Burma, Kings of
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Toungoo Dynasty
| Name | Succeeds | Birth- Death |
Reign | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1) Mingyi Nyo | First King of Burma | 1459- 1530 |
1485- 1530 |
Under his leadership, Toungoo grew from a remote backwater vassal state of Ava to a small but stable independent kingdom, keeping his kingdom out of the warfare plaguing Upper Burma. In 1510, he declared Toungoo's independence from Ava and left a stable kingdom that enabled his successor Tabinshwehti able to take on larger kingdoms in order to found the Toungoo Empire. |
| 2) Tabinshwehti | Father | 4/16/1516 – 4/30/1550 |
11/24/1530- 4/20/1550 |
This founder of the Toungoo Empire succeeded at the age of 14. His military campaigns (1534–49) created the largest kingdom in Burma since the fall of the Pagan Empire in 1287. His administratively fragile kingdom was the impetus for the eventual reunification of the entire country by his successor Bayinnaung. He began his military campaigns in 1534 against Pegu and had conquered the kingdom by 1541. He then extended his rule to Pagan in 1544. However, his attempts to build an east-west empire fell short in Arakan (1545-7) and Siam (1547-9). He moved the capital to Pegu. He was assassinated on his 34th birthday and his kingdom fell apart right after his death. |
| 3) Bayinnaung | Brother-in-law (married Tabinshwehti's sister) | 1/16/1516- 10/10/1581 |
1550- 1581 |
Best remembered for his empire building, his greatest legacy was his integration of the Shan states into the Irrawaddy-valley-based kingdoms in 1557–1563. He put in an administrative system that reduced the power of the hereditary Shan rulers and brought Shan customs in line with lowland norms which eliminated the threat of Shan raids into Upper Burma, a concern since the late 13th century. He could not replicate this administrative policy everywhere in his far flung empire, however. His empire was a loose collection of former sovereign kingdoms whose kings were loyal to him, not to the kingdom. Ava and Siam revolted just over two years after his death. By 1599, all the vassal states had revolted, and the Toungoo Empire completely collapsed. |
| 4) Nanda Bayin | Father | 11/9/1535– 11/30/1600 |
1581- 1599 |
He never gained the full support of his father's vassals, who governed sovereign kingdoms just a few decades earlier. Within the first three years of his reign, both Upper Burma and Siam revolted. Though he could never raise more than a third of his father's troop levels, Nanda could not come to terms with a smaller empire. Between 1584 and 1593, he launched five disastrous invasions of Siam, which weakened his hold everywhere else. From 1593 onward, he was on the defensive, unable to stop a Siamese invasion that seized the entire Tenasserim coast in 1594–95, or prevent the rest of the vassals from breaking away in 1597. In 1599, Nanda surrendered to the joint forces of Toungoo and Arakan and was taken prisoner to Toungoo. A year later, he was assassinated by the ruler of Toungoo. |
| 5) Nyaungyan | Father | 11/8/1555– 11/5/1605 |
1599- 1605 |
He gradually emerged as a power in Upper Burma in the mid-1590s. When major vassal rulers renounced their ties with Nanda in 1597, he too broke away by seizing Ava. But he stayed out of the wars in the low country. Instead, he consolidated his base in the upcountry and went on to acquire the surrounding Shan states until his death in 1605. He also rebuilt the economy of Upper Burma, and (re-)established several social, financial and military standards, many of which this day. His efforts paved the way for his son and successor to restore major portions of the Toungoo Empire in the next two decades. |
| 6) Anaukpetlun | Father | 1/21/1578– 7/9/1628 |
1606- 1628 |
He was largely responsible for restoring the kingdom after it had collapsed at the end of 16th century. In his reign he completed the reunification efforts begun by his father. Having inherited a partial kingdom comprising mainly of Upper Burma and the Shan states, he went on to reconquer Lan Na in the east, Lower Burma in the south and the Upper Tenasserim from the Ayutthaya Kingdom in Siam. In 1617, he made Pegu his capital and crowned himself as King of Bago. In 1618 he reached an agreement with Siam in which Burma would control Martaban in southern Burma and Thailand would control Chiang Mai in northern Siam. He was murdered by his son Minyedeippa who had a relationship with one of his father's concubines and feared the possible punishments. |
