciary trial of walking into fire to prove his innocence, which he failed, was sacked from his Sangharaja position and defrocked.

When King Taksin took the city of Nakhon Si Thammarat (Ligor) in 1769, he gave money, rice and robes to the Ligorian monks. He also had Pāli Tripitaka manuscripts from Ligor transported to Thonburi in order to generate copies of Buddhist scriptures lost in wars. King Taksin appointed the Venerable Si of Wat Phanan Choeng, who had earlier taken refuge from Burmese invasion in Ligor, as the new Sangharaja in 1770 staying at Wat Bangwayai in Thonburi. While King Taksin treated Southern Siamese monks generously, he took a different approach on Northern Siamese monks. Taksin believed that Northern Siamese monks were the followers of the heterodox monk Chao Phra Fang, who claimed supernatural abilities and had been Taksin's rival warlord. After his conquest of Northern Siam in 1770, King Taksin ordered massive laicization of Northern Siamese monks. Those who wished to retain their monkhood should undergo the trial of diving into water to prove their sanctity. King Taksin presided over a grand ceremony to purify Northern Siamese Sangha, in which the monks were put to the trials. This perhaps was done to purge any remaining Chao Phra Fang's sympathizers. Then, King Taksin appointed Central Siamese monks from Thonburi to be abbots of various temples in Northern Siam.

King Taksin's ultimate goal was not only being king but also attaining Buddhahood, which mindfulness and meditations were the way to achieve. In late 1776, King Taksin began to actively pursue esoteric Borān Kammaṭṭhāna meditational practices. He seriously studied meditation methods with the monk Phra Wannarat Thongyu at Wat Hong Rattanaram. King Taksin even composed his own meditation manual in 1775. He sent monks to Ligor and Cambodia in search for Visuddhimagga treatise on meditation. In 1777, King Taksin declared that he had become a sotapanna the 'stream-enterer' who had entered the first of four-stage path to Buddhahood. In 1778, Taksin ordered the recompliation of Traiphum – Buddhist literature on cosmology. Upholding Buddhism had been considered royal duties but Taksin went beyond being Buddhist patron by taking the role of teacher and leader of the Sangha and personally practising the Kammaṭṭhāna. In 1780, King Taksin commanded that the monks should perform wai gesture to pay respect to him and lay prostrate before him. Taksin's new stance reversed the usual relationship between monk and king and caused schism in the Sangha between those who complied with the king's rhetoric and those who rejected. Sangharaja Si insisted that monks were always superior to laymen. The angered king stripped Venerable Si of his Sangharaja position and made the monk Chuen of Wat Hong, who supported Taksin's assertion, the new Sangharaja instead. Five hundred monks who refused to obey royal orders were beaten as punishment. Si and other monks were condemned to menial works in Wat Hong, serving the new patriarch. When Taksin fell from power in 1782, King Rama I restored Venerable Si to his position as Sangharaja, praising him for undeterred adherence to orthodoxy.

Christianity

Pierre Brigot, the apostolic vicar of Siam in Ayutthaya, was captured along with other Christians by the Burmese during the Fall of Ayutthaya in 1767 and was deported to Rangoon in Burma. Brigot later went to Pondicherry in 1768, never to return to Siam again. Father Jacques Corre, a French priest, led the community of 400-500 Portuguese Christian survivors from Ayutthaya to resettle in the Kudi Chin district on the west bank of Chao Phraya. Olivier-Simon Le Bon the Bishop of Metellopolis, a French bishop, arrived in Thonburi in 1772 in efforts to re-establish Christian mission in Siam. In 1772, dissidents who refused to accept the authority of the French mission moved to the east bank and founded the Holy Rosary Church.

