Toungoo–Hanthawaddy War
Encyclopedia
The Toungoo–Hanthawaddy War (1535–1541) was a military conflict between Toungoo Kingdom, and the Hanthawaddy Kingdom
and its allies the Prome Kingdom
and the Confederation of Shan States that took place in present-day Lower Burma
(Myanmar) from 1535 to 1541. In a series of improbable events, the upstart Burmese
-speaking kingdom defeated Mon
-speaking Hanthawaddy, the most prosperous and powerful of all post-Pagan
kingdoms before the war. In the following years, Toungoo used the newly acquired kingdom's wealth and manpower to reunify the various petty states that had existed since the fall of Pagan Empire in 1287.
Ironically, Toungoo would repay by attacking Hanthawaddy itself. As early as 1492, Toungoo, then still a vassal of Ava, raided Hanthawaddy's territory, taking advantage of the larger kingdom's succession crisis. But Hanthawaddy's new king Binnya Ran II
retaliated by laying siege to Toungoo itself. Though Toungoo barely survived the siege, Mingyinyo
, viceroy of Toungoo, would not make war against the larger neighbor for the remainder of his life. After he declared independence from Ava in 1510, Mingyinyo largely stayed out of the fighting raging between Ava and the Confederation of Shan States. When Ava fell to the combined forces of the Confederation and Prome in 1527, many people fled to Toungoo, the only region in Upper Burma at peace.
In 1530, Mingyinyo's son Tabinshwehti
came to power. Toungoo's stability continued to attract manpower from the surrounding regions, especially after 1533 when the Confederation sacked its erstwhile ally Prome. The tiny Toungoo was now the only ethnic Burman-led kingdom, and one surrounded by much larger kingdoms. Fortunately for Toungoo, the Confederation was distracted by internal leadership disputes, and Hanthawaddy, then the most powerful kingdom of all post-Pagan kingdoms, was weakly led. Tabinshwehti decided not to wait until the larger kingdoms' attention turned to him.
Tabinshwehti and his deputy Bayinnaung
selected Hanthawaddy as their first target because its king Takayutpi
was a weak leader who did not command respect of his vassals. Takayutpi's brother-in-law Saw Binnya practically ruled Martaban
region like a sovereign, and scarcely acknowledged the high king at Pegu (Bago). Takayutpi in turned made an alliance with the Prome Kingdom
, a vassal of Confederation of Shan States.
and his deputy Bayinnaung
, tried to break out of its increasingly narrow zone by launching a preemptive war against a weakly led Hanthawaddy. In the beginning, Toungoo's maneuvers amounted to a mere raids of Hanthawaddy territory, and its initial dry-season raids in 1535, 1535–1536, 1536–1537 and 1537–1538 all failed against Pegu's fortified defenses aided by foreign mercenaries and firearms. In each campaign, Toungoo armies had only 6000 to 7000 men, a few hundred cavalry and a few dozen war elephants and did not yet have access to foreign troops and firearms.
Unlike his father Binnya Ran II, King Takayutpi
of Hanthawaddy could not organize any retaliatory action. His supposed subordinates in the Irrawaddy delta
and Martaban did not send any help. Nonetheless, Pegu's defenses were ably led by two leading ministers of the court, Binnya Law and Binnya Kyan.
The most telling part of the state of disarray of the once powerful kingdom was that Takayutpi and his armies chose to retreat to Prome, another kingdom, rather than to its own territory of Martaban. Takayutpi simply did not trust Saw Binnya of Martaban. The course of retreat was through the Irrawaddy delta. The direct route from Pegu to Prome, though much shorter, involved crossing the Bago Yoma range, and was not practical for large armies. Takayutpi divided the retreating Hanthawaddy forces into two. Five divisions of the army marched by land. Takayutpi and the remaining troops sailed by river in 700 boats.
Bayinnaung's light troops caught up with the main Hanthawaddy armies led by Gen. Binnya Dala and Gen. Minye Aung Naing near Naungyo
in the Irrawaddy delta. Bayinnaung nonetheless defeated the numerically superior and better armed force. Only a small portion of the Hanthawaddy forces made it to Prome. A decimated Hanthawaddy was no longer in a position to retake the lost territories from Toungoo.
