Buddha Loetla Nabhalai - Early Life

Early Life

Chim was born in 1767 during the (Ayutthaya period) in Amphoe Amphawa, Samut Songkram. Chim was a son of Luang Yokbat of Ratchaburi and Nak of Samut Sakorn, as his father and mother was then known. They would later become King Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke and Queen Amarindra, respectively. In 1767, Ayutthaya fell to Burmese invaders. His father, Phraya Ratchaburi, joined Phraya Wachira Prakarn's (or Taksin's) forces to recapture the city. Under King Taksin, Chim's father rose rapidly to high rank as a military leader and was assigned with the campaigns to subjugate Laos and Cambodia. In 1782, his father crowned himself King of Siam (later named Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke) and Chim himself was raised to the title of Prince Isarasundhorn of Siam.

Buddha Loetla Nabhalai, with his concubine Chao Chom Manda Riam, fathered Prince Tub (ทับ – later King Jetsadabodin or Rama III) in 1787. Prince Isarasundhorn then had a secret affair with his own cousin, Princess Bunrod. In 1801, Buddha Yodfa Chulaloke then found out that Princess Bunrod had been pregnant for four months and banished her out of the palace to live with her brother. Isarasundhorn, however begged his father to forgive him and the princess was reinstated and became his consort through the negotiation by Concubine Waen. Unfortunately, the baby died just after its birth.

With Princess Bunrod, Buddha Loetla Nabhalai also fathered Prince Mongkut (1804) and Prince Chutamani (1808). Prince Isarasundhorn was appointed to the Front Palace as Vice King or Uparaja in 1807 to succeed his uncle Maha Sura Singhanat who had died in 1803, though he continued to stay at the Thonburi Palace.

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