The Chevalier de Beauregard (c.1665–c.1692) was a 17th-century French officer who was active in Siam (modern Thailand). He became Governor of Bangkok and Mergui, but was eventually captured by the Siamese during the 1688 Siamese revolution.
De Beauregard went to Siam in 1685, with the embassy of Chevalier de Chaumont. He was transferred to the garrison of Bangkok, under the command of Chevalier Claude de Forbin.
In July 1686, when the fort was attacked by a band of pirates from Makassar, de Beauregard's belly was slit open with a dagger, but his commander de Forbin managed to replace the viscera and sew him up, making him the first recorded case of a Western-style surgical intervention in Thailand.
As I drew near the bed and examined the young man more strictly, I saw that he breathed still, but he could not speak and his mouth as all in a froth. I found his belly open and his very entrails and stomach hanging out upon his thighs. Not knowing what to do to help him, because I had no remedy nor surgeon, I ventured to manage him in the best manner I could myself. Having to this end provided a couple of needles and some silk, I restored his entrails to their place, and sew the wound up, in the manner as I had before observed on the like occasions. I then made a couple of ligatures, which I tied together, and after having beat the white of an egg and mingled it with some fied [sic] it for ten days together upon the patient, with such success that he was cured. Indeed Beauregard never had any fever, or other bad symptom. I observed that when I replaced his entrails in his belly, they were grown as dry as parchment, and clotted with coagulated blood, yet it did not hinder the perfect cure which followed in a few days. [1]
In 1687 de Beauregard briefly replaced Forbin as governor of Bangkok. [2] : 365
De Beauregard was then made governor of the city of Mergui after the revolt against the English there in July 1687. [3] : 99 De Beauregard was named governor by King Narai of Siam in the place of the Englishman, Samuel White. [2] : 365
De Beauregard was part of the retreat of the French troops of De Bruant there, following the 1688 Siamese revolution. [3] : 81 Large-scale attacks were launched on the two French fortresses in Siam, Bangkok and Mergui, and on 24 June, the French had to abandon their garrison at Mergui. [3] : 184 Du Bruant and de Beauregard managed to escape under fire and with many casualties by seizing a Siamese warship, the Mergui. [3] : 76
De Beauregard was eventually captured by the Siamese in Tavoy when the French ships from Mergui tried to obtain some victuals there, together with four soldiers and the Jesuit Pierre d'Espagnac. [3] : 81 The captives seem to have been enslaved. [2] : 380
1688 (MDCLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar and a leap year starting on Sunday of the Julian calendar, the 1688th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 688th year of the 2nd millennium, the 88th year of the 17th century, and the 9th year of the 1680s decade. As of the start of 1688, the Gregorian calendar was 10 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923.
King Narai the Great or Ramathibodi III was the 27th monarch of Ayutthaya Kingdom, the 4th and last monarch of the Prasat Thong dynasty. He was the king of Ayutthaya Kingdom from 1656 to 1688 and arguably the most famous king of the Prasat Thong dynasty.
Constantine Phaulkon was a Greek adventurer who became the prime counsellor to King Narai of Ayutthaya and assumed the Thai noble title Chao PhrayaWichayen (เจ้าพระยาวิชาเยนทร์).
Claude, chevalier, then count de Forbin-Gardanne was a French naval commander. In 1685–1688 he was on a diplomatic mission to Siam. He became governor of Bangkok and a general in the Siamese army, and left Siam shortly before King Narai fell ill and was deposed by a coup d'état.
Myeik is a rural city in Tanintharyi Region in Myanmar (Burma), located in the extreme south of the country on the coast off an island on the Andaman Sea. As of 2010, the estimated population was over 209,000. Myeik is the largest city in Tanintharyi Region, and serves as the regional headquarters of Myanmar Navy's Tanintharyi Regional Command. The area inland from the city is a major smuggling corridor into Thailand. The Singkhon Pass, also known as the Maw-daung Pass, has an international cross-border checkpoint.
The history of the city of Bangkok, in Thailand, dates at least to the early–15th century, when it was under the rule of Ayutthaya. Due to its strategic location near the mouth of the Chao Phraya River, the town gradually increased in importance, and after the fall of Ayutthaya King Taksin established his new capital of Thonburi there, on the river's west bank. King Phutthayotfa Chulalok, who succeeded Taksin, moved the capital to the eastern bank in 1782, to which the city dates its foundation under its current Thai name, "Krung Thep Maha Nakhon". Bangkok has since undergone tremendous changes, growing rapidly, especially in the second half of the 20th century, to become the primate city of Thailand. It was the centre of Siam's modernization in the late–19th century, subjected to Allied bombing during the Second World War, and has long been the modern nation's central political stage, with numerous uprisings and coups d'état having taken place on its streets throughout the years.
