Ayutthaya's Royal Palace and King Taksin: from royal page to the night of the dream

A young page at court

In the reign of King Borommakot the Ayutthaya court was enjoying a long period of peace. Service as a royal page was the door into government for the sons of noble families. Tradition has it that Chaophraya Chakri, his adoptive father, presented the young Sin at about the age of 13. He served close to the court, learned the procedures of government, and is said to have studied Chinese, Vietnamese and other languages besides, which proved useful later in dealing with foreign merchants.

Sin was later appointed Luang Yokkrabat of Tak and then Phraya Tak, governor of Tak. This title became the name by which Thais have called him ever since. As for who recommended him for the post at Tak, and in what year he received it, the accounts differ in several versions.

The court under siege

When King Hsinbyushin's Burmese armies came in 1765–1766, King Ekkathat had forces called in from the provincial towns to defend the capital. Phraya Tak was one of the governors called in, and he was appointed Phraya Wachiraprakan, governor of Kamphaeng Phet, but did not go up to govern the town because he had to stay and defend the capital.

The court decided to stand on the defensive inside the city and wait for the floods to force the Burmese to withdraw, as had worked in earlier wars. But this time the Burmese commanders did not withdraw; they drew their ring of camps tighter and tighter. The city ran short of supplies and of morale. In the meantime Phraya Tak fought several times on the Phu Khao Thong plain and on the east side, before deciding to break out through the siege early in January 1767.

The night of the fall, and the Song Puen Throne Hall

On the night of 7 April 1767 the Burmese broke into the city at Maha Chai Fortress on the Hua Ro side, and fire swept the palace and the principal temples. The Thai chronicles say King Ekkathat fled and died some time afterwards; the Burmese chronicle tells it differently.

When King Taksin took the Pho Sam Ton camp at the end of October 1767, the Phra Phonnarat version, the Royal Autograph version and several other versions of the chronicle say he came to stay in the Song Puen Throne Hall in the Royal Palace and dreamt that the former kings came to drive him away, so he decided to set up his capital at Thonburi. But the Phan Chanthanumat (Choem) version and the British Museum version say he stayed at the Pho Sam Ton camp throughout. The dream should therefore be read as a cultural explanation of the move, more than a word-for-word record of real events.

Why the old capital was not restored

Historians give several practical reasons. The city had been burned and badly damaged. The manpower available was not enough to hold a city of this size. Thonburi was near the sea, within easy reach of trade with China and of the eastern coastal towns that were his power base, and if an enemy came overland he could withdraw to the boats. The Royal Palace of Ayutthaya was therefore left in ruins, until its bricks were taken away to build Bangkok in the following reigns.