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The peoples of many nations have left their footprint on
this part of the world. Putting aside China and India
for the time being we have already come across Persians
and Arabs who have long traded here. Smelly, hairy big
nosed Europeans started sniffing around in the 16th
century with the Portuguese then the Dutch and English.
As we head east we will come across French influences in
architecture, language and road rules. But the Greeks,
of them we see and hear little. The country of Ptolemy
put names to some of the myriad states they never
visited but their input is minimal. Maybe they were
upset by port state of Melaka (which translates as one
who practises sex alone) and assumed every place name
was a joke at their expense.
In 1647 while King Prasat Thong still reigned in Ayuthya
Constantine Hierax was born in distant Greece. Rather
like Nagasama before him, he left home to find fame and
fortune. He made his way to England and from their
sailed East. While in the East, sailing round India and
the East Indies, present day Indonesia, he changed his
surname to Phaulkon (Falcon) and decided he wanted to be
a trader. In those days there was money to be made in
the East and as we have seen with Peter Floris in an
earlier generation opportunities were boundless for
ambitious men with a sense of daring do well. Falcon was
young at the time of his first voyage, how exciting it
must have all seemed to the youth eating exotic foods,
visiting beautiful islands. Oh and burying his
colleagues. But also he would have been aware of what
was going on behind the scenes, of how people were
making money of their own.
In 1669 he set sail again, this time as an assistant
gunner on The Hopewell headed for Bantam (Banten today)
then a major trading port on the island of Java. A small
aside here. As you travel out of Bangkok be it by rail
or road you will notice a row of concrete pillars
standing neatly astride the railway tracks. These are
not some Neolithic relic a la Stonehenge but a testimony
to the economic success story that was Thailand in the
late 80's, early 90's. One mass transport plan drawn up
involved a double decker rail/road way above the
existing lines. The plans were drawn up, the piles
driven in, by a company called Hopewell.
1678 saw him arrive in Songkla where he found work in a
government trading house. Phaulkon had an aptitude for
languages and set about learning Thai at a time when
cassette courses weren’t available. With his business
acumen and improving language skills he became appointed
head of foreign trade, a post with a myriad of
opportunities for financial gain no doubt. He was given
a royal title, Luang Vichayen, and converted to the
catholic faith which delighted those pious French
priests who lurked in the shadows of power seeking
converts and or power. But while Phaulkon certainly had
the ear of King Narai and was influenced by the priests,
Narai was content merely to look at the bigger picture
of using the French as a counter weight to the Dutch.
But the presence of such an influential foreigner at
court wasn’t appreciated by courtiers who sought their
own personal standing fall away to Phaulkon.
In 1685 a French delegation brought not just the usual
diplomats and nobles but some military officers and Siam
accepted the French offer of military support in return
for extra trade and missionary rights. A force of 650
was initially based in Songkla while the French rubbed
their hands in glee at getting one over their Dutch
Protestant ‘enemies’ and the thought that such
cooperation meant that Narai’s conversion to Catholicism
could not be far off. Doubtless the petty bickering
between the two European powers provided bemusement and
amusement among their hosts who were quite happy to play
one off against the other. Phaulkon of course was a key
player n the negotiations and while he was sweet talking
the court he worked on having the Siamese monarch accept
the French force as his own private bodyguard. This of
course would offer the French a military presence in the
corridors of power as they would have to relocate from
Songkla.
So focussed was the Greek on his goal that he ignored
the mumblings between the disgruntled courtiers. His
lifestyle as well as his influence was a cause of great
resentment. He possessed a couple of large palaces, a
personal bodyguard and all the wine he could drink. All
had to crawl before him, all that is except the French.
In 1687 Phra Phetraja, an influential figure who was
Keeper of the King’s Elephants, formed an anti foreigner
group determined to undermine the Catholic Greek’s sway
over their Buddhist monarch. Narai was ill with dropsy
and before he died Phaulkon appealed to him to appoint
his adopted son as King, no doubt with him ruling as
Regent until he reached majority. Had this happened then
history may have changed Siam forever with a Catholic
King but Narai, opted to choose his Keeper of Elephants
and so a constitutional crisis was averted. Perhaps
Phaulkon should have read up on his history and seen
what happened to outsiders when they backed the wrong
side in Siamese succession crises. Nagasama the Japanese
was silenced forever earlier in the century, Phra
Phetraja saw Phaulkon got the same fate. The
unappreciated French priests and military were mostly
imprisoned but Phaulkon was tortured and executed on 5th
July 1688. |
