PHAULKON, THE GREEK FIRST COUNSELLOR AT THE COURT OF SIAM: AN APPRAISAL.
By George A. Sioris, 1998

This book represents a wide–ranging character appraisal by a fellow Greek of Constantine Gerakis, better known as Phaulkon, who was the brilliant and controversial Greek First Counsellor at the Court of Siam in the 17th Century.

1675 - The Phoenix, the English ship of Captain George White, arrives in Ayutthaya. It brings Constantine Phaulkon as one of its trading staff. Phaulkon actually is Greek and his original name is Gerakis which means Falcon in English. For him, the arrival in Ayutthaya is the start of a remarkable though not very long career. While not possessing any education worth mentioning, he has an exceptional talent for languages and becomes fluent in Thai in a matter of a few years. At the time when he arrives in Siam, he is already knowledgeable and can communicate in English, French, Portuguese and his native Greek.

1679 - Constantine Phaulkon enters the Thai government service as interpreter. In the course of a few years he climbs from one Thai nobility rank to the next, starting as Luang Wijayen and becoming Phra Wijayen, Phaya Wijayen and finally Chao Phaya Wijayen. Enjoying King Narai's trust he is put in charge of the foreign trade of Siam, virtually becoming the kingdom's Foreign Minister.

1680 - Animosity develops between the English East India Company and Phaulkon, mainly because Phaulkon encourages English traders to transact business independently from the English East India Company which would like to establish a monopoly on the English Siam trade. Phaulkon himself conducts trade independently from the company which has substantial backing in the English government. Phaulkon and other private traders are defamed as so-called interlopers. The dispute with the English East India Company prompts Phaulkon to shift the emphasis of the Siamese foreign policy to establishing trade and political relations between with France.

1680, Dec 25 - The first Siamese embassy to Europe leaves Ayutthaya to offer the ceding of Singora (today's city of Songkhla in southern Thailand) to France. But the vessel on which the embassy travels never reaches Europe as it sinks while on the way carrying everything and everybody on board to the bottom of the sea.

1684, Jan - A second Siamese embassy embarks for Europe.

1685, Sep - A French embassy arrives in Ayutthaya. One of its aims is to convert King Narai to Catholicism. The Siamese king declines to become a Christian but is interested in developing trade with France.

1685, Dec 19 - In a convention between the French embassy and King Narai, the French receive religious and commercial concessions. The French East India Company is given complete liberty of commerce, with extra-territorial jurisdiction given over their staff. The French are also granted a monopoly on the tin trade on Phuket. Singora (present-day Songkhla) is ceded to the French with full power to fortify it.

1685, Dec 22 - A third embassy to France leaves Ayutthaya. It carries a request of King Narai for French experts in various fields, including architecture and defence. It is a matter of historical dispute to what extent Siam wanted French soldiers to man some of its garrisons. As King Narai is interested in developing the relations to France in order to have a counter force against the Dutch, an according request would have made sense.

1686 - Armed conflict develops between Siam and the English East India Company. The English East India Company doesn't recognize English traders in Thai service and sailing under the Thai flag as it views according activities only as the utilization of loopholes to get by the trade monopoly of the English East India Company. Feeling that verbal protest alone isn't effective the English East India Company sinks a ship of Captain White who has, on recommendation of Constantine Phaulkon, joined the Thai government service and sails under the Thai flag. The English East India also dispatches two frigates from its possession at the Indian Coromandel Coast to take the port town of Mergui (located on the southern Burmese coast and then a Thai possession) and to put a stop to any trade activities of Englishmen who are not part of the English East India Company. Such free traders are to be captured and court martialed on board of English vessels on sea, the orders say.

1687, Apr 28 - The English East India Company forwards a claim against Siam in the amount of 65,000 £ for damage suffered during the conflict between ships under Thai flag and Golconda, the possessions of the company along the Indian Coromandel Coast. Because of this the King of Ayutthaya orders all Englishmen connected to the company to leave the territory at once.

1687, Jul 4 - Siamese defence troops open fire on the English vessel James, one of the two frigates of the English East India Company trying to capture the port of Mergui and succeed in sinking the ship.

1687, Aug 11 - King Narai, upon advice of Phaulkon, issues a declaration of war against the English East India Company, though not the English government.

1687 - Because of Phaulkon's service and allegiance to France, he is granted by King Louis a patent of nobility. He becomes a Count and a Knight of the order of St. Michael and St. Peter.

1687, Sep 27 - An embassy from France lands in Ayutthaya bringing with it roughly 600 French soldiers and about 300 skilled workers.

1687, Dec 1 - Siam enters into another treaty with France giving more privileges to the French East India Company.

1688, Jan - The French soldiers become increasingly unpopular with the Thais due to their display of racist and insolent attitudes. Anti-foreign organizations are born and the religious prejudices of the people are likewise aroused. It should be noted that the term used by Thais until today for western foreigners is farang, an abbreviation of the original farangse - the Thai word for the French (Francais in French). The term farang had a negative connotation until after World War II.

