Sin Byu Shin, leaving a viceroy with a small garrison to rule the
country, withdrew his army to meet a threatened Chinese invasion of
Burma and once again Siam fell into an interregnum of anarchy, with
outlying districts setting themselves up as independent while robber
bands preyed upon the people. An ex-official named Phraya Taksin, who
had deserted his King when Ayuthia seemed likely to fall, gathered
about himself a large number of deserters and broken men like himself
and, by guile and treachery, soon acquired complete authority in the
southeastern provinces, whence, in due time, he appeared before the
walls of Ayuthia as a national avenger. Overcoming the garrison and
killing the Burmese viceroy, Taksin declared himself King and
selected, as the site of his new capital, the village of Tonburi, on
the shore of the Chao Phraya opposite the settlement of Bangkok, where
a populous city soon came into being. To strengthen his position,
however, it was essential that Taksin destroy a legitimate pretender
to the throne whose claims had many adherents; this prince had
established himself at Khorat and thither the King sent an army with
orders to take the city. But in advance of his soldiers he sent secret
emissaries who so demoralized the prince's supporters that when the
usurper's army appeared at last, the city fell into his hands almost
without a struggle and the prince was captured and soon afterward
murdered. With this last threat to his power removed, Taksin was able
to send out expeditions in all directions and soon made himself
undisputed master of the whole country.
The authority of this ruthless man was not to endure long. His
appointment of humble relatives to high office offended the nobility,
while the popular mind was turned against him by his excesses and by
insidious references to his alien ancestry. In 1781, giving out that
he was mad, a cabal of his courtiers dethroned him and offered the
crown to one of themselves, the son of a secretary to the last kings
of Ayuthia. This nobleman, Phraya Chakkri, already popular through his
achievements as a royal minister and as a leader of the armies, was
readily accepted as King by the people and ascended the throne in A.D.
1782, to found the dynasty which still reigns in Siam.