Somdet Phra Chettathiraj or (upon accession to the Ayutthayan throne) Somdet Phra Ramathibodi II (1473–1529) was the King of Sukhothai from 1485 and King of Ayutthaya from 1491 to 1529. His reign was marked by the first Western Contact with the Portuguese

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...

.

King of Sukhothai

Prince Chettathiraj was the youngest of Trailokanat's three sons. His eldest brother, Prince Borommaracha, was appointed the regent of Ayutthaya during his father's campaigns against 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...

 kingdom. His another brother, Prince Indraracha, died during the wars with Lanna. In 1485, Prince Chettathiraj was appointed the Uparaja, or Crown Prince

Crown Prince

A crown prince or crown princess is the heir or heiress apparent to the throne in a royal or imperial monarchy. The wife of a crown prince is also titled crown princess....

, and was crowned as the King of Sukhothai (The title King of Sukhothai was the title of Ayutthayan Crown Prince.)

In 1488, Trailokanat died. Though Chettathiraj was the Crown Prince, the Ayutthayan throne was inherited by his brother Prince Borommaracha, as Borommaracha III. In 1491, Borommaracha III died, leaving the throne to Chettathiraj, thus reuniting the two kingdoms.

Invasion of Malacca

In 1500, Ramathibodi II sent the Siamese armies to subjugate the Sultanate of Malacca. Though unable to conquer Malacca, Siam managed to exact tributes from the Malacca sultanate and other sultanates like Pattani

Pattani

Pattani may refer to* Pattani Province, in southern Thailand* Pattani , in southern Thailand* Pattani , which includes the above province** Pattani Kingdom, a former semi-independent kingdom...

, Pahang

Pahang

Pahang is the third largest state in Malaysia, after Sarawak and Sabah, occupying the huge Pahang River river basin. It is bordered to the north by Kelantan, to the west by Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, to the south by Johor and to the east by Terengganu and the South China Sea.Its state...

, and Kelantan

Kelantan

Kelantan is a state of Malaysia. The capital and royal seat is Kota Bharu. The Arabic honorific of the state is Darul Naim, ....

.

In 1511, however, Malacca fell to the Portuguese under Afonso de Albuquerque

Afonso de Albuquerque

Afonso de Albuquerque[p][n] was a Portuguese fidalgo, or nobleman, an admiral whose military and administrative activities as second governor of Portuguese India conquered and established the Portuguese colonial empire in the Indian Ocean...

. Albuqueque's men arrived Siam in 1511 and the first European contact was established. The Portuguese became the first European to settle in Siam and introduced the arquebus

Arquebus

The arquebus , or "hook tube", is an early muzzle-loaded firearm used in the 15th to 17th centuries. The word was originally modeled on the German hakenbüchse; this produced haquebute...

 technology.

War with Lanna

In 1513, King Kaew of Lanna invaded Sukhothai. Ramathibodi II led the Siamese armies to crush the invading armies and proceeded further to Lanna heartlands. In 1515, he sacked Lampang

Lampang

Lampang, also called Nakhon Lampang to differentiate from Lampang Province, is the third largest town in northern Thailand and capital of Lampang Province and the Lampang district. Traditional names for Lampang include Wiang Lakon and Khelang Nakhon. The city is still growing rapidly as trading...

 (a Southeast Asian practice to sack but not to occupy). He then appointed his son, Prince Atitayawongse as King of Sukhothai.

Establishment of Corvée system

In Southeast Asia, manpower was the source of other powers. In 1518, Ramathibodi II established the Siamese Corvée

Corvée

Corvée is unfree labour, often unpaid, that is required of people of lower social standing and imposed on them by the state or a superior . The corvée was the earliest and most widespread form of taxation, which can be traced back to the beginning of civilization...

 system, the very system that lasted until its abolition by Chulalongkorn in 1905. The Siamese commoners - called phrai  - were subjected to lifelong labour service to the government. All Siamese men aged 18 would be registered to be conscripted - to be sent to war {Phrai Thaan) or public construction (Phrai luang. It was similar to modern form of conscription. However, the Siamese Corvée system existed in various forms. Krom Phra Suratsawadi, a department of the royal bureaucracy

Bureaucracy

A bureaucracy is an organization of non-elected officials of a governmental or organization who implement the rules, laws, and functions of their institution, and are occasionally characterized by officialism and red tape.-Weberian bureaucracy:...

, oversaw conscription

Conscription

Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

.

Death

Ramathibodi II died in 1529, during which a great comet

Comet

A comet is an icy small Solar System body that, when close enough to the Sun, displays a visible coma and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena are both due to the effects of solar radiation and the solar wind upon the nucleus of the comet...

 appeared as recorded in the Siamese Chronicles:
His son, Prince Atitayawongse, succeeded to the throne as Borommaracha IV.