Prabat Somdet Phra Sanpet III or Somdet Phra Ekatotsarot was the King of Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya kingdom

Ayutthaya was a Siamese kingdom that existed from 1350 to 1767. Ayutthaya was friendly towards foreign traders, including the Chinese, Vietnamese , Indians, Japanese and Persians, and later the Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and French, permitting them to set up villages outside the walls of the...

 from 1605 to 1610 succeeding his brother Naresuan

Naresuan

Somdet Phra Naresuan Maharat or Somdet Phra Sanphet II was the King of the Ayutthaya kingdom from 1590 until his death in 1605. Naresuan was one of Siam's most revered monarchs as he was known for his campaigns to free Siam from Burmese rule...

. His reign was mostly peaceful as Siam was then a powerful state through the conquests of Naresuan. Also during his reign that foreigners of various origin began to fill the mercenary corps.

The White Prince

The White Prince was the son of Maha Thammarachathirat

Maha Thammarachathirat

Phra Maha Thammarachathirat or Somdet Phra Sanphet I or formerly known as Khun Phiren Thorathep was the first King of Ayutthaya kingdom of the Sukhothai dynasty ruling from 1569 to 1590. As a powerful Sukhothai noble, Pirenthorathep gradually rose to power...

 of Phitsanulok

Phitsanulok

Phitsanulok is an important and historic city in lower northern Thailand and is the capital of Phitsanulok Province, which stretches all the way to the Laotian border. Phitsanulok is one of the oldest cities in Thailand, founded over 600 years ago...

 and Queen Wisutkasat

Wisutkasat

Phra Wisutkasat , was a Siamese Queen and Princess during the Ayutthaya period in the 16th century, born Phra Sawatdirat to Prince Thianracha and Suriyothai...

. White Prince had an elder brother who was epitheted The Black Prince and an elder sister the Golden Princess.

In 1563, Bayinnaung

Bayinnaung

Bayinnaung Kyawhtin Nawrahta was the third king of the Toungoo dynasty of Burma . During his 30-year reign, which has been called the "greatest explosion of human energy ever seen in Burma", Bayinnaung assembled the largest empire in the history of Southeast Asia, which included much of modern day...

 laid siege on Phitsanulok and Maha Thammarachathirat readily surrendered and made his kingdom a Burmese tributary. Bayinnaung requested for the Black Prince and White Prince as captives at Pegu to ensure their father's fidelity. So, the two went to Pegu, where they were educated and overseen by Bayinnaung along with other captive princes.

Ayutthaya fell in 1569. Bayinnaung installed Maha Thammarachathirat as the puppet king of Siam. The Black and White Prince then returned to Ayutthaya in exchange for their sister Supankanlaya as Bayinnaung's concubine.

The Second King

Prince Ekatotsarot joined his brother Naresuan in various wars with the Burmese. Naresuan declared the end of Burmese tributary in 1583 and was followed by series of Burmese invasions. In 1590, Maha Thammarachathirat died. Naresuan was crowned as the King of Ayutthaya while Ekatotsarot was made Uparaja but with equal honor to Naresuan (As in the case of Mongkut

Mongkut

Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramenthramaha Mongkut Phra Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua , or Rama IV, known in foreign countries as King Mongkut , was the fourth monarch of Siam under the House of Chakri, ruling from 1851-1868...

 and Pinklao

Pinklao

Phrabat Somdet Phra Pinklao Chaoyuhua was the younger brother of King Mongkut and the Second King of Siam, who crowned him as a monarch with equal honor to himself.-Early life:...

).

In 1592, Nanda Bayin

Nanda Bayin

Nanda Bayin , was the king of the Toungoo Dynasty of Myanmar from 1581 to 1599. Nanda was the first son of King Bayinnaung. He was made the crown prince upon the ascension of his father in January 1551. As the crown prince, he led subjugation of Lanna and the sack of Vientiene in 1565...

 sent his son Minchit Sra the Burmese Uparaja to subjugate Siam. Naresuan and Ekatotsarot then marched and met the Burmese armies in the Battle of Nong Sarai. However, the elephants of the two brothers went mad and ran themselves into the midst of the Burmese, culminating the Yuttahadhi of Naresuan. Minchit Sra was slain and the Burmese invasion ceased for several years.

in 1595, Pegu faced rebellions by various tributaries and royal princes. Naresuan planned a massive invasion of Pegu but the city was taken beforehand by the Lord of Toungoo with the support of Rakhine

Rakhine State

Rakhine State is a Burmese state. Situated on the western coast, it is bordered by Chin State in the north, Magway Region, Bago Region and Ayeyarwady Region in the east, the Bay of Bengal to the west, and the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh to the northwest. It is located approximately between...

. The efforts to capture Toungoo falied and Naresuan decided to retreat. In Lanna

Lanna

The Kingdom of Lanna was a kingdom centered in present-day northern Thailand from the 13th to 18th centuries. The cultural development of the people of Lanna, the Tai Yuan people, had begun long before as successive Tai Yuan kingdoms preceded Lanna...

, however, a conflict arose between Noratra Mangsosri the Burmese king of Lanna and Phraya Ram a Siamese-installed Lanna noble. Naresuan sent Ekatotsarot to claim the conflicts by dividing Lanna into two parts.

