Battle of Seringham | |||||||
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Part of Second Carnatic War | |||||||
Island of Seringham During Second Carnatic War | |||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||
Nawab of Arcot | |||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||
Stringer Lawrence Robert Clive Captain Dalton Murari Rao Manoji (Thanjavur) | Law d'Auteil Chanda Sahib | ||||||
Strength | |||||||
1,000 troops | 620 troops (French), 700 sepoys (French) | ||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||
758 French soldiers, 2,000 sepoys | |||||||
Chanda Sahib killed after surrender |
The Battle of Seringham was fought on the island of Srirangam between 1,000 troops of the British East India Company commanded by Stringer Lawrence and a confederacy of French East India Company troops and Chanda Sahib.
Following their victory at Bahour, the British East India Company troops entered the city of Trichinopoly and took position there. Contrary to the orders from Dupleix to fall back on Pondicherry, French troops under the Scotsman Law retreated at once to the island of Srirangam to the north of Trichinopoly and planned to attack and oust the British from Trichinopoly.
On 12 April 1753, Lawrence sent a detachment of 400 men under Captain Dalton to attack Chanda Sahib's troops and drive them out. But with scanty knowledge of the place and the terrain, Dalton and his men were caught unaware by Law who, however panicked, allowed them to retreat safely. Law, then decided to implement his strategy of retreating to Seringham, also known as Srirangam.
Soon after the retreat of the French forces, the British troops advanced and on 17 April 1753, captured Samayapuram to the north of Srirangam. The French troops were now completely encircled.
On 10 April 1753, d'Auteil set up at the head of 620 troops to relieve Law. On 25 April, he reached Utatur, 50 miles (80 km) north of Samayapuram. d'Auteil proceeded to the Coleroon river avoiding Clive's army and sent a messenger to inform Law of his movements but the messenger was captured by Clive who forced him to retreat to Utatur. Taking advantage of Clive's departure from Samayapuram, Law sent a force of 80 Europeans and 700 sepoys to take Samayapuram but was repulsed.
Following this incident, the Thanjavur Maratha allies of the British East India Company took Coiladdy on 7 May 1753. On 20 May 1753, Stringer Lawrence sent an army of 1050 troops under Captain Dalton to Utatur forcing d'Auteil at fall back on Pondicherry. Law attacked Dalton's troops but was repulsed and retreated to Srirangam once again. On 8 June 1753, Clive attacked d'Auteil at Volcondah and forced him to surrender along with his army.
With the situation turning desperate, Law and Chanda surrendered 758 French soldiers and 2000 sepoys. Chanda had agreed to pay the commander of the Kingdom of Tanjore, Manaji, for safe passage. However, immediately upon reaching the Manaji's camp, Chanda Sahib was seized and eventually beheaded. [1]
Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive,, also known as Clive of India, was the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency. Clive has been widely credited for laying the foundation of the British East India Company (EIC) rule in Bengal. He began as a writer for the EIC in 1744 and established Company rule in Bengal by winning the Battle of Plassey in 1757. In return for supporting the Nawab Mir Jafar as ruler of Bengal, Clive was guaranteed a jagir of £30,000 per year which was the rent the EIC would otherwise pay to the Nawab for their tax-farming concession. When Clive left India in January 1767 he had a fortune of £180,000 which he remitted through the Dutch East India Company.
The Battle of Plassey was a decisive victory of the British East India Company, under the leadership of Robert Clive, over the Nawab of Bengal and his French allies on 23 June 1757. The victory was made possible by the defection of Mir Jafar, Nawab Siraj-ud-Daulah's commander in chief as well as much of the Bengal Subah's armies being earlier committed against an Afghan invasion led by Ahmad Shah Durrani against the Mughal Empire. The battle helped the British East India Company take control of Bengal in 1772. Over the next hundred years, they continued to expand their control over vast territories in the rest of the Indian subcontinent, including Burma.
Major-General Stringer Lawrence was a British military officer who served as the first Commander-in-Chief of Fort William from 1748 to 1754.
The Carnatic wars were a series of military conflicts in the middle of the 18th century in India's coastal Carnatic region, a dependency of Hyderabad State, India. The first Carnatic wars were fought between 1740 and 1748.
Muhammad Yusuf Khan was a commandant of the British East India Company's Madras Army. He was born in a Tamil Vellalar clan family in a village called Keelapanaiyur in British India, what is now in Mudukulathur Taluk, Ramanathapuram District of Tamil Nadu, India. He converted to Islam and was named Muhammad Yusuf Khan. He was popularly known as Khan Sahib when he became the ruler of Madurai. He became a warrior in the Arcot troops, and later a commandant for the British East India Company troops. The British and the Arcot Nawab employed him to suppress the Polygar uprising in South India. Later he was entrusted to administer the Madurai country when the Madurai Nayak rule ended.
Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah, or Muhammed Ali, Wallajah, was the Nawab of the Carnatic from 1749 until his death in 1795. He declared himself Nawab in 1749. This position was disputed between Wallajah and Chanda Sahib. In 1752, after several clashes, Chanda Sahib's forces and his French allies were expelled from Arcot, officially declaring Wallajah as Nawab on 26 August 1765. His reign was recognised by Mughal emperor Shah Alam II.
Chanda Sahib was a subject of the Carnatic Sultanate between 1749 and 1752. He was the son-in-law of the Nawab of Carnatic Dost Ali Khan, under whom he was a Dewan. An ally of the French, he was initially supported by Joseph François Dupleix during the Carnatic Wars. He annexed the Madurai Nayaks and was declared Nawab, bringing Tanjore and Tinnevelly into the dominions of the Mughal Empire.
Pratap Singh Bhonsle or Pratapsinha was the Maratha ruler of Thanjavur of the Bhonsle dynasty from 1739 to 1763. His rise to power followed three years of anarchy and civil war and restored the state to its previous greatness. His reign witnessed the Carnatic Wars and the Seven Years' War.
The Battle of Madras or Fall of Madras took place in September 1746 during the War of the Austrian Succession when a French force attacked and captured the city of Madras from its British garrison.
The siege of Arcot took place at Arcot, India between forces of the British East India Company led by Robert Clive allied with Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah and forces of Nawab of the Carnatic, Chanda Sahib, allied with the French East India Company. It was part of the Second Carnatic War.
The Battle of Arnee occurred on 3 December 1751 during the Second Carnatic War. A British-led force under the command of Robert Clive defeated and routed a much larger Franco-Indian force under the command of Raza Sahib.
The siege of Pondicherry was the first military action on the Indian subcontinent following the declaration of war between Great Britain and France in the American Revolutionary War. A British force besieged the French-controlled port of Pondicherry in August 1778, which capitulated after ten weeks of siege.
The First Carnatic War (1740–1748) was the Indian theatre of the War of the Austrian Succession and the first of a series of Carnatic Wars that established early British dominance on the east coast of the Indian subcontinent. In this conflict the British and French East India Companies vied with each other on land for control of their respective trading posts at Madras, Pondicherry, and Cuddalore, while naval forces of France and Britain engaged each other off the coast. The war set the stage for the rapid growth of French hegemony in southern India under the command of French Governor-General Joseph François Dupleix in the Second Carnatic War.
The siege of Trichinopoly took place in early 1741 during an extended series of conflicts between the Nawab of Arcot and the Maratha Confederacy for control over parts of what is now southern India. Raghuji Bhonsle's Maratha Army successfully starved out the town, compelling the surrender of Chanda Sahib on 26 March 1741.
The siege of Trichinopoly was part of an extended series of conflicts between the Nizam of Hyderabad and the Maratha Empire for control of the Carnatic region. On 29 August 1743, after a six-month siege, Murari Rao surrendered, giving Nizam ul Mulk (Nizam) the suzerainty of Trichinopoly. By the end of 1743, the Nizam had regained full control of Deccan. This stopped the Maratha interference in the region and ended their hegemony over the Carnatic. The Nizam resolved the internal conflicts among the regional hereditary nobles (Nawabs) for the seat of governor (Subedar) of Arcot State, and monitored the activities of the British East India company and French East India Company by limiting their access to ports and trading.
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The Trichinopoly district was a district of the erstwhile Madras Presidency of British India. It covered the present-day districts of Tiruchirappalli, Karur, Ariyalur and Perambalur in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. The administrative headquarters was the town of Trichinopoly, Trichy or Tiruchi, now known as Tiruchirappalli. The district covered an area of 2,632 square miles (6,820 km2) in 1907. It was bound by the districts of South Arcot to the north, Salem to the west, Coimbatore to the west and north-west, Tanjore to the east and Madurai to the south. The princely state of Pudukkottai remained within the jurisdiction of Trichinopoly district from 1865 to 1947.
Tiruchirappalli is believed to be of great antiquity and has been ruled by the Early Cholas, Mutharaiyars Early Pandyas, Pallavas, Medieval Cholas, Later Cholas, Later Pandyas, Delhi Sultanate, Ma'bar Sultanate, Vijayanagar Empire, Nayak Dynasty, the Carnatic state and the British at different times. The archaeologically important town of Uraiyur which served as the capital of the Early Cholas is a Neighborhood of Tiruchirapalli.
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The Battle of Adyar took place on 24 October 1746. The battle was between the French East India Company men and Nawab of Arcot forces over the St. George Fort, which was held by the French. It was part of the First Carnatic War between the English and the French.