|
The king who unified Myanmar during
his reign in 1531-50 AD. He was the second monarch of the Toungoo
dynasty, which his father, Minkyinyo, had founded in 1486.
In 1535 Tabinshwehti began a military campaign against the kingdom
of Pegu in southern Myanmar, capturing the city of Bassein in the
Irrawaddy delta. Four years later Pegu fell, and Takayutpi, the Pegu
king, fled to Prome (northwest of the present Yangon [Rangoon]).
Employing Portuguese soldiers of fortune, Tabinshwehti captured the
towns of Martaban and Moulmein in 1541, and in the following year he
took Prome. With most of the southern princes his vassals, he
dominated southern Myanmar as far south as Tavoy on the border of
Siam (Thailand).
Although Tabinshwehti's campaigns in southern Myanmar were extremely
savage, he adopted many Mon customs, incorporated Mon soldiers into
his army, and made the ancient city of Pegu his capital in 1546. The
king planned to use Myanmar as a base from which to invade Siam. His
first campaign outside of Myanmar, however, was in Arakan, the
kingdom to the west of the Irrawaddy delta, where he attempted to
place a subservient local prince on the throne; his siege of the
capital at Mrohaung was suspended after the Siamese attacked Tavoy,
forcing him to return home. In 1548 he besieged Ayutthaya, the
Siamese capital, but was forced to make an ignominious retreat to
Myanmar.
Suffering defeat in two campaigns, Tabinshwehti gave himself up to
drink, leaving to his brother-in-law,
Bayinnaung, the task of
suppressing a southern revolt. In 1550 Tabinshwehti was assassinated
by a rival prince, who proclaimed himself king at Pegu. Bayinnaung
crushed the revolt and carried on his brother-in-law's work of
unifying Myanmar.
|
