Siege of Dansborg (1644) | |||||||||
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Dansborg in 1777, Tranquebar | |||||||||
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Belligerents | |||||||||
Danish India | Thanjavur Nayak Supported by: Dutch India [1] Portuguese Carical | ||||||||
Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
Willem Leyel Anders Nielsen (WIA) | Tiagepule Regnapule | ||||||||
Strength | |||||||||
Unknown | Large | ||||||||
Casualties and losses | |||||||||
1 wounded | 17 killed |
The Siege of Dansborg (Danish; Belejringen af Dansborg) or the Siege of Fort Dansborg (Danish; Belejringen af Fort Dansborg), was a short siege lasting from 20 to 30 December 1644, between general Tiagepule of Thanjavur and the Danish command at Fort Dansborg. The conflict started over the Danish rejection of the general's demand to tax Tranquebar, and as a result, a series of confrontations followed. The confrontations had no major result, and an armistice may have been signed.
Danish India was established in 1620 at Tranquebar. A fort to secure the land and commerce in the area was constructed, given the name of Fort Dansborg. [2] Tranquebar would go on to be the center of commerce and trade conducted by Danish merchants in the Bay of Bengal. [3] Tranquebar was surrounded by the Thanjavur Nayak kingdom on land, and was to give an annual tribute to the Nayak, [4] though this right to tax Tranquebar was quickly surrendered to the Danes. [1]
On 20 December 1644 the Thanjavurian general, Tiagepule, had appeared with a large army outside Tranquebar. [1] [5] [6] He demanded 600 Danish rigsdaler from the Danes in Tranquebar as a present. [7] [5] [6] Regnapule, a brother of the Thanjavurian general, was granted a lease of Karaikal and the southern region of Thanjavur in exchange fosustainedt of 900,000 rigsdaler to the nayak. [1] [5] [6] As part of the agreement, Regnapule had the authority to levy taxes on the residents at his discretion in order to raise the necessary funds for the payment. [1] [5] However, the Nayak had previously renounced his right to tax Tranquebar, leading to rejection from the local inhabitants towards the general's demands. [1] [5] [7] [6]
In response to the Danish rejection, General Tiagepule surrounded the town, resulting in the halting of commercial goods. [1] [5] [7] This status could not be sustained for a long period of time for the Danes at Tranquebar, and therefore the commander, Anders Nielsen, subsequently made a sortie with his men and drove the Thanjavurians away. [1] [5] [7] [6]
A couple of days later on Christmas day, while the Christian Danes were attending church service, Tiagepule attacked the northern part of Tranquebar, burning numerous houses and taking a quantity of textiles belonging to the Danish East India Company. [5] [7] [6] Nielsen remained in church until the sermon was over, yet directly after, he hastily assembled some of Dansborg's soldiers and again drove Tiagepule's army away.
The Thanjavurian army then launched a second attack during the night and burned a few more houses. [5] [7] In reaction, Nielsen collected a large company and at dawn the next morning the two opposing sides met in battle. [1] [7] The battle ensued for three hours. [1] [5] [7] Tiagepule lost 17 men, while the Danes had one wounded, being commander Nielsen himself, who had a bullet strike his left arm. [1] [5] [7] [6]
There seems to be no more skirmishes after this, and the belligerents may have agreed to an armistice. [1] [5] [7] The reason that no skirmish occurred afterwards may be because of the Danish lack of gunpowder. At least on the 30 December 1644 Anders Nielsen writes to William Leyel "you should know that we have no more powder in store." [1] [5] [6]
Later, the nayak, Vijaya Raghava, sent a message to the Danes demanding they present him with gifts. [1] [7]
Notably the nayak suggested a suitable gift would be goods to the value of 8.000–10.000 Danish Rigsdaler. [1] [6] This value could not be gathered in Tranquebar, and the council at Dansborg therefore decided to send Anders Nielsen. [1] With an Asian elephant, and other minor goods, such as silk and cloth, Nielsen led out for the Nayak. [1] [7] Nielsen was given a kind reception by the nayak, and the two then started discussing Tiagepule's attacks. [1] [7] [6]
The nayak seems to have encouraged Nielsen to wait a couple of days for Tiagepule himself to arrive for discussing the war reparations. [1] [7] Yet, the nayak's emotions quickly changed and suddenly he demanded the Danes to, again, pay an annual tribute and additionally assist the nayak in his foreign wars. [1] [7] [6] Despite complaining about the demands, Nielsen finally agreed to them and signed the agreement. [1]
In the end, the nayak's anger seized, and he agreed to pay the damages for the destruction caused by Tiagepule. [1] [7] [6]
Tharangambadi, formerly Tranquebar, is a town in the Mayiladuthurai district of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu on the Coromandel Coast. It lies 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) north of Karaikal, near the mouth of a distributary named Uppanar of the Kaveri River. Tranquebar was established on 19 November 1620 as the first Danish trading post in India. King Christian IV had sent his envoy Ove Gjedde who established contact with Raghunatha Nayak of Tanjore. An annual tribute was paid by the Danes to the Rajah of Tanjore until the colony of Tranquebar was sold to the British East India Company in 1845.
