Latest / Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood / 176. Who Killed the King of Siam?

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176. Who Killed the King of Siam? · Who Did What Now With Katie Charlwood

• 0:13
  Speaker 1: Hello, delicious friends, and welcome to Who Did What Now?
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: The history podcast That's not Your History class with me,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: your host Katie Charlewood, history Harlotte and reader of books.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: So I've been trying to gently segue into this topic
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: for the last forty four minutes, but there really is
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: no easy way to say that the main comments I
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: have had, the main points of discussion that have been
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: directed at me in the last seven days have either
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: been about Nazis or titties like. That's what it's been,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: because I have had more professional requests and invitations regarding
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: World War two and Nazi Germany like then I've had
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: in the last five and a half years. And on
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the other side, lots of people are either complaining about
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: or complaining to other people about them complaining about my
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: boobs because there's an whole issue with the fact that
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: my body is simply too voluptuous for the internet apparently,
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: And if I was skinny, like, there would not be
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: an issue regarding my bosom, like there would not be
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: a concern if I was wearing the same outfits, But
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: because I happen to have a fill some set of
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: fun bags, there seems to be an issue right, but ah,
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: it's just made me more petty. Listen, we all know
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: at this point that I claimed the history Harlot out
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: of pure, unadulterated spite, because that's who I am as
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: a person. Like I ended up wearing like one of
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: my show outfits like last summer, a heat wave. It's
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: a vinyl dress and I wore it again during a
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: heat wave in a country that is not used to heat, Okay,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: and I did that out of pettiness and spite. That
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: being said, if you're in Belfast on February first and
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: you want to see me in said vinyl dress, I
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: will be performing a live podcast and one more thing, Yeah,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: we're gonna colombo this. So there was a complaint on
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: one of the social media posts for the text or
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Coon a Moonlight Murders about the first podcast episode regarding
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: that like the first half and this it was cite
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: was really weird though, because they were like, oh, you know,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: she's just like hawking all these books and I just
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: really wanted her to hurry up and get to the
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: murder in Mayhem, which like serious talk, right, I recommend
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: one book per episode and it's at the very end.
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: So that was confusing for me, and it took me
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: a second to realize they were complaining about the fact
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: that I provide sources.
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I will always provide sources. I will always cite my
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: sources in the podcast episode because like, you shouldn't just
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: take my word for anything, right, Like you shouldn't, right.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: That's why I give you the information and you can
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: go research it yourself. Like a lot of the time
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: when I'm researching things, I look for different opinions regarding
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: the very topic I'm reading, because that's how you get
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: a full encompassing view, right, Because nothing exists in a vacuum, right,
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: And this is not a Muddel podcast. This is a
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: history podcast. So I'm going to give you the context,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: the background, the lore, because history does not exist in
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: a vacuum. And I'm not just going to be all
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: about the slashings and the killings and everything that happens,
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: because these were people and victims are often just a
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: footnote in their own stories, and I think it's disgusting.
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: So I will always do my best to provide more
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: information like here in this and who did what now?
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: And I will always endeavor to try, Okay, I will
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: always endeavor to try. People matter, because people make history.
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: But I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, Katie, it's
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: been four and a half minutes quite your gibbil jabbel
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: In fact me, in fact you, I will. But first
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: we've got to get our source on. Don't me just
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: hawking through books. Our sources are tie Non Resistance, A
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Footnote to History by Kenneth pay Landing The Dynamics of
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: Thaie Royal Succession by Pran Jintrowitt Royal Words and their
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: Unroyal Consequences by Christine Gray. The King Never Miles by
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: Paul M. Handley by Pavun Chargeable Pompun. The Violent Death
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: of King and Nanda of Siam by Keith Samson. Thailand
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: A Struggle for the Nation by chandvid Kasatseiri. The Devil's
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: Discuss by Rain Kruger. Come with Me from America to
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Asia for another tale of nineteen forty's crime. On the
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: ninth of June nineteen forty six, a young king is
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  Speaker 1: discovered dead in his palace bed from a gunshot wound.
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  Speaker 1: No witnesses, no explanation, nothing. Was it an accident or
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: was it murder? Now I should warn you before we
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: go any further that there will be moments where old,
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: defunct cough colonial cough names will be used in historical context.
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: And now I I'm well aware that for a lot
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: of people out there, what they know about Thailand comes
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: from either of color jokes from comedians who thought they
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: were hot shit in the nineties, and of course the
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: you'll bring our classic the King and I so and
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: and a Mahadal, the first son of a third prince,
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: was not expected to become a king of Siam, but
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: the rain was thrust upon him on the second of
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: March nineteen thirty five when he ascended the throne as
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: the King of Siam. Can you may be thinking Siam, okay,
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: not Thailand. Well, that's because countries sometimes change their names
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: after they have a coup or two. But for this
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: to make sense, it's probably best that we slip into
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: some context. So before the r of the Thai Kingdoms,
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: a lot of what is present day Thailand was dominated
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: by the Mon and Kimar civilizations, especially the Dvaravati culture
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: and the Kimar Empire s Empire at Anchor. Thai speaking
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: people gradually migrated south from southern China, settling amongst existing
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: populations Over time, they gained power and formed independent like
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: states or provinces. Sokotai is traditionally considered the first Thai
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: kingdom in about twelve thirty eight after breaking away from
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: Kimar control. It is remembered as a golden age of
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Thai culture when the kingdom expanded and also promoted Theravura Buddhism,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: and this was when the Thai writing system was developed.
