Tillali Massacre

Tillali Massacre
	Part of the Cattle War
	; Tillally, the governor`s country residence, by Peter Anker
Date	30 June 1756
Location	Tillali, (Near modern-day Thanjavur) 11°1′44″N79°47′44″E / 11.02889°N 79.79556°E
Result	Thanjvurian victory
Territorial; changes	Tillali occupied by Thanjavurian forces
Belligerents
Danish India	Thanjavur
Commanders and leaders
Peter Hesselberg † ; Hans Jacob Attrup †	Pratap Singh ; Perumal Naik
Strength
27 Soldiers of the corps; 30 Indian sepoysTotal: 55-57	2000-4000 Cavalry ; 2000 menTotal: 4000-6000
Casualties and losses
55 killed	300 killed
	45 Civilians killed

Last updated May 18, 2024

The Tillali Massacre (Danish: Massakren i Tillali), or the Battle of Tillali (Danish: Slaget ved Tillali) was a confrontation on 30 June 1756 during the Cattle War, between the Danish command at the village of Tillali (Thillaiyadi) and the Raja of Thanjavur, Pratap Singh. The confrontation resulted in a Thanjavurian victory and a subsequent massacre of most Danish troops. After the victory, the Thanjavurian army led a further invasion into Danish Tranquebar and besieged Fort Dansborg.

Background and prelude

In January 1756 a newly appointed local governor called Perumal Naik was allegedly said to have raided Danish Tranquebar's surrounding districts.^[4] In June the same year, a similar incident occurred, where Naik stole a herd of cattles.^[5] As commander of the Danish border, Captain Strøbel was ordered to retaliate and marched from the Danish border town of Tillali, to occupy the Thanjavurian town of Anandamangalam with 60 men of the corps and 20-30 sepoys.^[1]^[5] The remaining force at Tillali received Danish and Indian reinforcements, to protect to border.^[1]^[5]

Prelude

In reaction to the Danish mobilization of Tranquebar and fortification of Anandamangalam, the nayak of Thanjavur, Pratap Singh, sent roughly 2000 cavalry and 2000 well armed men together with Perumal Naik's army into Danish territory.^[1]^[2] The combined Thanjavurian army soon reached the Tillali, where the stationed Danes were attacked.^[1]

Confrontation

Maps

Plan of the town of Trankenbar and the adjacent land, drawn up on the site in 1761 (by engineering captain Leveux)

Map over the Danish districts of Tranquebar. Tillali is marked as Tilletarche

In command of the Danish outpost in Tillali, were captain Peter Hesselberg, with his Son-in-law, Hans Jacob Attrup, as ensign.^[1] In Tillali the first confrontations occurred in the local hostel and pagoda.^[1] The Danish forces retreated and took coverage behind a wall, where they got reinforcements from Tillali's local bailiff.^[1] Yet the large Thanjavurian army were no match for the small Danish contingent and the Danes were subsequently massacred.^[1]

Massacre

Sources describing the incident differ on the death toll. Most agree that both captain, Peter Hesselberg, and ensign, Hans Attrup were killed.^[1]^[2]^[3]

Additionally, according to Hans Gregersen in his book Trankebar, two lower officers, 24 European and dozens of Indians were killed.^[1] All but one, who hid in the pagoda remained unharmed.^[1] A similar claim is made by Danish historian, Kay Larsen, in the brugsforeningsbladet he notes that two officers, 24 European and 45 local people from Tillali died.^[2] According to Holger Christensen's Det danske fremstoed i Indien i 1750-erne 18 men of the corps ^{[lower-alpha 1]} died.^[6] Another claim by Bering Liisberg's Danmarks søfart og søhandel claims that 54 people were either killed or wounded.^[3]

Aftermath

After the massacre at Tillali and the Danish retreat from Anandamangalam, all Danish districts outside Tranquebar were occupied and raided.^[3] Fort Dansborg was temporarily put in a state of emergency and besieged by the Thanjavurians.^[3]^[5]^[7]

Notelist

↑ The term "men of the corps" refers only to the Danish royal soldiers, and not the Indian sepoys

Related Research Articles

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 Danish East India Company refers to two separate Danish-Norwegian chartered companies. The first company operated between 1616 and 1650. The second company existed between 1670 and 1729, however, in 1730 it was re-founded as the Asiatic Company.

Danish India was the name given to the colonies of Denmark in the Indian subcontinent, forming part of the Danish overseas colonies. Denmark–Norway held colonial possessions in India for more than 200 years, including the town of Tharangambadi in present-day Tamil Nadu state, Serampore in present-day West Bengal, and the Nicobar Islands, currently part of India's union territory of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The Danish and Norwegian presence in India was of little significance to the major European powers as they presented neither a military nor a mercantile threat. Dano-Norwegian ventures in India, as elsewhere, were typically undercapitalized and never able to dominate or monopolize trade routes in the same way that British, French, and Portuguese ventures could.