1688, Mar - In Lopburi, King Narai becomes seriously ill; one of his generals, Phra Petraja, becomes the most powerful man in the realm, acting in the following weeks from Lopburi where he virtually keeps the ailing king a prisoner. Clearly following two objectives, to put himself on the throne and to expel the foreigners, he lures into a trap King Narai's adopted minor son, Phra Piya, and has him killed.

1688, Jun 5- Phaulkon is executed for treason, allegedly having conspired to put Phra Piya on the throne and having aimed at the regency. In the following days, Phra Petraja lures to Lopburi two brothers of King Narai, Prince Chao Fa Apaitot and Prince Chao Fa Noi, having them both killed two days after their arrival. To expel the French, Phra Petraja orders a siege on the French fortification at Bangkok, then only a minor settlement aside from having a French fort. Note: all of this still happens during the lifetime of King Narai.

LOPBURI'S GLORIOUS PAST

1. Lopburi on initial glance seems an unattractive little provincial centre, lacking urban symmetry and announcing itself with a pretentious traffic circle. A closer examination reveals within the heart of the concrete sprawl a number of ancient ruins, clear indications that the town has seen better days. Indeed, this was once, briefly, the centre of the Thai world, the stage on which momentous events in the 17th century were played out as the French made their first overtures to the court of King Narai in an endeavour to forge commercial links with Siam. Lopburi, located 155 kilometres north of Bangkok on the river of the same name, a tributary of the Chao Phya, deserves attention. Most travellers are unaware of its historical role, and a few hours spent exploring the town yield unexpected rewards....

2. Indeed, if Lopburi belongs historically to anyone, it is properly the domain of King Narai and his first minister, the wily Greek known as Phaulkon. To any visitor even only slightly receptive to echoes of the past, the town is haunted by the shades of these two very remarkable men, both of whom lived their most exciting years -- and met their deaths -- there.

3. King Narai ranks as one of the greatest Thai monarchs and his long reign presents a fine record of achievements, though he is most noted for an ambitious policy that ultimately failed. He was the first Siamese king to recognize the value and need of development and progress through international relations. His rule coincided with the culmination of the first big wave of European interest in Southeast Asia, and he was determined to reap benefits while safeguarding his nation's sovereignty.

4. In this he was 200 years ahead of his time and it was not until the mid 19th century that King Mongkut succeeded in establishing international trade along mutually beneficial lines. King Narai was finally defeated by conservative and jealous elements at court, which compounded international intrigues of Byzantine complexity.

5. Yet the ultimate defeat of his ambitious aims does not diminish Narai's stature as a monarch of intelligence, understanding, foresight and great personal dignity. And for a while his policies did meet with success. He attracted farangs (Westerners) to come and trade with Siam, and he fitted out his own ships, usually with foreign crews, to trade with India, Persia, China and Japan. He became in effect the nation's main import-export firm, and the royal revenues were increased.

6. The treasury should actually have benefitted more, though many farangs taken into royal service (trade was then alien to the Thai mentality) were adventurers -- the colourful Englishman, Samuel White, one-time Narai's harbour master at Mergui, is a good example -- whose main concern was with lining their own pockets.

7. By the latter half of the 17th century the stage was set for Lopburi's rise to prominence, and another star player was to make his entrance -- Phaulkon, the Greek. Born with the family name Gerakis ('falcon') Constantine, Phaulkon came from the Greek island of Cephalonia from where he ran away to sea as a boy, subsequently finding employment on mostly British ships. He eventually came to the Orient on a vessel of the East India Company, and after some adventures roaming the region, he used the help of British friends to set himself up as a trader at Ayutthaya, the Siamese capital.

8. An amazingly resourceful character driven by ambition, he almost inevitably attracted the attention of King Narai, eventually being taken into government service in 1680. From 1683 until his death five years later he served as the king's first minister and principal go-between during the visits of the first diplomatic missions from France. In effect he was the second most important man in the land, and never before nor since did a foreigner hold such an influential position in the kingdom.

9. Phaulkon amassed enormous wealth, and during the height of his career he exercised incredible power while living in opulence, for much of the period at Lopburi. Let it be said, however, that unlike most other foreigners in Siamese employment, Phaulkon arguable dedicated his talents to the genuine service of his adopted country. The rise of Lopburi was directly related to the events of the age. Ayutthaya was the official capital, though Narai preferred the surroundings of Lopburi, where he took delight in elephant hunting, and he gradually established the town as a second capital, having the court take up residence during the dry season. As his assessment of the dangers as well as potential of foreign involvement developed, Narai began to see greater advantages in a power base at Lopburi. Ayutthaya, he felt, was too exposed and too easily accessible from the sea. As his foreign policy was initially triggered by a not unrealistic fear of Dutch designs on Siam, he decided it prudent to move further inland to Lopburi. Here he built a new palace, forts and other imposing edifices.