, finally took notice. When Toungoo's armies later attacked its vassal Prome, the Confederation sent in troops and broke the siege. Toungoo retreated but soon gained the allegiance of many Mon
lords, and manpower after Hanthawaddy's king Takayutpi
died a few months later.
In November 1540, 13,000-strong Toungoo land and naval forces attacked the city. The wealthy port's strong Portuguese-led defenses kept besiegers at bay for seven months. Finally in May 1541, Toungoo naval units attacked the seven Portuguese warships anchored in the harbor behind in several fire-rafts. Three of the ships sailed out to the sea, and the remaining were either burned or captured. Smim Payu then sent in scaffold rafts, crammed with troops, alongside the walls. The stormers soon won a foothold.
The city fell. The sack raged for three days. Tabinshwehti ordered a whole scale execution of the viceroy, his family, and all the "gallant" defenders for they had refused his prior offer of amnesty. The mass execution had its desired effect. The governors of Moulmein (Mawlaymyaing) and southern territories (present-day Mon State
), abutting then Siamese frontier submitted.
Hanthawaddy Kingdom
The Hanthawaddy Kingdom was the dominant kingdom that ruled lower Burma from 1287 to 1539. The Mon-speaking kingdom was founded as Ramannadesa by King Wareru following the collapse of the Pagan Empire in 1287 as a nominal vassal state of Sukhothai Kingdom, and of the Mongol Yuan dynasty...
and its allies the Prome Kingdom
Prome Kingdom
The Prome Kingdom was a kingdom that existed for six decades between 1482 and 1542 in the present-day central Burma . Based out of the city of Prome , the minor kingdom was one of the several statelets that broke away from the dominant Ava Kingdom in the late 15th century...
and the Confederation of Shan States that took place in present-day Lower Burma
Lower Burma
Lower Burma is a geographic region of Burma and includes the low-lying Irrawaddy delta , as well as coastal regions of the country ....
(Myanmar) from 1535 to 1541. In a series of improbable events, the upstart Burmese
Burmese language
The Burmese language is the official language of Burma. Although the constitution officially recognizes it as the Myanmar language, most English speakers continue to refer to the language as Burmese. Burmese is the native language of the Bamar and related sub-ethnic groups of the Bamar, as well as...
-speaking kingdom defeated Mon
Mon language
The Mon language is an Austroasiatic language spoken by the Mon, who live in Burma and Thailand. Mon, like the related language Cambodian—but unlike most languages in Mainland Southeast Asia—is not tonal. Mon is spoken by more than a million people today. In recent years, usage of Mon has...
-speaking Hanthawaddy, the most prosperous and powerful of all post-Pagan
Pagan Kingdom
The Pagan Kingdom or Pagan Dynasty was the first kingdom to unify the regions that would later constitute the modern-day Burma...
kingdoms before the war. In the following years, Toungoo used the newly acquired kingdom's wealth and manpower to reunify the various petty states that had existed since the fall of Pagan Empire in 1287.
Background
Since its founding in 1280, Toungoo, located in remote, hard-to-reach corner east of the Pegu Yoma range, had always been a troublesome province for its overlord. During the Ava period, its governors and viceroys raised multiple rebellions (1427–1428, 1437–1442, 1451–1458 and 1468–1470), each time with clandestine or open help from Hanthawaddy, which wanted to keep Ava unstable.Ironically, Toungoo would repay by attacking Hanthawaddy itself. As early as 1492, Toungoo, then still a vassal of Ava, raided Hanthawaddy's territory, taking advantage of the larger kingdom's succession crisis. But Hanthawaddy's new king Binnya Ran II
Binnya Ran II
Binnya Ran II was the 17th king of Hanthawaddy for 34 years from 1492 to 1526. He was revered for his gentleness although his first act as king was to enforce the massacre of the kinsmen, putting all the royal offspring to death....
retaliated by laying siege to Toungoo itself. Though Toungoo barely survived the siege, Mingyinyo
Mingyinyo
Mingyinyo was the founder of Toungoo dynasty of Burma . Under his 44-year leadership , Toungoo , grew from a remote backwater vassal state of Ava Kingdom to a small but stable independent kingdom. In 1510, he declared Toungoo's independence from its nominal overlord Ava. He skillfully kept his...
