In the C17th, Dutch and Portuguese merchants, soldiers, diplomats and priests contended with each other and with contingents from Japan, Vietnam, Persia, India and China to gain influence over the monarchs and mandarins of the courts of mainland Southeast Asia. Their aims were both financial, especially the trade with the Chinese Emperor and, in the case of the Catholic Portuguese, religious, through the desire to convert the people and save their souls. The reports they sent back home, together with their journals and business correspondence, provide not only numerous colourful details about the life and times of the people with which they met but also help us to understand a period of history in which few consistent details from indigenous sources exist.
The customs of the Cambodian court - this was in the years after the collapse of the Khmer Empire and the abandonment of the great achievements of the past - involved recognising as potential king the sons of important concubines as well as wives and the unwillingness of existing kings to eliminate all their descendants who might one day claim the throne, meant that revolution, coup and bloodshed were common occurrences. Here, the Dutch observer describes one such palace coup:
"The present king of Cambodia is of royal stock. His father and two of his brothers had been kings themselves. Young, bold and audacious - and being renowned for this - the kings had always treated him with circumspection, fearing that one day he might live up to his reputation. Unfortunately this did indeed happen, causing him to take the life of the elder king (his uncle) and the latter's oldest son."
A plot was soon hatched with the help of a "black slave with a quick and subtle mind." The plan was bloody indeed. The chamberlain of the king was enlisted to help and, while the king was playing cards with his nobles, as was the custom of the evenings, he sneaked up to him was a kris under his clothes:
"[He] ... would then approach the elder king from behind as if, like he was wont to do, to present something to the king. Pretending to do so, he stabbed the king from behind with a kris or assassin's dagger. Subsequently, the plotter jumped up and, extinguishing all candles, started to hack around him in the hope of [killing all] those present. The royal court was immediately set ablaze and this fire was the signal that the houses of all the dignitaries and rulers went up in flames as well, set on fire by people who had been posted there earlier. All around these great flames lighted up the dark night, causing a tremendous panic (pp.10-11)."
The customs of the Cambodian court - this was in the years after the collapse of the Khmer Empire and the abandonment of the great achievements of the past - involved recognising as potential king the sons of important concubines as well as wives and the unwillingness of existing kings to eliminate all their descendants who might one day claim the throne, meant that revolution, coup and bloodshed were common occurrences. Here, the Dutch observer describes one such palace coup:
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