King Naresuan -

King Naresuan was born in Phitsanulok province in 1555. His father, King Maha Thammaracha was a descendant of the Phra Ruang dynasty of Sukhothai, and his mother was Queen Phra Wisut Kasattri of the Suwannaphum dynasty of Ayutthaya.
 
At the age of nine, Naresuan was taken captive by the Burmese to ensure the fidelity of his father Maha Tammaraja, who became king of the Ayutthaya kingdom after it was occupied by the Burmese in 1569. After spending nine years of his youth at Pegu 9capital of Burma at the tie) under the protection of the Burmese king Bayinnaung, Naresuan was exchanged with his sister Princess Suparntevi when he was 16 years old, and became governor of Phitsanulok.

Treated as a son by the Burmese king, he was highly trained in martial arts, literature, military strategies and actually became one of the princes in the Burmese Palace.

In 1584, three years after Burmese king Bayinnaung's death in 1581, the tributary relation with Burma was cancelled, which was inevitably followed by a vigorous attack by the Burmese army. Naresuan fought back against the attack, and in 1586 he occupied Lanna, a buffer state between the two kingdoms.

In 1590, King Maha Thammaracha died, and Naresuan officially became the leader of the kingdom. In 1591 the Burmese started another attack, which was cancelled when the Burmese crown prince Minchit Sra was killed by Naresuan in personal combat on elephant in Nong Sarai (Suphanburi, Thailand).

The following year Naresuan himself attacked Tenasserim (a city state of Burma at the time), as well as Cambodia in 1593.

The Thais call him “the Great” because he extended (and united) Ayuthaya (the capital of the Thai state) territory to include Lanna, Lanchang, Cambodia and some parts of Burma. He enforced strict discipline on his soldiers and the people. During his reign, Ayuthaya was a very secure and powerful state.

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