, viceroy of Toungoo, would not make war against the larger neighbor for the remainder of his life. After he declared independence from Ava in 1510, Mingyinyo largely stayed out of the fighting raging between Ava and the Confederation of Shan States. When Ava fell to the combined forces of the Confederation and Prome in 1527, many people fled to Toungoo, the only region in Upper Burma at peace.
In 1530, Mingyinyo's son Tabinshwehti
Tabinshwehti
Tabinshwehti was a king who unified Burma in 1539 and known as the founder of the Second Burmese Empire.Tabinshwehti succeeded his father Mingyinyo as ruler of the Toungoo dynasty in 1530...
came to power. Toungoo's stability continued to attract manpower from the surrounding regions, especially after 1533 when the Confederation sacked its erstwhile ally Prome. The tiny Toungoo was now the only ethnic Burman-led kingdom, and one surrounded by much larger kingdoms. Fortunately for Toungoo, the Confederation was distracted by internal leadership disputes, and Hanthawaddy, then the most powerful kingdom of all post-Pagan kingdoms, was weakly led. Tabinshwehti decided not to wait until the larger kingdoms' attention turned to him.
Tabinshwehti and his deputy 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...
selected Hanthawaddy as their first target because its king Takayutpi
Takayutpi
Thushin Takayutpi was the last sovereign king of Hanthawaddy Pegu who reigned from 1526 to 1539. At his ascension, the 15-year-old king inherited the most prosperous and powerful kingdom of all post-Pagan kingdoms...
was a weak leader who did not command respect of his vassals. Takayutpi's brother-in-law Saw Binnya practically ruled Martaban
Mottama
Mottama, formerly Martaban, is a small town in the Thaton district of Mon State, Myanmar. Located on the north bank of the Thanlwin river, on the opposite side of Mawlamyaing, Mottama was the first capital of the Hanthawaddy Kingdom in the 13th and 14th centuries, and an entrepôt of international...
region like a sovereign, and scarcely acknowledged the high king at Pegu (Bago). Takayutpi in turned made an alliance with the Prome Kingdom
Prome Kingdom
The Prome Kingdom was a kingdom that existed for six decades between 1482 and 1542 in the present-day central Burma . Based out of the city of Prome , the minor kingdom was one of the several statelets that broke away from the dominant Ava Kingdom in the late 15th century...
, a vassal of Confederation of Shan States.
Initial raids (1535–1538)
The war began in early 1535 when a landlocked Toungoo led by TabinshwehtiTabinshwehti
Tabinshwehti was a king who unified Burma in 1539 and known as the founder of the Second Burmese Empire.Tabinshwehti succeeded his father Mingyinyo as ruler of the Toungoo dynasty in 1530...
and his deputy 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...
, tried to break out of its increasingly narrow zone by launching a preemptive war against a weakly led Hanthawaddy. In the beginning, Toungoo's maneuvers amounted to a mere raids of Hanthawaddy territory, and its initial dry-season raids in 1535, 1535–1536, 1536–1537 and 1537–1538 all failed against Pegu's fortified defenses aided by foreign mercenaries and firearms. In each campaign, Toungoo armies had only 6000 to 7000 men, a few hundred cavalry and a few dozen war elephants and did not yet have access to foreign troops and firearms.
Unlike his father Binnya Ran II, King Takayutpi
Takayutpi
Thushin Takayutpi was the last sovereign king of Hanthawaddy Pegu who reigned from 1526 to 1539. At his ascension, the 15-year-old king inherited the most prosperous and powerful kingdom of all post-Pagan kingdoms...
of Hanthawaddy could not organize any retaliatory action. His supposed subordinates in the Irrawaddy delta
Irrawaddy Delta
The Irrawaddy Delta or Ayeyarwady Delta lies in the Ayeyarwady Region , the lowest expanse of land in Burma that fans out from the limit of tidal influence at Myan Aung to the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, 290 km to the south at the mouth of the Ayeyarwady River...
and Martaban did not send any help. Nonetheless, Pegu's defenses were ably led by two leading ministers of the court, Binnya Law and Binnya Kyan.