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: The kingdom eventually declined and was absorbed by Ayutia due
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: to its strategic location for trade, Ayutia grew into a
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: powerful and will the kingdom. It became a major regional power,
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: engaging diplomacy and commerce with like India, Persia, China and
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: European nations. European nations, well, that's a rocky mistake. The
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: Iitaya Kingdom started around was at thirteen fifty one and
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: it rose from the Lavo Kingdom and as it evolved,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: it absorbed the Siamese Sukatai Kingdom too. So during this
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: time Thai culture, law and royal traditions became like more
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: centralized in hierarchical now. The kingdom fell after like four
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: hundred years when it was destroyed by the Burmese in
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: seventeen sixty seven, after the fall King Taxin reunified the kingdom,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: but not without a rebrand. This was now the Tonbury Kingdom,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: whose capital was now you guessed it, Tonbury. King Toxin's
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: reign was focused on rebuilding the econ restoring political stability,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: and of course defending against the Burmese. The kingdom was
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: successful from a military standpoint, but showing an egg isn't
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: going to fry it, and after twenty years, Tucson's reign
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: was overthrown, which led to a new dynasty that is
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: still reigning today. In seventeen eighty two, Rama the First
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: founded the Chakwi dynasty and as king, he decided that
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: the capital of Siam should be s It was Bangkok,
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: So this new kingdom it revived a beauty us traditions
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: whilst strengthening administration and culture, and basically the first three
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: kings of the dynasty were focused on rebuilding the country
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: after all of those devastating wars with Burma in the
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: seventeen hundreds. By the mid nineteenth century, there will be
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: coming increasingly aware of the modernities, the progression in technology
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: and society of Europe because well because the Victorians ruin
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: everything so for the next four kings, so that Ramas
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: four through to seven were pushing to modernize Siam. Meanwhile,
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: Siam's neighbors were being conquered by the European powers. The
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: Dutch had claimed the islands to the south, so like
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: modern day Indonesia, the British annexed See invaded the Mainly
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: Peninsula which that's south, and then Burma, which was to
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: the west. The Friends were lettard at a nap and
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: then took Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam to the east. So
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Siam is watching their neighboring countries get annexed invaded, and
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: again they're like really good at the art of diplomacy.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: So Syam convinces France and Britain that it was better
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: to have them as a neutral nation on the Southeast
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: Asian mainland, Like it was better to do that than
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: it was to let either of them take over, because
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: taking the country over would result in a power imbalance
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: between the imperial nations. Like they're very much going like
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: if they invade me, right, then they take me over,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: then they can attack you, and if you take me over,
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: like it's the same thing, Like one of yous is
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: gonna be busy fighting each other instead of you know,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: being the colonial pills that be in attacking all these
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: other nations. Right, and you know the Brits and the
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: French are like fair enough, actually, yeah, we would rather
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: go and just you know, steal all this stuff from
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: these people then have to deal with this, you know,
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: especially when our actual countries are very close to one
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: another and we don't need that hassle. That being said,
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: Siam did lose some territory, and by some I mean
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: nearly half, like to the French and the British, but
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: the core of the kingdom was left hole. And all
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: through this history dynasty, the Kingdom of Siam, it was
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: ruled by an absolute monarchy. Right, So, an absolute monarchy
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: is when the head of the state, the person who
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: makes all the decisions, like their word is law. Effectively,
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: that's your monarch, that's your sovereign. Yeah, that's who that is.
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing. Modern Western countries were switching from
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. So in tead of
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: the king having absolute power and is limited by the
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: laws set out by the constitution. So they're seeing this
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: happening all over like, some countries are getting rid of
• 13:11
  Speaker 1: monarchies altogether, they're just abolishing them, and others are creating
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: these constitutional monarchies instead. And Siam's looking at that and
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: they're like, you know what, we could go for a
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: bit of that. So a group of reformers staged a
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: coup in nineteen thirty two, basically overthrowing absolute monarchy to
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: create a constitutional monarchy. So this is during this period
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: between the First World War, the Great War, and the
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: Second World War. Like, it is what would commonly be
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: called the interwar period. So a lot of nations they'd
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: changed and evolved, and these reformers in Siam, well, they thought,
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: like the country would benefit from not having one singular
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: person with absolute power controlling over everything. Okay, now it
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: would be silly to assume that all of the pressure
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: came from an external force. But no, the people of Siam, right,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: they were pissed. Vageria Wood the sixth King of Siam
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: from the Zakria dynasty rama the sixth Now you're shocked.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: He had reigned for fifteen years, so nineteen ten to
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: nineteen twenty five, and so he had done I'm gonna
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: say it a few interesting things like, he was really
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: progressive in lots of ways. So he had initiated reforms.
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: He had established military academies, and his first active king
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: was to build the Royal Pages College and it would
• 14:46
  Speaker 1: be posthumously named after him. And he'd also built what
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: he had built. He didn't like bricks and mortar himself,
• 14:53
  Speaker 1: so he had this all boys boarding school built instead
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: of the customary Royal mon because he said there was
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: already too many of those in Vangkok. And so this
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: was actually based on the model of sort of all
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: boys boarding schools like in Britain, like eating and things
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: like that. Later he raised the Civil Servants School and
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: the true the Long Corn University. On top of this,
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: he set up public hospitals. He also established the Wild
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: Tiger Corps, a palam military corps outside the established military hierarchy,
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: so like it started out as a ceremonial guard but
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: became a military force of four thousand in its first year,
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: and it also had the Tiger Cubs, which is like
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: the boy Scouts right now. The army, like the actual
• 15:53
  Speaker 1: traditional military, were not super happy about the Wild Tiger
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: Corps and they saw that as a threat. And because
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: like he was progressive. Many radicals expected like a new
• 16:08
  Speaker 1: constitution when he had his coronation, right, because he did
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: all this stuff, he was planning all these things, and
• 16:15
  Speaker 1: lots of people assumed that he was going to be
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: moving away from absolute monarchy and towards a constitutional monarchy.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: But yeah, this didn't happen, and so young army officers
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: planned a coup for the first of April nineteen twelve,
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: but not April Phil's Day, but a traditional Siamese New
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: Year's Day. They planned to make one of the Jurawood's
• 16:44
  Speaker 1: half brothers the first president of Siam, but Ah Muslips
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: sink Ships, the captain who was selected to assassinate the king,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: told Prince chacker Bonks, another of the kings half brother.
