Prajadhipok
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His Majesty King Prajadhipok (Rama VII, royal name พระปกเกล้าเจ้าอยู่หัว Phra Pokklao Chaoyuhua) (November 8, 1893 - May 30, 1941) was the seventh king of the Chakri dynasty. He was the last absolute monarch and the first constitutional monarch of Thailand.
Prajadhipok's reign was the shortest, and probably the most controversial, in the history of the Chakri Dynasty. On the one hand, the short history of this reign is the story of the movement of great historical forces - of political aspirations, public opinion, social and political mobilisation, and economic modernisation - while, on the other hand, it is very much the story of individuals and personalities and their effect upon historical events.
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Early life
One of history's tragic figures, Somdej Chao Pha Prajadhipok Sakdidej (Prince Prachadhipok Sakdidej) was born November 8, 1893 in Bangkok as the last and youngest son of King Chulalongkorn (Rama V) and Queen Sri Patcharindra.
Unlikely to be an heir to the throne, the shy prince aimed for a quiet military career. He was educated at Eton College and the Woolwich Military Academy in England, and later on in the Ecole Superieure de Guerre in France. However, when Prajadhipok returned to Siam in 1924, he found himself rising rapidly up the ladder of succession to the throne. When his brother, King Vajiravhud died in 1925, he was made king, at the young age of thirty-two.
Circumstance of succession
Prince Prajadhipok is probably one of the least likely candidates for the throne by the time he was born. His mother, Queen Sri Patcharindra, was the younger sister of Queen Savang Vadhana, who was the mother of Prince Vajirunahis, the crown prince. However, when his half-brother the crown prince died, King Chulalongkorn invested Prajadipok's eldest brother, Prince Vajiravhud as the new crown prince. According to the Law later enacted by King Vajiravhud, this gave the princes born to Queen Sri Patcharindra higher priority to succession than the princes born to any other royal wives. In addition, because she was then mother of the crown prince, Queen Sri Patcharindra was appointed Queen Regent when King Chulalongkorn went to the European countries. As her sister, Queen Savang Vadhana, mother of the deceased crown prince, remained just Queen Consort, Queen Sri Patcharindra's status was thus considered higher and her sons would also automatically have higher claims on that ground alone. As it turned out, none of Prajadhipok's elder brothers survived by the time King Vajiravhud died, leaving Prajadhipok as his only brother still survived.
There were, however, two other princes who have more or less equal claims to the throne to Prajadhipok. One was Phra Worawong Ther Phra Ong Chao Chulachakrapongse (Prince Chulachakrapongse, son of Field Marshall Chao Fa Chakrapongsepoovanat Prince of Phitsanulok), the other was Mom Chao Waranonthawach (Prince Waranonthawach, son of Chao Fa Juthatutch Prince of Petchaboon). Both the Prince of Phitsanulok and the Prince of Petchaboon were Prince Prajadhipok's elder brothers, but they had both died. It was quite clear cut in case of Prince Waranonthawach, as King Vajiravhud had specifically removed him from succession as his mother was a commoner. It was more ambiguous for Prince Chulachakrapongse. In fact, Prince Chakrapongsepoovanat was an heir-apparent to King Vajiravhud. However, the problem was that he married to a foreigner, and Prince Chulachakrapongse was therefore half-blooded. Marriage to a foreigner is one of the condition that would prohibit a prince from succession. However, the law was enacted after this particular marriage, and King Chulalongkorn had in fact endorsed the wedding. It also appeared that King Vajiravhud practically endorsed the legality of Prince Chakrapongsepoovanat as his successor, and therefore Prince Chulachakrapongse might have a higher claim.
Tradition required that the senior members of the Royal Family meet to select the next king. After consideration of these points, and possibly some muscle-flexing by Field Marshall Prince Boripat of Nakornsawan, Prince Prajadhipok of Sukhothai was offered the throne.
This debate, however, would return again when King Prajadhipok abdicated. See also Ananda Mahidol's succession.
King Prajadhipok was crowned on November 26,1925.
Reigning name
He was normally referred to as Phrabat Somdej Phra Pokklao Chaoyuhua (พระบาทสมเด็จพระปกเกล้าเจ้าอยู่หัว) and in legal documents as Phrabat Somdej Phra Poramintharamaha Prajadhipok Phra Pokklao Chaoyuhua (พระบาทสมเด็จพระปรมินทรมหาประชาธิปก พระปกเกล้าเจ้าอยู่หัว)
Informally, Thai people refer to him as Ratchakal ti jed (lit. 'The Seventh Reign') and in English translation as King Rama VII. It should be noted that he did not use the name of Rama in Thai.