The Cattle War also commonly referred to as the Perumal War or the Perumal Naik-War was a colonial conflict between the Danish East India Company and the Thanjavur Maratha kingdom over the Danish governor Hans Georg Krog's expansionistic foreign policy. The conflict started over the raiding of Danish cattle by the local supervisor of a small land district, Perumal Naik.
The Skirmish at Pipli or more formally the Destruction of the Danish factory at Pipli, was one of the two recorded land confrontations between the Danish East India Company and the Mughal Empire during the Dano-Mughal War. The Skirmish was a Mughal punitive expidition in retalition for the Danish arrest of a Persian merchant. The Skirmish ended in a Mughal victory, and the Danish factory in Pipli was destroyed and burned down.
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The Siege of Dansborg alternatively the Siege of Fort Dansborg sometimes also referred to as Willem Leyel's siege of Dansborg, was a siege initiated by traveler and seafarer, Willem Leyel, against the men loyal to governor Bernt Pessart. The siege was concluded after the men at Dansborg opened the gates for Willem Leyel, surrendered, and accepted Leyel as the new governor.
The Siege of Dansborg or the Siege of Fort Dansborg, was a siege of the newly finished Danish fort of Dansborg in Trangebar in 1624. The siege was initiated by the nayak of Thanjavur, Raghunatha, because of the Danish rejection of the demands from the nayak. The Siege, laid by general Calicut, was abandoned after the arrival of Danish reinforcements from sea. The event is mostly described by Icelander, Jón Ólafsson, in his work The Life of the Icelander Jón Ólafsson, Traveller to India.
A Siege of Dansborg may refer to:
Willem Leyel or Willum Leyel was a Danish governor of Tranquebar and captain in the Royal Dano-Norwegian Navy.
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The Siege of Tranquebar was a siege of the Danish colony of Tranquebar by Shahuji I of the Thanjavur Maratha kingdom in 1699. Despite the dire situation of the besieged Danes, the English at Madras came to relieve the Danes, and the Thanjavurians would eventually retreat.
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The Sieges of Tranquebar or the War between Tranquebar and Thanjavur refers to the warfare between the Thanjavur Nayak kingdom and Danish Tranquebar between 1655 – 1669. The Thanjavurian sieges were repelled, mainly due to the new fortifications being built around Tranquebar, and a peace agreement was issued in 1669.
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Roland Crappé or Roelant Crappé was a Dutch colonial official serving the Dutch and Danish East India Company. He became director general of the Ceylonese department of the Danish East India Company in 1618 and became commander in chief and governor of Tranquebar upon his seventh arrival in the Indies in 1624. During his leadership, new factories and offices were established and Danish trade went exceptionally well. He died in 1644 only a few years after his homecoming to Denmark.
Bernt Pessart, Berndt Pessart or Berent Pessart was a Dutch overhoved and self-proclaimed President of Danish India from 1636 to 1643. In his earlier years, he would serve the Dutch East India Company in Bantam, and in September 1636 he would land in Danish Tranquebar on the St. Jacob. Here he would serve the Danish East India Company until his deposure in 1643. His claim to being governor of Tranquebar, would lead to a confrontation known as the 1644 Skirmish at the Strait of Malacca with the local authorities of and end with the capture of Pessart and his crew. He again would serve the Dutch East India Company by espionage on the Spanish Philippines. He would die in June 1645 by an ambush of local natives near Manila.
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The Expulsion of Danes from Balasore was a violent expulsion and ousting of the Danish East India Company from the Mughal habour and trading hub of Balasore in 1643 or 1644 by the local Mughal governor, Malik Beg.
The Dano-Carical Conflict was a small-scale conflict between the Danes at Tranquebar and the Portuguese at Carical (Karaikal). The conflict includes three smaller naval engagements, which eventually led to a four-hour-long imprisonment of Danish Captain Simon Jansen.
Anders Nielsen was a Danish colonist and acting governor of Tranquebar from 1643 to 1648, in times when overhoved Willem Leyel was absent. During his service as acting governor of Tranquebar, Nielsen would defend the town from Thanjavurian General Tiagepule and support a mutiny against overhoved Leyel.