Saw E Kan-Kaung ( my, စောအဲကံကောင်း, ; 1313/14–1330) was king of

Martaban Mottama ( my, မုတ္တမမြို့, ; Muttama mnw, မုဟ်တၟံ, ; formerly Martaban) is a town in the Thaton District of Mon State, Myanmar. Located on the west bank of the Thanlwin river (Salween), on the opposite side ...

for 49 days in 1330. E was the last Martaban king to pledge allegiance to Sukhothai. The eldest son of King

Saw O Saw O ( my, စောအို, ; also known as Saw Aw (စောအော, ); 1284–1323) was king of Martaban from 1311 to 1323. He transformed Martaban into a truly independent kingdom by successfully breaking with its hitherto nominal overl ...

(r. 1311–1323) was placed on the throne by Queen

Sanda Min Hla Sanda Min Hla ( my, စန္ဒာမင်းလှ, ; 1300s–1363/64) was the chief queen consort of three kings of Martaban, and the real palace power behind the throne. Her murder of her second husband King Saw E, grandson of king of Suk ...

, who made herself his chief queen. Although he had fought against Martaban's former overlord Sukhothai, after his accession, E quickly mended fences with his maternal grandfather King

Loe Thai Loe Thai ( th, เลอไทย, ) was the fourth king of the Sukhothai Kingdom (a historical kingdom of Thailand) from 1298 to 1323. He was preceded by his father Ram Khamhaeng the Great until the throne was usurped by his cousin Ngua Nam Thum ...

of Sukhothai. But Queen Sanda Min Hla was dissatisfied with the young king, and poisoned him seven weeks later. His assassination provoked an invasion by Sukhothai, which Sanda Min Hla and her new king

Binnya E Law Binnya E Law ( my, ဗညားအဲလော, ; 1308–1348/49) was king of Martaban from 1330 to 1348. Placed on the throne by his half-sister Queen Sanda Min Hla, this son of King Hkun Law defeated Sukhothai's invasion in 1330–1331, end ...

(r. 1330–1348) decisively defeated.

Early life

Saw A saw is a tool consisting of a tough blade, wire, or chain with a hard toothed edge. It is used to cut through material, very often wood, though sometimes metal or stone. The cut is made by placing the toothed edge against the material and mov ...

E Kan-Kaung was the elder child of Queen

May Hnin Htapi May Hnin Htapi ( my, မေနှင်းထပီ, ) was the chief queen consort of King Saw O of Martaban, and a senior queen consort of King Saw Zein of Martaban. She was the mother of King Saw E. Brief The queen was a daughter of King Loe ...

and King

in 1313/14.The ''Razadarit Ayedawbon'' chronicle is inconsistent. The chronicle (Pan Hla 2005: 42) says Saw E was born in 665 ME (29 March 1303 to 27 March 1304), and died in his 27th year (at age 26) in 692 ME (29 March 1330 to 28 March 1331). But an earlier narrative in the same chronicle (Pan Hla 2005: 38–39) says that Saw E's parents were wedded after his father's accession on 6th waning of Tagu 673 ME (10 April 1311), meaning E could not have been born in 665 ME. Instead he may have been born in 675 ME (29 March 1313 to 28 March 1314). His mother was a princess of Sukhothai. Their parents were wedded in 1311 in a

marriage of state A marriage of state is a diplomatic marriage or union between two members of different nation-states or internally, between two power blocs, usually in authoritarian societies and is a practice which dates back into ancient times, as far back as ear ...

between Sukhothai and Martaban.Pan Hla 2005: 38 He had one full younger sibling Princess May Hnin Aw-Kanya. In his childhood years, the prince was the

heir presumptive An heir presumptive is the person entitled to inherit a throne, peerage, or other hereditary honour, but whose position can be displaced by the birth of an heir apparent or a new heir presumptive with a better claim to the position in question. ...

of then ascendant Mon-speaking kingdom. His father broke with his nominal overlord Sukhothai in 1317/18,(Mon Yazawin 1922: 44): Six years into Saw O's reign = 1317/18 and went on to seize Sukhothai's possessions in

