The Kingdom of Kandy was a monarchy on the island of Sri Lanka,located in the central and eastern portion of the island. It was founded in the late 15th century and endured until the early 19th century.
Rajasinghe I also known as the lion of Sitawaka was a king of Sitawaka,known for his patriotism and fight against the Portuguese invasion of Sri Lanka. Born as Tikiri Bandara to King Mayadunne,he received the name "Rajasimha" after the fierce Battle of Mulleriyawa.
Vimaladharmasūriya I was a king of Kandy from 1590 to 1604. His reputation was built when he successfully repulsed two major Portuguese offensives on Kandy,the Battle of Danture in 1594 and the Battle of Balana in 1602,in both of which the Portuguese were humiliatingly defeated.
The Kingdom of Sitawaka was a kingdom located in south-central Sri Lanka. It emerged from the division of the Kingdom of Kotte following the Spoiling of Vijayabahu in 1521. Over the course of the next seventy years it came to dominate much of the island. Sitawaka also offered fierce resistance to the Portuguese,who had arrived on the island in 1505. Despite its military successes,Sitawaka remained unstable,having to contend with repeated uprisings in its restive Kandyan territories,as well as a wide-ranging and often devastating conflict with the Portuguese. Sitawaka disintegrated soon after the death of its last king Rajasimha I in 1593.
Vimaladharmasurya II was a peaceful king of Kandy who succeeded his father,Rajasinghe II,on December 7,1687.
The Battle of Gannoruwa was a battle of the Sinhalese–Portuguese War fought in 1638 between the occupying Portuguese forces and the Sinhalese King's army at Gannoruwa in the District of Kandy,Sri Lanka. The Portuguese had attempted three times without success to capture the Kingdom of Kandy,in order to bring the entire island under their rule. In 1635,Rajasinghe II became the king of Kandy and started negotiations with the Dutch to obtain their help in driving out the Portuguese. The Portuguese hastened their efforts to take Kandy because of this,and Diogo de Melo de Castro,the Portuguese Captain General,tried to provoke the Sinhalese on several occasions.
The Battle of Mulleriyawa in 1559 was part of the Sinhalese–Portuguese War. It was one of the most decisive battles in Sri Lankan history and considered as the worst defeat of Portuguese during that period. According to local chronicles the marshlands of Mulleriyawa turned red with blood after the annihilation of the Portuguese. With this victory Sitawaka emerged as a military power which able to challenge the Portuguese expansion.
Lascarins is a term used in Sri Lanka to identify indigenous soldiers who fought for the Portuguese during the Portuguese era (1505–1658) and continued to serve as colonial soldiers until the 1930s. The lascarins played a crucial role not only in the colonial armies,but also in the success of the campaigns of the local kingdoms.
Dom Jerónimo de Azevedo was a Portuguese fidalgo,Governor (captain-general) of Portuguese Ceylon and viceroy of Portuguese India. He proclaimed in Colombo,in 1597,the King of Portugal,Philip I,as the legitimate heir to the throne of Kotte,thus substantiating the Portuguese claims of sovereignty over the island of Ceylon.
Kusumāsana Devi,also known as Dona Catherina,was ruling Queen of Kandy in 1581. She was deposed,but queen consort of Kandy by marriage to Vimaladharmasuriya I of Kandy from 1594 to 1604.
Lopo de Brito was the second Captain of Portuguese Ceylon. Brito succeeded João da Silveira and was appointed in 1518 under Manuel I of Portugal,he was Captain until 1522. He was succeeded by Fernão Gomes de Lemos.
Diogo de Melo Coutinho was the second and eleventh Captain-major of Portuguese Ceylon. Coutinho was first appointed in 1552 under John III of Portugal,he was Captain-major until 1552. His second term lasted from 1570 to 1572. He was succeeded by Duarte de Eça and António de Noronha respectively.
Pedro Homem Pereira was the 17th and last Captain-major of Portuguese Ceylon. Pereira was appointed in 1591 under Philip I of Portugal,he was Captain-major until 1594. The office of Captain-major was abolished and he was succeeded by Pedro Lopes de Sousa as Governor of Portuguese Ceylon.