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: So all the conspirators are arrested and they're sentenced to
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: everything from imprisonment to execution. But the king pardoned the
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: men and released them, and he did it for this
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: sake of the kingdom. So the king he is building schools, universities, palaces, hospitals,
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: the whole ship bang. Like then, the First World War
• 17:26
  Speaker 1: hits and Siam has very minimal involvement. They joined the
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: Allies in nineteen seventeen, Siam lost nineteen soldiers, right, so
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: one it shows up right at the end of the
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: war and secondly loses nineteen and to what you may ask,
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: this Spanish flew. Also in nineteen seventeen the price of
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: silver rose, making it higher face value than the silver
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: coins like it was on and so he ends up
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: banning the export of Siamese coins. And like post First
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: World War economies like all over the globe are struggling,
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: So this is he's trying to, you know, protect the
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: wealth of the nation like which is interesting because he
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: never really did. You'll see because like Siam also has
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: like droughts and food shortages, and the king is still
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: investing in infrastructure, building bridges and railroads and the country
• 18:36
  Speaker 1: has to take a loan from Britain. And then in
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: nineteen twenty five he dies and his brother was king.
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: So his brother right ram out the seventh he's going
• 18:48
  Speaker 1: to deal with all of this because he has this
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: big financial mess and the fact that all of the
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: ministerial positions or a who's who of nepotism, prince's appointed brothers, sons, cousins, attc.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Which is not ideal, and everything's like this chain reaction. Right,
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: So Britain then drops the gold standard, which completely bugles
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: up Siam's exports and ends up making Siam rice more expensive. Right,
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: So they're having huge trouble trying to export like the
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: same stuff they've been exporting for so long. And so
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: in nineteen thirty one there's an economic depression, and so
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: reformers said enough is enough, right, because you had all
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: this funding that has been funneled out and into all
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: of these things being built, which great to do, but
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: you need to be able to finance that, you know,
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: and so it becomes a constitutional monarchy. So, yes, a
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: constitutional monarchy is where the monarch or sovereign king or
• 20:05
  Speaker 1: queen when they serve as the head of state, but
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: they have limited powers. The elected officials, like the parliament,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: the government, they hold the real power, right, they have
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: the ability to make and pass legislation. The thing is,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: this new government was not as democratic or as efficient
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: as desired. And this country had known absolute monarchy for
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: centuries and now the people were struggling with this new authority.
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: And what followed was six years of political instability. Field
• 20:46
  Speaker 1: Marshal Plague five one Songgram, the commander of the army
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: seized power and named himself Prime Minister in nineteen thirty eight,
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: and one of the first things he does after taking
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: over is he changes the name of the country from
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: Siam to Thailand, which means land of the Free. Then
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: a year later, in nineteen thirty nine, the Second World
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: War started and you might be wondering where is this
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: young king and all of this, Well, the safest place
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: he could possibly be Switzerland. Momchal Ananda Mahadal Mahadal was
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: born on the twentieth of September nineteen twenty five in
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: Heidelberg in Germany, to Prince Mahidal Adelia Dejh and Princess
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: Sringa Rendra. This makes Ananda Mahdal the first Siamese king
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: to be born outside of the country. So he's been
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: born in Heidelberg in Germany because his dad's returned there
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: for kidney treatment. So I think he was studying there
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: initially when he was planning to be in the navy,
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: but he kept being sort of overlooked and overruled by
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: all of these like British Navy officers, and he realized
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: that wasn't going to change, so instead of doing that,
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: he really focused on medicine. And so at one point
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: he's like studying in Edinburgh and then he's over in
• 22:25
  Speaker 1: Harvard studying, okay, and then his kidneys are having issues,
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: so he returns to Germany for treatment, and that is
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: where and that is born. I think I may have said,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: Actually that did I just say that his sister was younger. No,
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: he has an older sister, and then it's him and
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: then over in Harvard because they returned to Harvard. It's
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: over in Massachusetts that his brother was born. Okay, So
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: that's the three of them. So he ends up doing that,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: and then after a while he ends up returning to
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: Bangkok because of like an uncle dies, so he's there
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: and he ends up being there and he doesn't really
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: get a chance to leave because his health is deteriorating,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: like prince, like Prince Mahadal has lots of like health issues.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Now I'm I'm not saying it specifically because his parents
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: were half siblings. I'm just saying that it's you know,
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: your family tree should not be a wreath, said before,
• 23:34
  Speaker 1: and I'll say it again. So Ananda Mahadal, like when
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: he is two years old, his uncle King prajadaa book
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: he ends up like bringing him up from like that
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: lower prince status to the higher prince status. Because like
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: like I said before, Anandad is the first son of
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: a third son. So Prince Mahudal his two older brothers,
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: like the first one was king and then he died,
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: and then the second one became king, and he ends
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: up like bringing everybody up, ragging them up in the rank.