| 7) Minyedeippa | Father | 1608– 11/25/1629 |
7/1628– 11/25/1629 |
After the assassination, he was able to strong-arm the ministers at the court to proclaim him king as the main two contenders to the throne, his two uncles Thalun and Minye Kyawswa were away at the Shan States on a military campaign. Although nominally king, Minyedeippa never had any control beyond Pegu, the kingdom's capital. In 1628, his two uncles marched back from Shan States and controlled Upper Burma while many others in Lower Burma rebelled. In 1629, Thalun marched down from Ava to reconquer Lower Burma. The king of Arakan sent an army to assist Minyedaikpa but to no avail. In August 1629, the king was seized by the commander of the palace guards and sent to Thalun. Thalun denied his request to become a monk and executed him in November of that year. |
| 8) Thalun | Nephew | 6/17/1584– 8/27/648 |
1629- 1648 |
He successfully rebuilt the war-torn country which had been under constant warfare for nearly a century since the 1530s, instituted many administrative reforms and rebuilt the economy of the kingdom. There was an assassination attempt by a Mon on the king which resulted in the massacre of the Mons. He fought a three-year campaign against Lanna, finally subjugating them in 1632. In 1634, he moved the capital to Ava and crowned himself king of Ava, making his brother Minye Kyawswa crown prince. He then concentrated on building pagodas and other works of merit. Minye Kyawswa died on 8/18/1647, so he named his own son Pindale crown prince. The son of Minye Kyawswa, who wanted the title for himself, staged a rebellion. The palace was sacked and Thalun fled to Sagaing in central Burma. The rebellion was soon put down and the conspirators were burnt alive. |
| 9) Pindale | Father | 11/23/1608– 6/3/1661 |
1648- 1661 |
His ineffectual reign was the beginning of the gradual decline of Toungoo dynasty over the next century. Emperor Yongli of Southern Ming established himself in Yunnan to the northeast of Burma, extracting tribute from the Shan state Chiang Hung. The Burmese armies under his brother Pye, the king of Prome were sent north to claim Chiang Hung but failed. Yongli was driven out of Yunnan and fled to Bhamo in northern Burma requesting Burmese alliance. He granted the residence to the former Ming emperor at Sagaing, but the Qing (who had overthrown the Ming) promptly sent troops into Burma to capture Yongli. The Kingdom of Ava was largely plundered and Ava was laid siege. The siege was unsuccessful, but the invaders had burnt the Burmese farms in Ava which resulted in famine and Pindale lost his popularity. His brother Pye then staged a coup and took the throne, drowning Pindale, his chief queen, son and grandson in a river. |
| 10) Pye | Brother | 5/26/1619– 4/14/1672 |
1661- 1672 |
When his brother lost his popularity, he was urged to take the throne. He staged a coup, overthrowing Pindale and crowning himself King of Ava. He was determined to reduce the power of Yongli at Sagaing and held a conference of Chinese officials. Yongli suspected this as an assassination trick and instead ordered his armies to clash with the Burmese. However, the Chinese were largely decimated. In 1662, the Qing armies invaded Burma and Pye Min decided to leave the last Ming Emperor to the Qing. Yongli was carried out of Burma. There was a Mon rebellion around Martaban in 1661 and in 1662 Lan Na was invaded by Siam who held the city temporarily. The rest of his reign was largely uneventful. |
| 11) Narawara | Father | 7/1650- 2/27/1673 |
4/14/1672– 2/27/1673 |
Narawara died young and was succeeded by his brother Minye Kyawhtin. |
| 12) Minye Kyawhtin | Brother | c. 4/1651- 5/4/1698 |
2/27/1673– 5/4/1698 |
He was governor of Pindale and was elected by the ministers of the court, led by minister Sithu Nawrahta, over several elder princes, some of whom were sons of King Pye, thinking that they could control him, after his step-brother's death in 1673. The court and the young king killed off two elder princes who refused to take the oath of loyalty, fought off assassination attempts by King Pye's sons and purged other groups of nobles and royalties. The power of the kingdom gradually declined during his reign. Burma was attacked by Siam during his reign. |
