Phya Taksin crowns himself King of Siam

Background. Taksin had been an aristocrat in the Ayutthaya Kingdom and a major leader in the liberation of Siam from Burmese occupation after the Second Fall of Ayutthaya in 1767. In 1765, when the Burmese attacked Ayutthaya, he defended the capital and received the title Phraya Wachiraprakan of Kamphaeng Phet. On 3 January 1767, three months before the city fell on 7 April, he broke out at the head of 500 followers to Rayong.

Path to the Throne. After the sack of Ayutthaya, Taksin moved to Chanthaburi and captured the town by surprise night attack on 15 June 1767. Having amassed 5,000 troops and 100 ships, he sailed up the Chao Phraya River and seized Thonburi on 6 November 1767, positioning himself to establish a new capital opposite present-day Bangkok.

The Coronation. On 28 December 1767, Taksin was crowned King of Siam at Thonburi Palace in Thonburi ("Krung Thonburi Sri Maha Samut"), the new capital of Siam. Despite the new capital, official Siamese documents still used the name "Krung Pra Maha Nakhon Sri Ayutthaya". Phraya Tak founded the capital at Thonburi and enthroned himself there in December 1767, ruling as the only King of Thonburi from 1767 to 1782.

Aftermath. Following the coronation, Siam fell under various warlords, and from 1768 to 1771 Taksin launched campaigns to subjugate these rivals, with Thonburi emerging as the new center of power. In 1767, Hsinbyushin sent a 2,000-man army under Maengki Manya, governor of Tavoy, to invade Siam; it advanced to Bang Kung in Samut Songkhram but was routed by the Thai king in the Battle of Bang Kung.