10. The impact of the French, who played key roles in the events of the 1680s, was both physical and symbolic, and Lopburi became for Narai what Versailles was for Louis XIV. In Voyage to Siam, published in 1688, Guy Tachard wrote; "The town of Louvo [Lopburi] stands most pleasantly, and in a most wholesome air, the compass of it is pretty large, and it is become very populous since the King has been pleased to live much there." Narai added to the natural attractions of the location the grandiose Lopburi Palace, set in nearly 14 acres of land and surrounded by huge crenellated walls, pieced by tall imposing gateways, which survive to this day. The interior glory has, however, vanished for the most part, but the Throne Hall, was reputedly ablaze with mirrors from France, the nation which "was mainly responsible for such imported amenities of life as existed in Siam at the end of the 17th century," in the words of one historian.

11. If Narai and Phaulkon were the principal actors on the Lopburi stage, it was the French who provided the drama's leitmotif. In his perception of European influence in the region, the Thai monarch saw the Dutch as a potential threat, perhaps harbouring thoughts of colonization. Accordingly he and his advisor, Phaulkon, considered it good politics to counter such a danger by encouraging other foreign powers and thus balancing European interests. At first Phaulkon, as the King's chief minister, turned to his old employers, the British East India Company, but they, through a mix of vacillation and ineptitude, lost the initiative. This left the French. They were late arrivals on the scene, coming more than a century after the Portuguese and a good half century latter than the Dutch, English and Danes. Under their glorious 'Sun King', Louis XIV, they were nonetheless the dominant nation in Europe. In spite of no the commercial establishment to match that of the Dutch and the English, the French were building up influence in Siam through the presence of Jesuit missionaries. These were befriended by Phaulkon, himself a Catholic convert following his marriage to a lady of Japanese and Portuguese extract.

12. In favouring the French, Phaulkon was initially simply pursuing earlier policies as, in 1680, Narai had sent a first Siamese mission to Paris, though it never arrived and was presumably lost at sea. He then urged the dispatch of a second embassy in 1685 and this prompted the French to return the compliment and send out their own ambassador, Chevalier de Chaumont. He arrived in Thailand in September 1685. When Narai received de Chaumont in October a curious scene took place. The Frenchman had a letter for the Siamese monarch from Louis XIV, but he refused to present it in customary style by kneeling. A compromise was reached; Narai appeared on a small balcony, de Chaumont stood holding the letter on a plate. However, he failed to hold it high enough for the king to reach, despite promptings from the prostrate Phaulkon. To avoid an embarrassing confrontation with Gallic pride, Narai reached down for the letter. The wonderful scene was captured in a contemporary engraving, and from this a Fine Arts Department artist has made a painting which is displayed in the Lopburi Museum.

13. De Chaumont returned to France in 1686, accompanied by a third Siamese mission to the Court of Louis XIV, while a second French diplomatic group was sent to Thailand in the following year. Franco-Thai negotiations involved, in grossly simplified terms, military aid for the Siamese -- as defence against the Dutch -- and trade concessions for France. The French, however, were also motivated by an absurd desire to convert Narai to Catholicism. Phaulkon was eventually condemned for abetting them in this totally unrealistic aim. True, he championed their interests, though arguably only for political expediency as he would have known better than any other foreigner that Buddhism was not just a matter of personal faith, it was a unifying thread running through the very fabric of Siamese nationhood.

14. Nevertheless, Phaulkon, perhaps over-confident, attempted to walk an impossible diplomatic tightrope, and he fell. On his rise to power he had made numerous enemies, partly through his arrogance and partly through other's envy of his wealth and position. Bitterest of his foes were General Phetracha and his son Luang Surasak. In 1688 Narai was dying at Lopburi; Phetracha, seeing his opportunity, led a palace revolt, murdered the King's possible successors and took virtual control of the nation despite Narai still lingering on his death bed.  Called to the palace at Lopburi, Phaulkon was captured by the rebels as he entered the gate. He was imprisoned and tortured for several days before being taken out to a quiet spot and beheaded in a squalid nighttime execution. He met his end bravely, denying to his last breath that he had betrayed his king. The French were next unceremoniously expelled from the country, and Phetracha became king on the death of Narai a few weeks after Phaulkon's execution. The great 17th century drama was over and the stage of Lopburi closed as the new monarch returned the power centre to Ayutthaya -- and effectively plunged Siam into isolation that would last for the next century and a half.

15. France had failed in her 17th century attempt at political and commercial links with Thailand, but she had a lasting impact in other respects. Lopburi was left with an indelible Gallic stamp. Firstly there are the ruins of Narai's palace which was partially designed by French architects and, even in what remains today, displays an original style. Not far away is Phaulkon's house, also known as the 'Ambassadors' Residence' as French delegates stayed there. It again shows a strong European influence in design. Only the exterior walls have survived, but the architectural borrowings are clear. Between these two important 17th century ruins is Wat Sao Tong Thong. Its viharn was used in Narai's time as a Christian chapel and once more the stylistic departures of the period are noticeable. French influences are further echoed in the Lopburi Museum, formerly Narai's throne hall, where there are exhibits of furniture and silver church objects that were either imported from Europe or locally copied.  Moreover the depiction of Frenchmen (along with other farangs) became an exotic motif in Thai decorative art, most especially in many superb gilt-on-lacquer panels adorning traditional Thai cabinets. In such pieces you see the clothes and accoutrements of those who came to Siam in the late 17th century, a period to which Lopburi remains a lasting and intriguing monument.