Ok-khun Chamnan Chaichong was a Siamese diplomat who visited France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 and Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 on an embassy in 1688. He was preceded by the embassay of Kosa Pan

Kosa Pan

Pan , known by his rank Chao Phraya Kosathibodi or former rank Ok Phra Wisut Sunthon or by the nickname Kosa Pan , was a Siamese diplomat and minister who led the Second Siamese Embassy to France sent by king Narai in 1686...

 in 1686.

Failed embassy to Portugal (1684)

Ok-khun Chamnan was a member of a first embassy for Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

, which left Siam in March 1684. The Siamese embassy was accompanying a returning Portuguese embassy, which had been sent to Siam by king Pedro II. The embassy was also bearing presents for the king of France, Louis XIV, and was planning to send three ambassadors to visit him.

The first leg of the trip was made on a Siamese ship, commanded by a Portuguese captain. In Goa, after waiting more than a year, the embassy sailed on a Portuguese ship, which was wrecked off Cape Agulhas

Cape Agulhas

Cape Agulhas is a rocky headland in the Western Cape, South Africa. It is the geographic southern tip of Africa and the official dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

 on April 27th 1686. After a series of adventures, Chamnan made his way through the tip of Africa to join 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...

 colony at the Cape of Good Hope

Cape of Good Hope

The Cape of Good Hope is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula, South Africa.There is a misconception that the Cape of Good Hope is the southern tip of Africa, because it was once believed to be the dividing point between the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. In fact, the...

. After several months, the embassy returned east through Batavia and returned to Siam in September 1687.

During his travels, Chamnan had learnt Portuguese

Portuguese language

Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...

, which predisposed him for further contacts with Western countries. Chamnan was present in Bangkok

Bangkok

Bangkok is the capital and largest urban area city in Thailand. It is known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon or simply Krung Thep , meaning "city of angels." The full name of Bangkok is Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom...

 in October during the reception of the 1687 French embassy composed of five warships, led by Simon de la Loubère

Simon de la Loubère

Simon de la Loubère was a French diplomat, writer, mathematician and poet.-Mission to Siam:Simon de la Loubère led an embassy to Siam in 1687 . The embassy, composed of five warships, arrived in Bangkok in October 1687 and was received by Ok-khun Chamnan...

 and Claude Céberet du Boullay

Claude Céberet du Boullay

Claude Céberet du Boullay was a 17th century French diplomat who participated in the La Loubère-Céberet embassy as "envoy extraordinary" to the kingdom of Siam in 1687. He was co-representative of the mission with the diplomat Simon de la Loubère.-Mission to Siam:In 1685, Céberet became one of...

, director of the French East India Company

French East India Company

The French East India Company was a commercial enterprise, founded in 1664 to compete with the British and Dutch East India companies in colonial India....

.

Embassy to France and Rome (1688)

Ok-khun Chamnan was thus a member of a mission of three Siamese mandarins

Mandarin (bureaucrat)

A mandarin was a bureaucrat in imperial China, and also in the monarchist days of Vietnam where the system of Imperial examinations and scholar-bureaucrats was adopted under Chinese influence.-History and use of the term:...

 dispatched to Louis XIV in France and Pope Innocent XI

Pope Innocent XI

Blessed Pope Innocent XI , born Benedetto Odescalchi, was Pope from 1676 to 1689.-Early life:Benedetto Odescalchi was born at Como in 1611 , the son of a Como nobleman, Livio Odescalchi, and Paola Castelli Giovanelli from Gandino...

 in Rome, by the Siamese king Narai

Narai

Somdet Phra Narai or Somdet Phra Ramathibodi III was the king of Ayutthaya from 1656 to 1688 and arguably the most famous Ayutthayan king. His reign was the most prosperous during the Ayutthaya period and saw the great commercial and diplomatic activities with foreign nations including the...

 in 1688. The two other envoys were Ok-khun Wiset Puban and Ok-muen Pipith Raja. They were followed three days later by three catechists from Tonkin

Tonkin

Tonkin , also spelled Tongkin, Tonquin or Tongking, is the northernmost part of Vietnam, south of China's Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces, east of northern Laos, and west of the Gulf of Tonkin. Locally, it is known as Bắc Kỳ, meaning "Northern Region"...

, and five Siamese students sent to study at the Collège Louis-le-Grand in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

.

The Siamese mission was accompanied by the Jesuit Father Guy Tachard

Guy Tachard

Guy Tachard , also known as Père Tachard, was a French Jesuit missionary and mathematician of the 17th century, who was sent on two occasions to the Kingdom of Siam by Louis XIV...

 and the French envoy extraordinary to Siam Simon de la Loubère. They left Siam onboard the Gaillard on January 3, 1688.

After a first visit to Paris, during which they could not meet Louis XIV, they went to Rome. They met with the Pope on December 23, 1688, and again on January 5, 1689, for a farewell audience. Drawings of the Siamese envoys were made by the famous painter Carlo Maratta

Carlo Maratta

Carlo Maratta or Maratti was an Italian painter, active mostly in Rome, and known principally for his classicizing paintings executed in a Late Baroque Classical manner. Although he is part of the classical tradition stemming from Raphael, he was not exempt from the influence of Baroque painting...

.

In February 1689, the embassy was granted an audience with Louis XIV, and the treaty of commerce Céberet had obtained in 1687 was ratified. Two weeks later a military treaty was signed, designating François d'Alesso, Marquis d'Eragny, as captain of the palace guard in 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...

 and inspector of the French troops in Siam.

The embassy was returned to Siam by the six warship fleet of Abraham Duquesne-Guiton (nephew of the famous Abraham Duquesne

Abraham Duquesne

Other topics that could fall under Duquesne can be found at Marquis Duquesne Abraham Duquesne, marquis du Bouchet was a French naval officer, who also saw service as an admiral in the Royal Swedish Navy. He was born in Dieppe, a seaport, in 1610, and was a Huguenot...

) in 1690, but because of unfavourable winds the fleet was only able to go as far as Balassor, at the mouth of the Ganges, where they dropped the embassy. The embassy finally returned to Ayutthaya overland.