Coup de grace (1538–1539)
Toungoo used a stratagem to create a split in the Hanthawaddy camp, providing misinformation about the loyalty of the ministers. Surprisingly, Takayutpi foolishly believed Toungoo's misinformation, and executed the ministers who had been his tutors since childhood and were absolutely devoted to him. Then when Toungoo launched another invasion, with 7000 troops, Takayutpi was helpless, and decided to evacuate his capital rather than fight. Toungoo forces Pegu without firing a shot in January 1539.The most telling part of the state of disarray of the once powerful kingdom was that Takayutpi and his armies chose to retreat to Prome, another kingdom, rather than to its own territory of Martaban. Takayutpi simply did not trust Saw Binnya of Martaban. The course of retreat was through the Irrawaddy delta. The direct route from Pegu to Prome, though much shorter, involved crossing the Bago Yoma range, and was not practical for large armies. Takayutpi divided the retreating Hanthawaddy forces into two. Five divisions of the army marched by land. Takayutpi and the remaining troops sailed by river in 700 boats.
Battle of Naungyo (1539)
At Pegu, Tabinshwehti and his deputy Bayinnaung well understood that they had gained Pegu only through a ruse, and that Hanthawaddy's military had not been defeated yet. Their top priority was to meet and defeat the Hanthawaddy army before they got inside the fortified walls of Prome. They knew that a large body of enemy inside walls with better leadership would pose a major problem for their tenuous hold on Lower Burma. Tabinshwehti sent Bayinnaung with a small army to chase the retreating army while he sailed up to Prome with his flotilla of war boats to chase Takayutpi's flotilla.Bayinnaung's light troops caught up with the main Hanthawaddy armies led by Gen. Binnya Dala and Gen. Minye Aung Naing near Naungyo
Einme Township
Einme Township is a township of Myaungmya District in the Ayeyarwady Region of Myanmar. The area is believed to be where the Battle of Naungyo took place in 1539....
in the Irrawaddy delta. Bayinnaung nonetheless defeated the numerically superior and better armed force. Only a small portion of the Hanthawaddy forces made it to Prome. A decimated Hanthawaddy was no longer in a position to retake the lost territories from Toungoo.
Prome (1539)
After Pegu's improbable fall, the Shan Confederation, which ruled the former Ava KingdomAva Kingdom
The Ava Kingdom was the dominant kingdom that ruled upper Burma from 1364 to 1555. Founded in 1364, the kingdom was the successor state to the petty kingdoms that had ruled central Burma since the collapse of Pagan Empire in the late 13th century...
, finally took notice. When Toungoo's armies later attacked its vassal Prome, the Confederation sent in troops and broke the siege. Toungoo retreated but soon gained the allegiance of many 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...
lords, and manpower after Hanthawaddy's king Takayutpi
Takayutpi
Thushin Takayutpi was the last sovereign king of Hanthawaddy Pegu who reigned from 1526 to 1539. At his ascension, the 15-year-old king inherited the most prosperous and powerful kingdom of all post-Pagan kingdoms...
died a few months later.
Martaban (1540–1541)
Toungoo now held two out of three major regions in Lower Burma (the delta, Pegu) but not Martaban. Tabinshwehti sent an ultimatum but Saw Binnya refused. He had fortified the wealthy port, and enlisted Portuguese mercenaries, firearms and warships. Its high walls were armed with Portuguese cannon and a fleet of seven Portuguese warships guarded the harbor.In November 1540, 13,000-strong Toungoo land and naval forces attacked the city. The wealthy port's strong Portuguese-led defenses kept besiegers at bay for seven months. Finally in May 1541, Toungoo naval units attacked the seven Portuguese warships anchored in the harbor behind in several fire-rafts. Three of the ships sailed out to the sea, and the remaining were either burned or captured. Smim Payu then sent in scaffold rafts, crammed with troops, alongside the walls. The stormers soon won a foothold.
The city fell. The sack raged for three days. Tabinshwehti ordered a whole scale execution of the viceroy, his family, and all the "gallant" defenders for they had refused his prior offer of amnesty. The mass execution had its desired effect. The governors of Moulmein (Mawlaymyaing) and southern territories (present-day Mon State
Mon State
Mon State is an administrative division of Myanmar. It is sandwiched between Kayin State on the east, the Andaman Sea on the west, Bago Region on the north and Tanintharyi Region on the south, and has a short border with Thailand's Kanchanaburi Province at its south-eastern tip. The land area is...
), abutting then Siamese frontier submitted.