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: But he does not name a successor, like he doesn't
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: do that, and it's like that's the kind of thing
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: that you have to do. So he ends up like
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: traveling around with his dad. And so when like they
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: were turn in nineteen twenty eight, Prince Mahadal's health just
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: gets worse and worse. These get kidney issues, the liver absesses,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: and then he dies at the age of thirty seven
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: on the twenty fourth of September nineteen twenty nine. So
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: at four years old and under, Mahadal loses his father
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: and he ends up going to the Dipsarian school in Bangkok.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: That is up until you know the revolution in nineteen
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: thirty two that ended the absolute monarchy. And so like
• 25:18
  Speaker 1: his grandmother, Queen savann Vadana, like she's she's a bit
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: worried because like technically when you go through sort of
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: that air presumptive, like he is one of the very
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: likely heirs to the throne, and so it was like,
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: let's uh, let's maybe get the kids out of there.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: And so right, the mom, this widowed mom, she's just
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: like off we go and takes her kids and goes
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: to Lausanne in Switzerland one year after the coup. So
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: one year after this, off they go. And the official
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: they give is for the health and further education of
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: the princes. Sow spends most of his youth being educated
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: in Switzerland. And so in nineteen thirty five, King Prajudapoch
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: he ends up abdicating. Right, he claims it's due to
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: political issues and health problems, and he decides not to
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: name a successor to the throne. And because he didn't
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: name his successor, the government got to decide. So the Cabinet,
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: with the approval of the National Assembly, used the nineteen
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: twenty four Palace Law of Succession and named the nine
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: year old Ananda Mahadal as King.
• 26:49
  Speaker 2: Of Thailand's being said because the new king was a
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: literal child and was attending school in Switzerland, and three
• 27:01
  Speaker 2: regents were.
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: Appointed to take over the duties of the young king,
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: So Colonel Prince a Noted Chatorung, Lieutenant Commander Prince Aditya Dbaba,
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: and Chao Praya Umaraje were the three regents. In nineteen
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: thirty eight, he returned to Thailand as its king for
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: the first time. So he goes he's there with his
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: mother and his brother and he goes to visit and
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: then he goes back to Switzerland. So the following year,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine, this Second World War starts and Thailand
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: uses diplomacy as its main weapon again. So this just
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: makes Thailand so much more different, like than all of
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: its neighbors, you know, because because you're like, see, when
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: Japan arrives, you know Thailand, it resists and you might
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: be thinking for how long, for days, for weeks, for months? No,
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: five hours, five hours, right, So they resist for five
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: hours and then they joined Japan as an access partner
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: because Prime Minister fib And he had admired Japan all along.
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: Then Thailand declares war on the United Kingdom and the
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: United States of America. So like obviously being a child
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: Rama the eighth King and Nanda Mahadal King and Nanda
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: Mahadal did not take sid again because he was an
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: actual child and of course was spending well. He spent
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: the whole war being in the best and safest possible
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: place at school in Switzerland. Interestingly, that's also where mother
• 29:17
  Speaker 1: Teresa would be. She was also at school in Switzerland
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: during the Second World War, which is always an interesting
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: one because some people seem to think sidebar that she
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: was like out there helping people throughout this entire thing,
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: when no, no, she was at a school in the
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: relative safety of the neutral Switzerland where the Nazis kept
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: all their banks. Meanwhile, back in Thailand, one of the
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: king's regents was not really fond of five one, so
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: pretty fun of me young. He declared himself on the
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: side of the Allies, so basically he formed this anti
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: Japanese political party called the Seri Tai, which basically means
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: free tie right. So like the Prime Minister, he's declared
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: war on the US right, but the Taie Ambassador Sinney
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: promov he refused to actually like deliver the war declaration,
• 30:24
  Speaker 1: like he just flat out refused to bring it over
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: and deliver it to the US State Department and instead
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: declared himself in the embassy as being with the Serai Thai.
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: So this led to, let's face it, more instability because
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: this split like the government in two. So you had
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: this military government in Bangkok and this civilian government in exile.
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: Right that being said, like a war declary wouldn't have
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: meant much to the US anyway, like like they ignored
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: it and they recognized the Serai Thai as the legitimate
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: government of Thailand because they were just like no. So
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: as we moved forward by nineteen forty four, like the war,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: it not just like turned against like Japan, but also
• 31:27
  Speaker 1: the Prime Minister five and Songkram, like the Serai Thai
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: underground movement had just kept growing. Like it was like
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: the nation saw this aggressive, abusive military power that was
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: being used to abuse people, and they went, no, we
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: don't like this, we don't like this. And also in addition, furthermore,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: like war is it expensive? So the Thai economy was
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: absolutely shocking, like it was really suffering because of the war.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: So when the Prime Minister proposes these two like huge projects,
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: like one of which was moving the capital with the
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: capital city of Thailand from Bangkok to Fijibum, which is
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: a small town in like the jungle sort of in
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: the north central part of the country, so which it's
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: it's as if he wanted to make like the capital
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: of the country, like to give it a better defense,
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: to make it more defensible. But like it's not wrong,
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: because it would be more difficult for like someone who
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: didn't know the region the area, like a foreign power,
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: it would be more difficult for them to capture it
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: if it's buried in the damn jungle. So like, like
• 32:58
  Speaker 1: there's also the idea that he wanted to move the
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: capital to make him like more independent from like Japanese powers,
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: because he wanted power. He didn't necessarily want to have
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: to fall in line. So the other thing that he
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: wanted to do was in the middle of this war
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: was to build a Buddhist park like right in the
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: center of the country and the Salerberry Province. For why
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: why specifically Him's to say, like nobody actually knows. So
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: basically he's planning all this shit which is going to
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: cost even more money and doesn't really have a valid,
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: like reasonable reason for it, you know. And so the
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: people who were on his side, the government officers, they
• 33:58
  Speaker 1: turn against him. The National Assembly just turns down his proposals,
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: and in July nineteen forty four, Fib was forced to
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: resign as Prime Minister. Like he does actually manage to
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: like start the Buddhist Park, but it doesn't get like
• 34:18
  Speaker 1: finished until after after he's dead, right well after he's
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: long long dead. And it wasn't built in like the
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: center of the country. It was just like a few
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: miles west of Bangkok. It's like a foot of Monton,
• 34:35
  Speaker 1: which I think it's a Buddhist buddhistphere sidebar. So like
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: the park is actually built. Oh, they start building it
• 34:44
  Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty five, and I think it's like finished
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: like properly in like nineteen seventy six, you know. Anyway,
• 34:56
  Speaker 1: so Fibe he hints up like he's ousted from the
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: government and he goes to stay in the army headquarters
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: in Lobori. So the National Assembly they elect this noble
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: so Quang Afuang to replace him, and so he's he's
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: still sort of being like keeping good with the Japanese. However,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: he was more aligned with the Serai Thai. So while
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: he's you know, doing all of the face work, like
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: the Serai Tai that was aligned with the Allies it
• 35:38
  Speaker 1: gained control of Bangkok. That being said, they couldn't quite
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: quit the axis while the Japanese soldiers were still in
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: the country. And on top of this, Faiboon could not
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: be treated as a war criminal because he still had
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: a decent amount of military on his side, enough troops
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: to stage another coup if he felt like it. So basically,
• 36:06
  Speaker 1: the Semai Thai they kind of had to like twdle
• 36:09
  Speaker 1: other thumbs for a wee bit till the war ended.