Julius Andreas Bechgaard was a Danish composer of piano pieces, songs, and operas.

Mia Lyhne is a Danish film and television actress. She came to the attention of a wider public after her participation in the 2005 first season of the Danish version of Dancing with the Stars, but she is probably best known for her role on the 2005-2009 Danish sitcom Klovn, playing Mia, the girlfriend of comedian Frank Hvam.

Æ Tinuser was a Danish traditional band who were famous exponents of their genre from the 1950s to the late 1970s.

Danish Asiatic Company was a Danish trading company established in 1730 to revive Danish trade on the Danish East Indies and China following the closure of the Danish East India Company. It was granted a 40-year monopoly on Danish trade on Asia in 1732 and taken over by the Danish government in 1772. It was headquartered at Asiatisk Plads in Copenhagen. Its former premises are now used by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Chief of the Army Command is the service chief of the Royal Danish Army. The current chief is Major general Gunner Arpe Nielsen.

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 Siege of Dansborg or the Siege of 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.

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.

Roland Crappé's raids on Portuguese colonies refers to a series of raids by Dutchman in Danish service, Roland Crappé, on Portuguese Ceylon and India. The raids were partially unsuccessful, in that Crappé's ship, Øresund, caught fire and sank.

The Skirmish at the Strait of Malacca was a skirmish between the claimed governor of Tranquebar, Bernt Pessart, and the local authorities of Dutch Malacca. The confrontation led to the imprisonment or death of all of Pessart's crew and the confiscation of the vessel, Dend gode Haab. Although Pessart and his crew would later be released and cooperate with the Dutch to spy on the Spanish in Manila.

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.

The Conflict between William Leyel and Bernt Pessart refers to the tensions and minor civil war between Willem Leyel and Bernt Pessart over the governorship of Tranquebar and the Danish East India Company. The conflict led to the escape of Bernt Pessart, and the command at Tranquebar accepted Willem Leyel as governor of Danish India.

The Capture of St. Michael or the Seizure of St. Michael, was a Danish seizure of a Bengali ship in the Bay of Bengal. The Danes captured the Bengali ship and the vessel was subsequently incorporated into the Danish Navy given the name St. Michael.

The Capture of Tranquebar or the Surrender of Tranquebar was a British takeover of the capital of Danish India, Tranquebar. The capture was quick and successful, with the Dano-Norwegian governor, Peter Anker, surrendering within the arrival of the British.

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.

References

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Gregersen, Hans (2018). Trankebar [Tranquebar] (in Danish). Forlag A/S. pp. 12–13. ISBN 9788711978337.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Larsen, Kay (1935). Danmarks Kolonier (PDF) (in Danish). BRUGSFORENINGS~ BLADET. p. 272.
1 2 3 4 5 Liisberg, Bering (2020). Danmarks søfart og søhandel (in Danish). SAGA Egmont.
↑ Christensen, Holger. "Det danske fredmstød i Indien i 1750-erne. Baggrund og forløb" (PDF).
1 2 3 4 Geisler, Jens (2018-08-01). "Kvægkrigen på Coromandelkysten 1756 -". milhist.dk (in Danish). Retrieved 2024-02-13.
↑ Holger, Christensen (1992). Det Danske fremstød i Indian i 1750-erne (PDF) (in Danish). Copenhagen: Copenhagen University. p. 126.
↑ Illustreret Tidende (PDF). Vol. II. Det kongelige bibliotek.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[6] The term "men of the corps" refers only to the Danish royal soldiers, and not the Indian sepoys

[:2-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Gregersen, Hans (2018). Trankebar [Tranquebar] (in Danish). Forlag A/S. pp. 12–13. ISBN 9788711978337.

[:4-2] 1 2 3 4 5 6 Larsen, Kay (1935). Danmarks Kolonier (PDF) (in Danish). BRUGSFORENINGS~ BLADET. p. 272.

[:3-3] 1 2 3 4 5 Liisberg, Bering (2020). Danmarks søfart og søhandel (in Danish). SAGA Egmont.

[:0-4] Christensen, Holger. "Det danske fredmstød i Indien i 1750-erne. Baggrund og forløb" (PDF).

[:1-5] 1 2 3 4 Geisler, Jens (2018-08-01). "Kvægkrigen på Coromandelkysten 1756 -". milhist.dk (in Danish). Retrieved 2024-02-13.

[7] Holger, Christensen (1992). Det Danske fremstød i Indian i 1750-erne (PDF) (in Danish). Copenhagen: Copenhagen University. p. 126.

[8] Illustreret Tidende (PDF). Vol. II. Det kongelige bibliotek.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[lower-alpha 1]

[6]

[7]