| Constantine Phaulkon was a Greek employee of the [[English East India Company]] who became for a time in the late 17th century the chief advisor to the Siamese king. | | Constantine Phaulkon was a Greek employee of the [[English East India Company]] who became for a time in the late 17th century the chief advisor to the Siamese king. |
− | Phaulkon married a Japanese [[Christianity|Christian]] and, taking up residence in the Siamese capital of [[Ayutthaya]], became chief advisor to King [[Narai]]. Once English and [[VOC|Dutch]] pressures on the king began to become troublesome, however, he called for aid from the [[French East India Company]], resulting in armed conflict between allied French and Siamese forces, and English ones, in the streets of Bangkok; the French occupied the city, and in [[1688]] Phaulkon was arrested, and Narai was succeeded by [[Phra Phetracha]]. The French were convinced to quit their occupation of the city, however, before long. | + | Phaulkon married a Japanese [[Christianity|Christian]] and, taking up residence in the Siamese capital of [[Ayutthaya]], became chief advisor to King [[Narai]]. Once English and [[VOC|Dutch]] pressures on the king began to become troublesome, however, he called for aid from the [[French East India Company]], resulting in armed conflict between allied French and Siamese forces, and English ones, in the streets of Bangkok; the French occupied the city, and in [[1688]] Phaulkon was arrested and later killed, and Narai was succeeded by [[Phra Phetracha]]. The French were convinced to quit their occupation of the city, however, before long. |
| + | His Japanese wife survived him, and later became head of the royal kitchens.<ref>William Wray, “The Seventeenth-century Japanese Diaspora: Questions of Boundary and Policy,” in Ina Baghdiantz McCabe et al (eds.), ''Diaspora Entrepreneurial Networks'', Oxford: Berg (2005), 87.</ref> |
| *Warren Cohen, ''East Asia at the Center'', Columbia University Press (2000), 206. | | *Warren Cohen, ''East Asia at the Center'', Columbia University Press (2000), 206. |