| 13) Sanay | Father | 4/1/1673- 8/22/1714 |
5/4/1698- 8/22/1714 |
Like his father he was ineffectual and the power of Toungoo dynasty continued to decline. |
| 14) Taninganway | Father | 1689- 11/14/1733 |
8/22/1714 – 11/14/1733 |
The decline of the dynasty finally came to the forefront during his reign in the form of internal and external instabilities. He faced a rebellion by his uncle, the governor of Pagan at his accession. In the northwest, horsemen from Bengal raided Burma early in 1724. A retaliatory expedition in November failed. In the east, southern Lan Na, under Burmese rule since 1558, successfully revolted in 1727. Taninganway tried to recapture the breakaway region twice but failed. By 1732, southern Lan Na was independent although a strong Burmese garrison in Chiang Saen in northern Lan Na confined the rebellion to the Ping valley around Chiang Mai. |
| 15) Maha Dhammaraza Dipati | Father | 3/29/1714- 10/13/1754 |
11/14/1733- 3/22/1752 |
He inherited a kingdom already in severe decline and his inexperience only made the decline faster, finally resulting in the end of House of Toungoo and the collapse of the kingdom. In 1738 the Bengal armies invaded and plundered the northern Burmese provinces. The Burmese were unable to suppress them. Pegu had become the rallying point for the Mon revival and insurgency. Taking advantage of weak royal authority after the Bengal invasions, the Burmese governor of Pegu rebelled and proclaimed himself the King of Pegu in 1740. The Mons, unwilling to have a Burmese king in Pegu, rioted and murdered the new king. Maha Dhammaraza Dipati then installed his uncle as the new governor of Pegu. Still not satisfied, the Mons went on to kill Burmese officials in Pegu. In retaliation, the king ordered a massacre of the Mons at Pegu. The Shans who had been taken as captives from their northern homelands to Pegu by King Bayinnaung in the 16th century took this opportunity to stage their own rebellion. The Shan armies with support from the Mons took Pegu in 1740. Pegu and Burma were unable to overcome each other until 1751 when the crown prince of Pegu marched his army into Upper Irrawaddy and laid siege to Sagaing and Ava. Ava fell on 3/22/1752 and Maha Dhammaraza Dipati was taken captive to Pegu. He survived for another two years before being executed in 1754 because of a suspected rebellion. |
Konbaung Dynasty
| Name | Succeeds | Birth- Death |
Reign | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16) Alaungpaya | First of the dynasty | 8/24/1714- 5/11/1760 |
2/29/1752– 5/11/1760 |
This chief of his village in Upper Burma, spurred on by the inability of the King of Burma to defend his people against the Bengal invasions and supported by his people, proclaimed himself king. His father urged him to submit, pointing out that, although he had enthusiastic men, they only had a few muskets and that their little stockade did not stand a chance against a well-equipped Hanthawaddy army. He prepared the defenses by stockading his village and building a moat around it. He had the jungle outside the stockade cleared, the ponds destroyed and the wells filled. Fortunately, the Hanthawaddy command mistakenly withdrew two-thirds of the invasion force back to Bago, leaving just a third for what they considered a mop-up operation. In March 1754, Hanthawaddy invaded. Alaungpaya personally led the Konbaung counterattack and drove out the southern armies by May. Swelled by levies from throughout Upper Burma, including Shan, Kachin and Kuki contingents, he launched a massive invasion of Lower Burma in January 1755. By May, his armies had conquered the entire Irrawaddy Delta and captured Dagon, which he renamed Yangon. His advance came to a sudden halt at the port city of Thanlyin, which repelled several Konbaung charges. The Konbaung forces finally took the city after a 14-month siege in July 1756. They then overcame the Hanthawaddy defenses and sacked Pegu in May 1757 bringing and end to the 17-year-old kingdom. After this, Chiang Mai and other states in northwest Siam, which had been in revolt since 1727, promptly sent tribute. In the south, the governors of Martaban and Dawei also sent tribute. In 1758, he sent an expedition to the northern Shan and Tai states which had been annexed by the Qing in the mid-1730s. By early 1759, the Burmese had re-established their authority. |
