Rama IV, King of Siam, 1851 – 1868
04/02/1851 AD inherited
Accounts vary about Nangklao's intentions regarding the succession. It is recorded that Nangklao verbally dismissed the royal princes from succession for various reasons; Prince Mongkut was dismissed for encouraging monks to dress in the Mon style.
Prince Mongkut was indeed supported by the pro-British Dis Bunnak who was the Samuha Kalahom, or Armed Force Department's president, and the most powerful noble during the reign of Rama III. He also had the support of British merchants who feared the growing anti-Western sentiment of the previous monarch and saw the 'prince monk' Mongkut as the 'champion' of European influence among the royal elite.
Bunnak, with the supporting promise of British agents, sent his men to the leaving-from-monk-status ceremony for Prince Mongkut even before Nangklao's death. With the support of powerful nobility and the Great Power, Britain, Mongkut's ascension to the throne was ensured.
Under Mongkut, Siam more quickly embraced modernization. He initiated two major revolutionary changes:
- He fought for the people to embrace modern geography, among other sciences considered "Western."
- He sought reform in Buddhism and, as a result, a new sect was created in Siamese Theravada Buddhism.
Both revolutions challenged the purity and validity of the Buddhist order as it was practiced in Siam at the time.
After his twenty-seven years of monastic life, King Mongkut voluntarily defrocked and ascended the throne in 1851, aged 47. He took the name Phra Chom Klao, although foreigners continued to call him King Mongkut.
The king was well known among the foreigners, particularly some British officers, as pro-British. Sir James Brooke, a British delegation, even praised him as 'our own king', and showed his support of him as a new king of Siam.
Having been celibate for 27 years, he now set about building the biggest Royal Family of the Chakri Dynasty. In the "Inside" of the Palace there was a veritable city of women—reports say three thousand or more. They were mostly servants, guards, officials, maids and so on, but Mongkut acquired 32 wives, and by the time he died, aged 64, he had 82 children.
His awareness of possibility of an outbreak of war with the European powers led him to institute many innovative activities. He ordered the nobility to wear shirts while attending his court; this was to show that Siam was a "modern" nation from the Western point of view.
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Mongkut (Rama IV) King of Siam 1851 ...
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