In 1774, King Taksin invited Buddhist monks, Christian priests and Muslims to join a religious debate about whether killing an animal is a sin. Christians and Muslims argued that killing animals was not sinful. Taksin was angered by this argument and issued an edict in October 1774 forbidding the conversion of native Siamese and Mon people to Christianity and Islam. The Siamese king became suspicious of the Christian missionaries. Taksin ordered Siamese Christian officials to undertake the Siamese lustral-water-drinking ritual to swear fealty to him. The missionaries found out that the Christians officials had to swear allegiance to the king in front of a Buddha image so they refused to allow those Siamese Christians to participate. King Taksin was even more enraged and ordered the imprisonment of Bishop Le Bon and two other French priests, namely Arnaud-Antoine Garnault and Joseph-Louis Coudé, in September 1775. They were put in cangues, interrogated and whipped with rattan blows. They were released one year later in September 1776 and Olivier-Simon Le Bon was appointed the new apostolic vicar of Siam shortly after. However, the situation for Christian missionaries were still deteriorating and they were eventually expelled from Siam in December 1779. Le Bon retired to Goa where he died in 1780. Joseph-Louis Coudé was made to succeed him as the apostolic vicar of Siam in 1782. Coudé went to Bangkok in 1783 where the new King Rama I pardoned Coudé and allowed the Siamese Christian officials to skip the drinking ceremony.

Diplomacy

China

In September 1767, Li Shiyao (李侍堯), the viceroy of Liangguang, dispatched Xu Quan (許全) to either Hà Tiên or Chanthaburi to investigate the situation in Siam after the Fall of Ayutthaya. As soon as he set up his new capital at Thonburi, King Taksin sent his Chinese merchant Chen Mei (陳美) as his delegate to go to Guangzhou, reaching the Chinese city in September 1768. Taksin, addressing himself as Gan En Zhi (甘恩敕), reported to the Chinese court that Ayutthaya had fallen to the Burmese invaders and asked for formal investiture from Chinese Emperor Qianlong as the 'King of Siam' – the recognition that would assist Taksin in his subjugation of rival lords. However, Mạc Thiên Tứ, the ruler of Hà Tiên, also sent a competing mission to Guangzhou in 1768. Mạc Thiên Tứ reported to the Chinese court that the two Ayutthayan princes; namely Zhao Cui (Chao Chui) and Zhao Shichang (Chao Sisang), were under his protection in Hà Tiên. Emperor Qianlong strongly rejected Taksin's proposal in his imperial decree, urging Taksin to promote the Ayutthayan princes to the throne instead and had Li Shiyao give the response to Chen Mei. Xu Quan was reported dead from illness in August 1768 and Li Shiyao had to send Zheng Rui (鄭瑞) as a replacement for Xu Quan in December 1768. Next year, in 1769, Zheng Rui met with Prince Chui at Hà Tiên. Prince Chui told Zheng Rui that he needed help from the Chinese Emperor.

The acting Phrakhlang, in the name of the Thonburi court, sent a letter to Supreme Government of the Dutch East India Company at Batavia in January 1769. The Siamese Phrakhlang told the Dutch that it was the Siamese king (Ekkathat) who had sent Phraya Tak to Chanthaburi. Thonburi requested for some thousands flintlock ammunitions from the Dutch and also urged Batavia to forward the letter to the Prince of Orange and Nassau in order to ask the prince to appoint a new Dutch residence in Siam to resume trade. However, the Dutch, who had earlier abandoned their factory in Ayutthaya in 1765 in the face of Burmese invasion, were not interested in returning to Siam. The Dutch Supreme Government in Batavia replied in May 1769 that re-establishment of Dutch factory in Siam required consent from the Prince of Orange and Nassau but the ammunitions were promised to be sent in the meantime via Chinese skippers. The Dutch flintlock muskets actually arrived in Thonburi in 1770. The Dutch would not reach any diplomatic agreements with Siam again until 1860.