Naresuan died during his campaigns to subjugate the Shans in 1605. Ekatotsarot was crowned as his successor.

King of Siam

Upon his coronation, the Ayutthaya kingdom had reached the maximum extent. However, immediately after the coronation, the Lanna kingdom broke away. In 1610, Anaukpetlun

Anaukpetlun

Anaukpetlun was the sixth king of Toungoo dynasty of Burma, and was largely responsible for restoring Burmese kingdom after it had famously collapsed at the end of 16th century. In his 22-year reign between 1606 and 1628, Anaukpetlun completed the reunification efforts of the Burmese kingdom begun...

 invaded Tavoy and Tenasserim but was repelled.

Mission to Dutch Republic

During the reign of Ekathotsarot, a Siamese embassy reached the Dutch

Netherlands

The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

 city of The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

, in 1608. The embassy of 16 was brought to Holland by Admiral Matelief onboard L'Orange, leaving Bantam

Bantam (city)

Bantam in Banten province near the western end of Java was a strategically important site and formerly a major trading city, with a secure harbor on the Sunda Strait through which all ocean-going traffic passed, at the mouth of Banten River that provided a navigable passage for light craft into...

 on January 28, 1608. The embassy arrived in The Hague on September 10, 1608, and met with Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange

Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange

Maurice of Nassau, Prince of Orange was sovereign Prince of Orange from 1618, on the death of his eldest half brother, Philip William, Prince of Orange,...

. This visit coincided with the first recorded mention of the observation of the heavens with a spyglass: the application of a patent by the inventor of the telescope

Telescope

A telescope is an instrument that aids in the observation of remote objects by collecting electromagnetic radiation . The first known practical telescopes were invented in the Netherlands at the beginning of the 1600s , using glass lenses...

, the Dutch Hans Lippershey

Hans Lippershey

Hans Lippershey , also known as Johann Lippershey or Lipperhey, was a German-Dutch lensmaker commonly associated with the invention of the telescope, although it is unclear if he was the first to build one.-Biography:...

, was mentioned at the end of a diplomatic report on the Siamese Embassy, Ambassades du Roy de Siam envoyé à l'Excellence du Prince Maurice, arrive a La Haye, le 10. septembr. 1608 ("Embassy of the King of Siam sent to his Excellence Prince Maurice, September 10, 1608"), which soon diffused across Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

.

Following the embassy, a treaty was concluded between Holland and Siam in 1617.

Foreign Mercenaries

Ekatotsarot's reign saw the influx of foreigners into Siam as traders and mercenaries. Ekatotsarot established Krom Asas (i.e. volunteered regiments) of foreign soldiers, for example; Krom Asa Mon

Mon people

The Mon are an ethnic group from Burma , living mostly in Mon State, Bago Division, the Irrawaddy Delta, and along the southern Thai–Burmese border. One of the earliest peoples to reside in Southeast Asia, the Mon were responsible for the spread of Theravada Buddhism in Burma and Thailand...

, Krom Asa Cham, Krom Asa Yipun (Japanese mercenaries), and Krom Asa Maen Puen (Arquebusiers - the Portuguese and Dutch). Ekatotsarot had a close relations with the Tokugawa shogunate

Tokugawa shogunate

The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the and the , was a feudal regime of Japan established by Tokugawa Ieyasu and ruled by the shoguns of the Tokugawa family. This period is known as the Edo period and gets its name from the capital city, Edo, which is now called Tokyo, after the name was...

 under Tokugawa Ieyasu

Tokugawa Ieyasu

 was the founder and first shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate of Japan , which ruled from the Battle of Sekigahara  in 1600 until the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Ieyasu seized power in 1600, received appointment as shogun in 1603, abdicated from office in 1605, but...

 who commissioned Red Seal Ships

Red seal ships

were Japanese armed merchant sailing ships bound for Southeast Asian ports with a red-sealed patent issued by the early Tokugawa shogunate in the first half of the 17th century...

 to Siam. Around this time the Siamese metallurgists learned the arts of forging mortars from the Westerners and combined with traditional methods giving rise to the praised Siamese mortars known for their qualities.

Prince Sutat

Ekatotsarot had two legitimate sons: Prince Sutat and Prince Sri Saowabhak. Prince Sutat was invested with the title of Uparaja in 1607. However, only four months later, Prince Sutat asked his father to release a prisoner; but instead angered his father, who accused Prince Sutat of a rebellion. Prince Sutat committed suicide by poison the same night - much to the grief of Ekatotsarot. This is one of the most mysterious historical scenes of Siamese history, as no one knows who was the prisoner Prince Sutat tried to free, nor why Ekatotsarot was so angry. Some historians hypothesized that the prisoner was one of the powerful nobles whose power was a challenge to the monarchy. The nature of Prince Sutat's death was also disputed, as he may have been poisoned by someone else.

Whatever the fact may be, the Prince Sutat incident laid the grounds for future princely struggles that would plague Ayutthaya for about another century. As his son was dead, Ekatotsarot did not appoint his second son, Prince Sri Saowabhak, Uparaja, as expected. It was said that Ekatotsarot died of depression following the Prince Sutat incident, in 1610. Prince Sri Saowabhak succeeded to the throne anyway.