| 17) Naungdawgyi | Father | 8/10/1736- 11/28/1763 |
5/11/1760– 11/28/1763 |
He was a top military commander in his father's reunification campaigns. As king, he spent much of his short reign suppressing rebellions across the newly founded kingdom. He died suddenly less than a year after he had successfully suppressed the rebellions. |
| 18) Hsinbyushin | Brother | 9/12/1736- 6/10/1776 |
11/28/1763– 6/10/1776 |
The deputy commander-in-chief during his father's reunification campaigns, as king he pursued an expansionist policy against his neighbors. By a royal order issued on 11/27/1764, he relocated the kingdom's capital from Sagaing to Ava. He officially moved to Ava in April 1765. By 1767, his armies had temporarily defeated Siam and driven back two invasions by China. But his reckless decision to wage two simultaneous wars against China and Siam nearly cost the kingdom its independence. The third Chinese invasion of 1767–1768 penetrated deep into central Burma, forcing him to withdraw his armies from Siam. |
| 19) Singu | Father | 5/10/1756- 2/4/1782 |
6/10/1776– 2/5/1782 |
His accession (made possible by the support of his father-in-law, the commander-in-chief of the Burmese army) ignored the wish of the dynasty's founder King Alaungpaya that all his sons become king. Concerned about his own rule at home, he recalled the general and hisforces from Lan Na, causing the Burmese to lose most of that Kingdom, which had been under Burmese suzerainty since 1558.<br.He had three of his half-brothers executed in 1776. He next executed his uncle, the rightful heir to the throne on 10/1/1777. He exiled the remaining three uncles, and two cousins. The Prince of Badon (later King Bodawpaya), next in line for the throne, conducted himself so as to be seen as harmless so that he escaped death. He was sent to Sagaing where he was kept under close supervision. He was anti-war in sentiment and largely demobilized the armies. He even had a fallout with his father-in-law and dismissed the man who made him king. He relieved the old general of all his offices, divorced his daughter in May 1777 and had her drowned in 1778. |
| 20) Phaungkaza Maung Maung | Cousin, eldest son of Naungdawgyi | 9/15/1763- 2/11/1782 |
2/5–11/1782 | On 2/5/1782, he seized the throne while his cousin King Singu was away on tour. His uncle, the Prince of Badon (later King Bodawpaya) quickly came to the palace and deposed him on 2/11/1782. He and his chief queen were drowned on the same day. |
| 21) Bodawpaya | Nephew | 3/11/1745- 6/5/1819 |
2/11/1782– 6/5/1819 |
He moved the capital back to Amarapura in 1782. He fathered 62 sons and 58 daughters by about 200 consorts. He invaded Arakan in 1784; the capital of Arakan, Mrauk U, was captured at the end of 1784. 20,000 captives were sent as slaves to pagodas and temples and to the nobility at Amarapura. In 1784 he ordered a major economic survey of the kingdom He invaded Siam in 1784 and was defeated. The governor of Tavoy in Tenasserim revolted in 1791 with the aid of the Siamese. A punitive expedition sent by sea laid siege ending in peace negotiations in 1793 and the ceding of the Tenasserim coast to the Burmese.. The Arakanese revolted in 1794. He invaded Siam again in 1809, but was repulsed. |
| 21) Bagyidaw | Grandfather | 7/23/1784 10/15/1846 |
6/5/1819– 4/15/1837 |
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| 22) Tharawaddy | Brother | 3/14/1787- 11/17/1846 |
4/15/1837– 11/17/1846 |
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| 23) Pagan | Father | 6/21/1811- 3/14/1880 |
11/17/1846– 2/18/1853 |
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| 24) Mindon | Brother | 7/8/1808- 10/1/1878 |
2/18/1853– 10/1/1878 |
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| 25) Thibaw | 1/1/1859- 12/19/1916 |
10/1/1878– 11/29/1885 |
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| 26) Myat Phaya Lat | Father | 10/4/1883- 4/4/1956 |
12/19/1916– 4/4/1956 |
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| 27) Edward Taw Phaya Myat Nge | Aunt | 4/1/1947-11/14/1955 |