As China and Burma had been engaging in the Sino–Burmese War, in August 1769, Li Shiyao sent a commander Cai Han (蔡漢) to bring orders to Mạc Thiên Tứ, instructing the ruler of Hà Tiên to capture the Burmese. However, Mạc Thiên Tứ instead suggested that the order should be transmitted to King Taksin. Cai Han sent the order to Taksin, urging him to pursue and capture the Burmese. The Qing court then realized that King Taksin was the actual ruler of Siam and began to adjust its diplomatic policy. King Taksin took advantage of Chinese enmity towards Burma by sending fifty Burmese captives, including a Burmese chief, to present at Guangzhou in his second mission in August 1771, addressing himself in the letter as Zheng Zhao. Qianlong proclaimed in November 1771 in favor of Taksin as he realized that the Siamese king could be a reliable ally against the Burmese. After his capture of Hà Tiên in November 1771, Taksin sent the Chinese farmers in Hà Tiên back to their homelands in China unharmed. By 1772, in respect to Hà Tiên, it was clear that Taksin gained victory over Mạc Thiên Tứ diplomatically.

The Qing court made an exception to allow Thonburi to purchase military materials from China, which were usually prohibited from export, to fight against the Burmese. King Taksin sent his Chinese merchants in 1774 and 1775 to purchase saltpeter and other military equipment in Guangzhou. As the tides turned in his favor, Taksin dispatched a mission to Yang Jingsu (楊景素) the new viceroy of Liangguang in July 1777, expressing that he wished to offer the traditional tributes to the Chinese Emperor in full protocol. Qianglong replied by ordering Yang Jingsu to keep the door open for Taksin's regime. On this occasion, the Qing court referred to Taksin as Wang or 'King' for the first time – the gesture of unofficial recognition of Taksin as King of Siam in the tributary system. However, Taksin showed little interest in this huge progress for he had already secured his power as the ruler of Siam and no longer needed the Chinese influence to consolidate his position.

Due to the devastating Burmese invasion of 1775–1776, King Taksin sent a letter asking to postpone the tributary mission in 1778. The first and only official Siamese tributary mission to China in the Thonburi Period was eventually dispatched in May 1781, headed by Phraya Sundhon Aphai. The rituals and protocol were observed in full for the first time after the Fall of Ayutthaya. In February 1782, the Siamese diplomatic mission reached Beijing but Phraya Sundhon Aphai fell ill and died. His funeral was arranged by the Qing court. Phraya Sundhon Aphai was replaced by his deputy Luang Phichai Saneha and set off to return to Thonburi in July 1782. The Qing court finally recognized Taksin as King of Siam and gave the red robes and the Qing royal stamp for Taksin's use as King. However, when the mission returned the regime had already changed as Taksin had been deposed. The new (Rattanakosin) court was officially recognized and invested title by the Qing in 1787 in the reign of King Rama I.

Britain and Denmark

In 1776, Francis Light the British merchant, in his private venture, procured 1,400 flintlocks from the Danish at Tranquebar and presented them to King Taksin along with other goods as gifts. King Taksin was eager to acquire more flintlock muskets so he had his Phrakhlang write a letter to the Danish. In the letter dated to December 1776, the Siamese Phrakhlang requested for a ten thousand of flintlock muskets from David Brown the Danish governor at Tranquebar, through Francis Light, in possible exchange for Siamese tin.

Military

Much like Naresuan two centuries prior, Taksin often personally led his troops on campaign and into battle. Later on, Taksin would increasingly delegate his chief generals, Chao Phraya Chakri and Chao Phraya Surasi, on leading Thonburi military expeditions, such as the 1781 expedition to Cambodia, immediately prior to Taksin's deposition.

Following the Burmese–Siamese War (1775–1776), the military balance of power within the kingdom shifted as Taksin took away troops from his old followers in the Northern Cities, who had performed disappointingly in the previous war, and concentrated these forces to protect the capital at Thonburi, also similar to Naresuan, placing more military power within the hands of two powerful brother-generals from the traditional aristocracy, Chao Phraya Chakri and Chao Phraya Surasi, who later overthrew Taksin in an elite-backed coup in 1782.