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: And when Japan surrendered, they like completely avoided Thailand's decoration
• 36:21
  Speaker 1: of war against the Allies, and like during the war,
• 36:26
  Speaker 1: like Thailand had gained sort of like territory on its borders,
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: like because it had ended with Japan. So it had
• 36:34
  Speaker 1: like the Shan Plateau of Burma, It had parts of
• 36:37
  Speaker 1: Cambodia and Laos, four out of the nine sultanates in
• 36:43
  Speaker 1: the Malay Peninsula, like all these sort of regions that
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: had belonged to Siam in the nineteenth century before you know,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: the Empire had come and claimed them. Empires, i should say,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: came and claimed them. And so Thailand thought, you know what,
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: we should have stuff again now when the war ended,
• 37:05
  Speaker 1: British moved their troops across the borders into northern Malaya
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: and the shan Platau, and the Ties were just like,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: you know what, let's let's just let you have that.
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: Like they were like, you know what, it's good, it's fine.
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: And the new Prime Minister he was just like, by
• 37:20
  Speaker 1: the way, we're on your side, don't attack us. Thank you. Next,
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: like he basically says that, you know, none of the
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: King's regents actually signed the declaration of war and as such,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: like it's not valid, we didn't do it. And so
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: the US was like, we don't care because we have
• 37:36
  Speaker 1: no interest in you. But the other allies, you know,
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: they had I'm gonna call this like a laundry list
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: of demands, right, so they kept threatening to stop it
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: from being able to join the UN if demands were
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: not met. So France wanted the return of sort of
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: the provinces and Cambodia and Laos. Britain wanted like trade
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: agreements like with the Nice Trade agreements, the right to
• 38:09
  Speaker 1: station British troops on Thai soil and definitely and one
• 38:16
  Speaker 1: and a half million tons of free rice right, and
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: the Soviet Union wanted the communist part of the Glies
• 38:23
  Speaker 1: in Thailand. So thanks to US pressure, like Britain dropped
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: the demands apart from the rice, but Thailand was able
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: to sell it to them instead of just like give
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: it away, so they were able to sell them like
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: one and a half million tons of rice. So yeah,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: so Fibun, like the Allies, they want him to put
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: on trial for war crimes. So the Allies they wanted
• 38:54
  Speaker 1: to try Fibun for war crimes, but because there was
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: such great public support, it wasn't really something that the
• 39:02
  Speaker 1: Thai government was willing to do because it's like, yeah,
• 39:05
  Speaker 1: it was seen by like a lot of the people
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: of Thailand, a lot of the nation that he was
• 39:11
  Speaker 1: doing what he thought was in the best interest of
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: the country at the time, and so they were like, yeah,
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: I guess we're not doing that. So basically, after the
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: war ends, they change the name of the country from
• 39:28
  Speaker 1: Thailand back to Siam because Thailand was so associated with
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: the Second World War and they did not want to
• 39:38
  Speaker 1: be connecting with that. And so in December nineteen forty five,
• 39:44
  Speaker 1: I'm under Mahadal, the twenty year old monarch, returned to
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: Bangkok to take on his royal duties because he's twenty now,
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: it's fine, And basically he gets there and then in
• 39:58
  Speaker 1: January election are held to form a post war government,
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: so pretty vanamong he is sworn in as Prime Minister
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: and that's in March, and the new constitution goes into
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: effect in May nineteen forty six. So he's returned to
• 40:14
  Speaker 1: Thailand in December nineteen forty five, a month later the
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: elections are happening, and also in January, Louis Mountbatten, the
• 40:26
  Speaker 1: first Earl of mount Batten of Burma, right, the British
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: commander in Southeast Asia. So he visits King and Anda
• 40:36
  Speaker 1: Mahadal and he described him and I quote as.
• 40:42
  Speaker 3: A frightened or short zerted boer, his slurping shoulders and
• 40:45
  Speaker 3: fun trust behung with a goldeous diamond studied decorations, altogether
• 40:51
  Speaker 3: a pathetic and lonely frugal. His nervousness includes to southern
• 40:55
  Speaker 3: a lawming extent that I came very close to support
• 40:58
  Speaker 3: him and goes you passed out, which it.