Lamphun Lamphun ( th, ลำพูน, ) is a town (''thesaban mueang'') in northern Thailand, capital of Lamphun Province. It covers the whole ''tambon'' Nai Mueang of Mueang Lamphun district. As of 2006 it has a population of 14,030. Lamphun lies north ...

and the

Tenasserim coast Tanintharyi Region ( my, တနင်္သာရီတိုင်းဒေသကြီး, ; Mon: or ; ms, Tanah Sari; formerly Tenasserim Division and subsequently Tanintharyi Division, th, ตะนาวศรี, RTGS: ''Tanao Si'', ...

by 1321.Harvey 1925: 111Phayre 1967: 66 However, his father died at the height of success in September 1323.Pan Hla 2005: 39, 41 Since E was only about 10 years old, his 19-year-old paternal uncle Saw Zein ascended the throne.

Tavoy campaign and imprisonment

According to the ''

Razadarit Ayedawbon ''Razadarit Ayedawbon'' ( my, ရာဇာဓိရာဇ် အရေးတော်ပုံ) is a Burmese chronicle covering the history of Ramanya from 1287 to 1421. The chronicle consists of accounts of court intrigues, rebellions, diplomati ...

'' chronicle, E's relationship with his uncle nosedived after an unsuccessful campaign to retake

Tavoy Dawei (, ; mnw, ဓဝဲါ, ; th, ทวาย, RTGS: ''Thawai'', ; formerly known as Tavoy) is a city in south-eastern Myanmar and is the capital of the Tanintharyi Region, formerly known as the Tenasserim Division, on the northern bank of ...

(Dawei) 1329–1330. Zein had faced several rebellions since his accession, and lost all of O's conquests back to Siam. Circa 1329, Zein appointed his nephew, then 15 or 16 years old, to lead the campaign to retake Tavoy on the Tenasserim coast. E was able to take Tavoy initially but could not hold on, and had to retreat. The king was furious, and sent E to prison near the frontier with

Prome Pyay (, ; mnw, ပြန် , ; also known as Prome and Pyè) is principal town of Pyay Township in the Bago Region in Myanmar. Pyay is located on the bank of the Irrawaddy River, north-west of Yangon. It is an important trade center for the Aye ...

(Pyay).Pan Hla 2005: 40 E's prison stay was short. After the failed Tavoy campaign, Zein lost support among his vassals, and some of his officers. Circa April 1330, Zein was assassinated on the order of one of the king's most trusted officers

Zein Pun Zein Pun ( my, ဇိတ်ပွန် ; 1295–1330) was king of Martaban for one week in 1330. Of commoner background, Zein Pun rose from a childhood servant of Prince Saw Zein to a powerful commander during Saw Zein's reign. The ambitious com ...

. But the usurper himself was killed just a week later in a putsch organized by the fallen king's chief queen

.Pan Hla 2005: 41 She freed E from prison, and come to Martaban to take over the throne.Pan Hla 2005: 42

Reign

At Martaban, E was crowned king, with Sanda Min Hla as his chief queen. E was ambivalent about the queen as he was her first cousin, once removed. (His father Saw O and Sanda Min Hla were first cousins.) The 16-year-old king did not feel comfortable with Min Hla, whom he regarded as his aunt, as his spouse, and spent much time with concubines. Early in his reign, he or his court appeared to have repaired the relationship with Sukhothai. The ''Razadarit Ayedawbon'' chronicle describes the relationship as an alliancePan Hla 2005: 43 but may have been a renewal of "subordination" to Sukhothai.Phayre 1967: 67 Queen Sanda did not like the turn of events. She killed the young king by serving him a poisoned dish of meat (beef) stew. He ruled for just 49 days.

Aftermath

The powerful queen then placed her half-brother Gov.

Pegu Bago (formerly spelt Pegu; , ), formerly known as Hanthawaddy, is a city and the capital of the Bago Region in Myanmar. It is located north-east of Yangon. Etymology The Burmese name Bago (ပဲခူး) is likely derived from the Mon langua ...

(Bago) on the throne. She again made herself E Law's chief queen. The new regime then faced the wrath of the king of Sukhothai who was angered by her murder of Saw E. Sukhothai forces invaded in 1330–1331 but were decisively defeated.

Notes

References

Bibliography

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