Life as king
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Bust of King Prajadhipok
Unprepared for his new responsibilities, all Prajadhipok had in his favour was a lively intelligence, a certain diplomacy in his dealings with others, a modesty and industrious willingness to learn, and the somewhat tarnished, but still potent, magic of the crown.
The initial legacy that Prajadhipok received from his elder brother was problems, of the sort that had become chronic in the Sixth Reign. The most urgent of these was economic: the finances of the state were in chaos, the budget heavily in deficit, and the royal accounts an accountant's nightmare of debts and questionable transactions. That the world was in deep economic depression post World War I did not help either.
Virtually the first act of Prajadipok as king entailed an institutional innovation intended to restore confidence in the monarchy and government, the creation of the Supreme Council of the State. This privy council was made up of a number of experienced and extremely competent members of the royal family, including the long time Minister of the Interior (and King Chulalongkorn's right hand man) Prince Damrong Rajanubhab. With the help of this council, the King managed to restore stability to the economy, although at a price of making a significant amount of the mandarins redundant and cutting the salary of those remained. This was certainly unpopular among the officials, and was one of the trigger events for the later Revolution.
King Prajadhipok then turned his attention to the question of future politics in Siam. Inspired by the British example, the King wanted to allow the common people to have a say in the country's affair by the creation of a parliament. A proposed constitution was ordered to be drafted, but the King's wishes were rejected by his advisors, who felt that the population was not yet ready for democracy.
The Revolution
Another group of soldiers and civil servants, however, did not think so. This led to a bloodless revolution in the early morning of June 24,1932 by the People's Party (Khana Ratsadorn - คณะราษฎร) who took control of one of the royal palaces in Bangkok and captured key officials (mainly the princes) while the king was staying in his summer retreat in Hua Hin. The Party demanded that Prajadhipok be a constitutional monarch and grant Thai people a democratic constitution. The king agreed and the first "permanent" constitution was granted on December 10,1932.
More information on the 1932 Revolution can be found here, and what happened immediately afterward can be found under History of Thailand (1932-1973).
Abdication
Things however did not go on well. There were several conflicts between the king and the government. The King felt let down as the government (effectively a military regime at that time) did not actually grant the people the true democracy he wished. On March 2, 1935, while undergoing treatment for cataract in England, the great champion of democracy, King Prajadhipok abdicated. When doing so, he issued a brief public message criticising the regime that included the following phrase, since often quoted by critics of Thailand's slow political development:
- I am willing to surrender the powers I formerly exercised to the people as a whole, but I am not willing to turn them over to any individual or any group to use in an autocratic manner without heeding the voice of the people.
Life after abdication
He spent the rest of his short life with Queen Rampaipannee in England. At the time of abdication, he was living at Knowle House, in Surrey, just outside London. However, the condition in this house was not really suitable for his health; so they moved to Glen Pammant, still in Surrey, a smaller house but more area to walk. They remained there for two years.
They moved again to Vane Court, the oldest house in the village of Biddenden in Kent. He led a peaceful life there, gardening in the morning, and writing his autobiography in the afternoon. He intended that the book would give the later generations insight into what happenned during his reign.
In 1938, the Second World War was looming. The King rightly predicted that Biddenden would became a military zone and Vane Court would be taken for military use. The royal couple thus moved to Compton House, in the village of Wentworth in Virginia Water, Surrey.
Due to active bombing by Germany in 1940, the couple again shifted temporarily first to a small house in Devon, and then to Lake Vyrnwy Hotel in Powys, Wales, where he suffered from a heart attack.
The couple returned to Compton House, as he expressed his preference to die there. King Prajadhipok passed away from heart failure on May 30, 1941.
His simple cremation was held at Golders Green in North London in stark contrast to traditional royal funeral -- attended just by Queen Rampaipannee and a handful of close relatives, with no Buddhist monk nor traditional Thai music. The only music played was his favourite passage from Mendelsohn's violin concerto. Queen Rampaipannee stayed at Compton House for a further eight years before she returned to Thailand in 1949, bringing the King's ashes back to his motherland with her.
Written only to the point when he was 25, his autobiography was left unfinished.
Related articles
External link
- King Prajadhipok museum (http://www.kpi.ac.th/museum/index.asp?version=en)
| Preceded by: Rama VI (Vajiravudh) | Kings of Thailand | Succeeded by: Rama VIII (Ananda Mahidol) |