• 41:03
  Speaker 1: Feels like he's just really pissy about this young man
• 41:07
  Speaker 1: being king. To be honest, he's like, oh, he's so nervous. Yeah,
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: he's he's twenty years old, and he's just come back
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: after a massive war, Like, yeah, nervousness is part of it.
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't be surprised. So there's also this rumor the
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: Anandol didn't want to be king and that he didn't
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: think he was going to be king for long, like
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: he didn't think it was gonna last. He thought something
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: was gonna happen and he wasn't gonna be king. And
• 41:38
  Speaker 1: he was right because his reign would be ended with
• 41:44
  Speaker 1: a bullet to the forehead. The ninth of June nineteen
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: forty six, King and Anda Mahadal has woken up by
• 42:04
  Speaker 1: his mother, right, so he's in his bedroom. It's on
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: the second floor of the Born free Man Throne Hall
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: in the Grand Palace. So six o'clock his mum comes
• 42:15
  Speaker 1: in and wakes him up. An hour and a half later,
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: his page boatsat Padamasaran. He starts making a breakfast table
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: on the balcony adjoining the King's dressing room, so it's
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: like next to it. So he sees the king standing
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: there an hour later, and he brings him his like
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: glass of orange juice, like his daily morning orange juice,
• 42:41
  Speaker 1: but this time the King's just like, well, I don't
• 42:43
  Speaker 1: really feel like it, and he goes back to bed.
• 42:48
  Speaker 1: So it covered to nine. So like eight forty five.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: One of the King's other pages Chit sannga Senni. So
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: he had been sent up by one of the jewelers
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: to measure like the King's like metals and decorations because
• 43:02
  Speaker 1: the jeweler has to make like a special case for them.
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: And so he's there doing that, like fifteen minutes later,
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: his younger brother, Prince Boomable, goes to visit him, but
• 43:16
  Speaker 1: the King is asleep. He's just back in bed and
• 43:21
  Speaker 1: he's snoozing, so he's like fine, and he leaves twenty
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: minutes later. So nine am, a single shot rings out
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: from the King's bedroom. So Chit he runs in, he
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: runs in, and then he runs right back out right
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: along the corridor to the apartment of the king's mum,
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: and so he is just like like shouting the King's
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: shot himself, and so like the King's mum, so she
• 43:53
  Speaker 1: just follows Chit through into the King's bedroom and finds
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: the body of her son lying face up in bed,
• 44:03
  Speaker 1: blood pouring from a wound in his head. So later
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: that day, an official announcement goes on the radio and
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: it basically says that King Ananda Mahadal was accidentally killed
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: while playing with a gun, and not long after he dies,
• 44:24
  Speaker 1: like this, rumor starts going round that the Prime Minister,
• 44:28
  Speaker 1: like prey, he was behind the death. So he ends
• 44:34
  Speaker 1: up having to having to just resign just out of
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: just all of this, all of this conspiracy. So after this, right,
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: a commission of inquiry in nineteen forty six says that
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: the king's death couldn't have been accidental, but neither suicide
• 44:54
  Speaker 1: nor murder was satisfactorily proved. So here's something as well.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: So he was due to go back to Switzerland to
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: finish his studies. Right, So he was supposed to go
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: back four days later. He was supposed to go back
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: and go to Switzerland and do his thing and then return.
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing. He is shot right in the forehead, which, okay, okay,
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna talk about suicide for a second.
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: So like if you're gonna shoot yourself, like you put
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: the gun to your temple, Like logically you're gonna put
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: it to your temple. You're not gonna put it to
• 45:34
  Speaker 1: the front, right, It's not gonna be a thing that
• 45:37
  Speaker 1: you do like typically, right because even for holding like
• 45:43
  Speaker 1: the grip, it's actually easier like physically, you know what
• 45:48
  Speaker 1: I mean. Anywhow So November nineteen forty seven another coup,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: Yes you heard me right. So in nineteen forty seven,
• 45:59
  Speaker 1: Field Marshal Plaque people Sangrum. He staged a coup against
• 46:03
  Speaker 1: the elected government and he appoints quang Afiong as prime
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: minister and ordered a trial. So King Andanda's secretary, Senator
• 46:15
  Speaker 1: Charlio Patomros, and the pages boot and cheaked they were
• 46:19
  Speaker 1: arrested in charge with conspiracy to murder the king. So
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: the trial begins in August nineteen forty eight. Right, So,
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: like here's the thing, the guy who staged the coup. Sorry,
• 46:37
  Speaker 1: the US ambassador Edwin Stanton, but he didn't think the
• 46:42
  Speaker 1: trial would resolve any of the mystery of the King's
• 46:45
  Speaker 1: death and the prosecution's case it was supported by one
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: hundred and twenty four witnesses and in just buckets and
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: bucket of documents. Right, there is just so much quote
• 47:07
  Speaker 1: evidence that the defense council asked for an adjournment just
• 47:12
  Speaker 1: to give them time to consider this. Like it gets
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: refused and so like the lawyers, they resign in a
• 47:23
  Speaker 1: new council like they have to try and get new lawyers.
• 47:29
  Speaker 1: Then then two of the defense council were arrested and
• 47:36
  Speaker 1: charged with treason. All of the two that were left
• 47:42
  Speaker 1: one resigned, leaving one single young lawyer to defend these three.