Fort Denonville was a French fort built in 1688 at the current site of Fort Niagara. It replaced Fort Conti which had been built on the site in 1679 and had burned later that year.
Guy Tachard, also known as Père Tachard, was a French Jesuit missionary and mathematician of the 17th century, who was sent on two occasions to the Kingdom of Siam by Louis XIV. He was born in Marthon, near Angoulême.
Kosa Pan was a Siamese diplomat and minister who led the second Siamese embassy to France sent by King Narai in 1686. He was preceded to France by the first Siamese embassy to France, which had been composed of two Siamese ambassadors and Father Bénigne Vachet, who had left Siam for France on January 5, 1684.
Marshal Desfarges, also spelled Des Farges, was a French general of the 17th century who took an important role in French efforts at establishing a presence in Siam.
France–Thailand relations cover a period from the 16th century until modern times. Relations started in earnest during the reign of Louis XIV of France with numerous reciprocal embassies and a major attempt by France to Christianize the kingdom of Thailand and establish a French protectorate, which failed when the country revolted against foreign intrusions in 1688. France would only return more than a century and a half later as a modernised colonial power, engaging in a struggle for territory and influence against Thailand in mainland Southeast Asia that would last until the 20th century.
The Siamese revolution of 1688 was a major popular uprising in the Siamese Ayutthaya Kingdom which led to the overthrow of the pro-French Siamese king Narai. Phetracha, previously one of Narai's trusted military advisors, took advantage of the elderly Narai's illness, and killed Narai's Christian heir, along with a number of missionaries and Narai's influential foreign minister, the Greek adventurer Constantine Phaulkon. Phetracha then married Narai's daughter, took the throne, and pursued a policy of ousting French influence and military forces from Siam. One of the most prominent battles was 1688's Siege of Bangkok, when tens of thousands of Siamese forces spent four months besieging a French fortress within the city. As a consequence of the revolution, Siam severed significant ties with the Western world, with the exception of the Dutch East India Company, until the 19th century.
René Charbonneau was 17th century French medical missionary friar and a member of the Siam mission of the Société des Missions Etrangères. He was the first medical missionary to Siam. He arrived in the country in 1677.
Pierre d'Espagnac, sometimes Pierre d'Espagnal (1650–1689) was a French Jesuit missionary in Siam during the 17th century.
Claude Céberet du Boullay (1647–1702) was a 17th-century French diplomat who participated in the La Loubère-Céberet embassy as "envoy extraordinary" to the kingdom of Siam in 1687. He was co-representative of the mission with the diplomat Simon de la Loubère.
The siege of Bangkok was a key event of the Siamese revolution of 1688, in which the Kingdom of Siam ousted the French from Siam. Following a coup d'état, in which the pro-Western king Narai was replaced by Phetracha, Siamese troops besieged the French fortress in Bangkok for four months. The Siamese were able to muster about 40,000 troops, equipped with cannon, against the entrenched 200 French troops, but the military confrontation proved inconclusive. Tensions between the two belligerents progressively subsided, and finally a negotiated settlement was reached allowing the French to leave the country.
The Siamese embassy to France in 1686 was the second such mission from the Kingdom of Siam. The embassy was sent by King Narai and led by ambassador Kosa Pan. This embassy was preceded by the First Siamese Embassy to France, composed of two Siamese ambassadors and Father Bénigne Vachet, who had left Siam for France on January 5, 1684.
Bilateral relations between Thailand and the United Kingdom date to the 17th century. Thailand has an embassy in London and the UK has an embassy in Bangkok.
The Anglo-Siamese War was a brief state of war that existed between the English East India Company and Kingdom of Siam in 1687–88. Siam officially declared war against the Company in August 1687. No peace treaty was ever signed to end the war, but the Siamese revolution of 1688 rendered the issue moot.
The Burmese–Siamese War (1792–1794) or the Siamese Invasion of Tavoy was the conflict between the Kingdom of Burma under Konbaung dynasty and the Kingdom of Siam under the Chakri dynasty over the town of Tavoy and the Tenasserim Coast.