The siege of Kotte from November 1557 –November 1558 was a battle part of the Sinhalese–Portuguese War. A 50,000 strong Sitawaka army led by King Mayadunne besieged Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte,the capital of Kotte Kingdom,for 12 months against a combined force of Portuguese and Lascarins led by Captain-major Dom Afonso Pereira de Lacerda. After receiving reinforcements from Mannar,Portuguese made a sally and succeeded in forcing the besiegers to withdraw. This siege marked the beginning of a series of battles between Portuguese and Sitawaka forces,and ultimately ended as Portuguese abandoned Sri Jayawardenapura Kotte in 1565.
The Danture campaign comprised a series of encounters between the Portuguese and the Kingdom of Kandy in 1594,part of the Sinhalese–Portuguese War. It is considered a turning point in the indigenous resistance to Portuguese expansion. For the first time in Sri Lanka a Portuguese army was essentially annihilated,when they were on the verge of the total conquest of the island. A 20,000-strong Portuguese army,led by Governor Pedro Lopes de Sousa,invaded Kandy on 5 July 1594. After three months,severely depleted by guerilla warfare and mass desertions,what remained of the Portuguese army was annihilated at Danture by the Kandyans under King Vimaladharmasuriya. With this victory,the Kingdom of Kandy emerged as a major military power;it was to retain its independence,against Portuguese,Dutch,and British armies,until 1815.
The Kandyan naval raid was a series of commerce raidings by the Kingdom of Kandy against the Portuguese empire from 16 May 1612 to 6 March 1613. With the help of Dutch envoy Marcellus de Bochouwer,King Senarat of Kandy commissioned a fleet of 3 war galleys and 3 yachts under the Admiralty of a nephew of Kuruvita Rala,the prince of Uva. They sailed from Koddiyar bay and managed to engage and inflict losses on Portuguese shipping around Ceylon and along the coast line from Cape Comorin to Calicut.
The Siege of the Portuguese fort Santa Cruz de Gale at Galle in 1640,took place during the Dutch–Portuguese and Sinhalese–Portuguese Wars. The Galle fort commanded 282 villages,which contained most fertile cinnamon lands in southern Sri Lanka It was also an important strategic coastal defense of Portuguese Ceylon. The Dutch,who were in an alliance with the Kingdom of Kandy,landed an expeditionary force under Commodore Willem Jacobszoon Coster of Akersloot,at the Bay of Galle,on 8 March 1640. After bombarding the fort for four consecutive days,Dutch troops stormed the fort and secured a victory on 13 March 1640. The Portuguese garrison,led by Captain Lourenço Ferreira de Brito,mounted a stiff resistance and unexpectedly high casualty rates among Dutch troops gave rise to the proverb “Gold in Malacca,lead in Galle”. With this victory the Dutch gained access to a large port which they later used as a convenient naval base to attack Goa and other South Indian Portuguese defenses. They also gained access to the Sri Lankan cinnamon trade and gained a permanent foothold on the island.
Sinhalese–Portuguese conflicts refers to the series of armed engagements that took place from 1518 to 1658 in Sri Lanka between the native Sinhalese kingdoms and the Portuguese Empire. It spanned from the Transitional to the Kandyan periods of Sri Lankan history. A combination of political and military moves gained the Portuguese control over most of the island,but their invasion of the final independent kingdom was a disaster,leading to a stalemate in the wider war and a truce from 1621. In 1638 the war restarted when the Dutch East India Company intervened in the conflict,initially as an ally of the Sinhalese against the Portuguese,but later as an enemy of both sides. The war concluded in 1658,with the Dutch in control of about half the island,the Kingdom of Kandy the other half,and the Portuguese expelled.
The Portuguese presence in Asia was responsible for what would be the first of many contacts between European countries and the East,starting on May 20,1498 with the trip led by Vasco da Gama to Calicut,India. Aside from being part of the European colonisation of Southeast Asia in the 16th century,Portugal's goal in the Indian Ocean was to ensure their monopoly in the spice trade,establishing several fortresses and commercial trading posts.
Kuruvita Rala was a Sri Lankan rebel leader and prince of Uva,who served as regent in the kingdom of Kandy. He was also a relation of Dona Catherina,Queen of Kandy and the guardian of her children.