• 47:52
  Speaker 1: So Fuckna Sonkla so like. By the end of it,
• 47:58
  Speaker 1: he was joined by Charlie O Patomo's like when she
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: had like graduated. Because this trial runs a long time,
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: so it doesn't end until May nineteen fifty one. And
• 48:10
  Speaker 1: the court ruled that a king and Nanda Mahadal had
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: been assassinated, but that like Charlio, the secretary had not
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: been found guilty, and that neither of the pages could
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: have fired the fatal shot except they found Chit guilty
• 48:36
  Speaker 1: of being like like part of the crime. Now, the
• 48:41
  Speaker 1: charges against the other two were dismissed and they were released,
• 48:45
  Speaker 1: and so Chit he appealed against his conviction, and the
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: prosecution appealed against the acquittal of the other two, so
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: the secretary and the other page. And after fifteen months
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: of deliberation, the appeals court dismissed Chit's appeal, but also
• 49:10
  Speaker 1: found guilty. So they end up appealing to the Supreme Court,
• 49:16
  Speaker 1: which deliberated for ten more months before upholding both convictions.
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: And at that point they end up convicting the secretary
• 49:27
  Speaker 1: as well. So at this point King and Ander's brother
• 49:35
  Speaker 1: is now king, so he's now Rama the ninth and
• 49:40
  Speaker 1: so they're petitioning. They're like begging for clemency, and it
• 49:43
  Speaker 1: is rejected on the seventeenth of February nineteen fifty five,
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: and on the eighteenth they were executed by firing squad.
• 49:58
  Speaker 1: Now the Ninth he would go on to say that
• 50:05
  Speaker 1: he didn't think that any of these men were guilty.
• 50:09
  Speaker 1: Like the King Bomble, he believed that his brother's death
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: had been an accident, and after the court ruled that
• 50:18
  Speaker 1: it was not an accident like he ended up saying
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: that the investigation provided the fact that he died with
• 50:28
  Speaker 1: a bullet wound in his forehead, it was proved that
• 50:32
  Speaker 1: it was not an accident and not a suicide. One
• 50:35
  Speaker 1: doesn't know, but what happened is very mysterious because immediately
• 50:39
  Speaker 1: much of the evidence was just shifted, and because it
• 50:42
  Speaker 1: was political, so everyone was political, even the police were political.
• 50:48
  Speaker 1: I only know that when I arrived, he was dead.
• 50:51
  Speaker 1: Many people wanted to advance not theories but facts to
• 50:54
  Speaker 1: clear up their affair, but they were suppressed, and they
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: were suppressed by influential people in the country and in
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: international politics. So the thing about the body, right, here's
• 51:08
  Speaker 1: the thing. So the whole thing stinks. The whole thing stinks.
• 51:15
  Speaker 1: So there's a wind over the left eye, right, and
• 51:20
  Speaker 1: it wasn't contact discharge, right, So it is not a
• 51:26
  Speaker 1: contact wind. There's no discharge, right, little discharge from the gun.
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: So if the gun is in direct contact, like with
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: the body with the skin at the moment of that
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: bullet coming out of the I've pistol, pistol, I've forgotten
• 51:44
  Speaker 1: the name of the pipey bit of the gun shots.
• 51:51
  Speaker 1: That's really bad. How do you forget that? Anyway? We
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: all know that. You know, there's contact burns, they're all
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: of these things. There's you know, gunpowder, it's a gunpowder
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: like the residue, right, especially you know then, and there's
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: none of that gunshot residue, gunpowder residue. What am I
• 52:11
  Speaker 1: doing naking fireworks? Jesus Christ. So you've got that the
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: king was lying flat on his back, right, which is
• 52:28
  Speaker 1: like he was lying down. The way that he was
• 52:32
  Speaker 1: sitting lying down was as if he was already lying
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: down when he was shot. So that's just I'm sorry.
• 52:39
  Speaker 1: It's just a really awkward angle that you've got someone
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: lying flat on a bed holding a gun above their
• 52:47
  Speaker 1: head to shoot from a distance above like that. If
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: you try and do it with your hand, it's very awkward,
• 52:56
  Speaker 1: that's what I'm saying. And the direction of the bullet
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: fired it wasn't sort of inwards towards the center of
• 53:08
  Speaker 1: the head, so it's sort of pointing out, so it's
• 53:10
  Speaker 1: even more awkward. And the gun was found right next
• 53:19
  Speaker 1: to and Almahadal's left hand, but King Rama the eighth
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: was right handed, so why would it be in his
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: left hand? So the leader of the opposition right, so
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: Senai pramoge so he's against Prime Minister pretty Bunamaiong and
• 53:44
  Speaker 1: his nephew and the nephew's wife. Within two days of
• 53:48
  Speaker 1: the king's mysterious death, contact the US State Department to
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: tell them that the King King Rama the eighth had
• 53:58
  Speaker 1: been assassinated. And now they also said that he'd been
• 54:02
  Speaker 1: assassinated you know, by the Prime Minister Predy been a
• 54:06
  Speaker 1: Myong who had then told the US that, you know,
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: like he was sick of all the rumors against him
• 54:13
  Speaker 1: and that this was just like a horrible you know, accusation.
• 54:22
  Speaker 1: And listen, he kept saying that it was an accident
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: and that the royal family were against him. So Phil
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: Marshall Plague Pulo Songgrum, the guy who you know instigated
• 54:33
  Speaker 1: the coup against Predy beIN a miong. He said, like,
• 54:39
  Speaker 1: it was ridiculous that Predy could have been involved in
• 54:42
  Speaker 1: this assassination, because right, he was too clever a politician
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: and had too kind of heart to even consider assassinating someone,
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: let alone a twenty year old man like the young king. Now,
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: there's also the theory that King bumble Adulia dej, the
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: younger brother of Ananda Mahadol, that he was responsible for
• 55:13
  Speaker 1: the king's death. You know, that he had either accidentally
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: shot him or playing with a gun, or that it
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: was maybe more deliberate so that he could gain the throne.
