Three Military Accounts of the 1688 'Revolution' (Itineraria Asiatica. Thailand, V. 11)

The coup d'etat of 18 May 1688 in the Siamese Versailles at Lopburi led to the establishment of the last Ayutthayan dynasty. But it was not just another internal palace coup in face of the imminent death of the reigning monarch, Narai. The king's favorite, Phaulkon, had been plotting with Morn Pi, the king's adopted son, to take over the country with the aid of the French. Their plot, and its ultimate failure, are illuminated by the three important first-hand accounts, brought together and translated from the original French for the first time; together they throw a great deal of light on the failure of the French to colonize Siam at the end of the seventeenth century.