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: There's also the theory that Andanda Mahadal was playing with
• 55:34
  Speaker 1: a gun because he was in love with a Swiss girl,
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: Marilyn Ferrari, and he would never be able to marry
• 55:43
  Speaker 1: her because she's Swiss and he's you know, the king
• 55:49
  Speaker 1: of Siam. And there's the theory that due to this,
• 55:53
  Speaker 1: like star Cross Lover is never going to be together,
• 55:56
  Speaker 1: that he ended his life like he was returning to
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: Switzerland and his uncle had abdicated. He could have done
• 56:08
  Speaker 1: that too, Like there were options. He had a brother
• 56:12
  Speaker 1: who I mean, he became king anyway, but there was roots,
• 56:16
  Speaker 1: they had options and ways to go. So, but you
• 56:21
  Speaker 1: never really know what someone is feeling at any time,
• 56:26
  Speaker 1: and to anyone out there, who is actually if you're
• 56:31
  Speaker 1: suffering suicidal idegation or you're really depressed and you just
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: don't want to go on, like there are our numbers
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: to call on, people to talk to, and you might
• 56:43
  Speaker 1: feel so alone, but there are people out there. If
• 56:50
  Speaker 1: you don't listen to me, who am I going to
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: talk to my kids? No, I'm kidding, I mean am
• 56:56
  Speaker 1: I I mean?
• 56:57
  Speaker 2: I mean.
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: Listen. I'm glad you're here. Okay, that's all but King
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: and Nanda Mahdal. He was cremated at Sanam Luang and
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: Bangkok on the twenty ninth of March nineteen fifty four
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: years after his untimely death, and so ends our story
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: on King Rama the eighth Andanda Mahdal, the King of Siam. Oh.
• 57:34
  Speaker 1: I should actually say as well that after the coup
• 57:36
  Speaker 1: the name got changed back. The next coup the name
• 57:39
  Speaker 1: got changed, so it went Siam Thailand Siam Thailand again,
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: which is now why we know it as Thailand because
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: after that sort of fibon and the World War II
• 57:52
  Speaker 1: Association had dissipated at that point. But yes, so ends
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: our story. Like I want to apologize because I'm working
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: from like six different notebooks at the moment because I
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: had written it down in pieces and then I couldn't
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: read my handwriting. So for the awkward pauses, I'm like,
• 58:14
  Speaker 1: what the fuck did I say? And I didn't even
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: say fuck this for Game of Soldiers this time, I
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: didn't get it in there. But there we go. So
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: the MBAs the Brakes kids, So it is recommendation time.
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: Let's just jump right into it. Yeah, let's do this.
• 58:32
  Speaker 1: So also Breakert, I get to see me and Belle Fast.
• 58:36
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna be planning the Dublin show at some point,
• 58:39
  Speaker 1: and then I gotta work out some Canada stuff, guys.
• 58:43
  Speaker 1: I gotta work out some Canada stuff with my super
• 58:46
  Speaker 1: awesome wonderful, lovely friend Sahar who keeps me organized so organized,
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: because I can't do it myself because I am putting
• 58:58
  Speaker 1: in human form. Oh yes, recommendation time for watching. I
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: am gonna recommend Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead because
• 59:09
  Speaker 1: I watched that recently and I love it so much,
• 59:12
  Speaker 1: like so much, and part of me wants to just
• 59:16
  Speaker 1: try and redo our at least color way the looks
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: from most of the characters throughout that movie, because I'm like,
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: I could do that. I could dress like all the
• 59:27
  Speaker 1: characters or most of the characters in the Christina Applegate movie,
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: My comfort movie. Goodness, I'm trying to like find those
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: comfort movies again because I don't like new things. I
• 59:40
  Speaker 1: like old things, says me, who spent most of Sunday
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: cleaning and watching murders she wrote. And I did get
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: Worth's originals, so there's somewhere in my house, so that's
• 59:52
  Speaker 1: fun for me anyway. For reading now, I don't know
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: if I can recommend it. I can't or can't. I can't,
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: you know what. I haven't read it yet, but I
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: have read her work and I have listened to her
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: work and Foster of vulgar history. Her book Rebel of
• 1:00:13
  Speaker 1: the Regions say about Carlyn and Brunswick, I it literally
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: arrived today. I haven't even read it, so like I
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: can't I can't quite recommend it to you because I
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: haven't read it yet. But you know what I'm I'm
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: gonna I get the Christie, any of it, all of it,
• 1:00:29
  Speaker 1: some of it. Yeah, And listening I knew what I
• 1:00:34
  Speaker 1: was listening to a lot to this week actually was
• 1:00:37
  Speaker 1: Denis by Blonde Day because I was like, oh, this
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: is a fun little song and it's also really short,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: and it's it's not too high and not too low,
• 1:00:48
  Speaker 1: so even though I can't sing, it's like, oh, that
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: could be a decent karaoke song because it's like small
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: and easy. But yeah, there we go. That's your that's
• 1:01:00
  Speaker 1: your recommendation, and enjoy, Oh my goodness, and I will
• 1:01:05
  Speaker 1: see you next week where I have. I think you're
• 1:01:09
  Speaker 1: really gonna like next week's one because it's one I
• 1:01:11
  Speaker 1: actually knew so much about, and I'm like, it's actually
• 1:01:16
  Speaker 1: very murder heavy throughout the whole thing. So if you
• 1:01:21
  Speaker 1: if you don't like murders and death, then that's not
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: gonna be an episode for you. You're gonna want to
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 1: exit stage left. But with that, I shall bid you
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 1: good night. Adios au revoir of What Is Them, my friends,
• 1:01:37
  Speaker 1: by bye,