Minye Thihathu II of Toungoo
They also drove back a Siamese invasion, and agreed to jointly administer Lower Burma outside of Siamese-controlled Martaban (Mottama).
[1] Although chronicles provide no details on his early life, the young prince apparently made an impression on his uncle the king.
When he was about 14, he was appointed governor of Tharrawaddy (Thayawadi), a small town in present-day Bago Region, with the style of Minye Kyawhtin (မင်းရဲကျော်ထင်).
Five other army commanders of the 64,000-strong invasion force were the king, the crown prince, his father, and his two other uncles, all of whom were at least a generation older, and had plenty of military experience.
[note 2] His army participated in the capture of Vientiane in January 1565, and spent months trekking the Laotian hills in their fruitless pursuit of King Setthathirat of Lan Xang.
[6] At age 20, he was married to his half-cousin Min Khin Saw, daughter of Bayinnaung by Queen Sanda Dewi on 1 May 1571.
[11] The transfer of power had gone smoothly; all key major vassal rulers, who ruled what until recently used to be sovereign kingdoms, initially pledged allegiance to the new king, while adopting a wait-and-see attitude.
[12][13] For his part, Nanda did not trust his vassals especially his own kinsmen Minkhaung II of Toungoo and Thado Minsaw of Ava.
They used Nanda's preoccupation with Siam, which revolted in May 1584, to gain greater autonomy for themselves, only contributing nominally to the war effort.
Minye Thihathu had to pay attention because Toungoo was surrounded on three sides by the states ruled by Nanda and his sons (Ava in the north, Prome in the west and Pegu in the south).
When Nanda asked him to lead an army to put down a Siam-backed rebellion in Moulmein (Mawlamyaing) in October 1594, he agreed.
[20] Nanda had not expected an invasion of Pegu itself, and in desperation asked Prome, Toungoo and Lan Na for help.
Since he could not break the siege on his own in any case, he reinforced his city's defenses while he waited for the troops from Lan Na to arrive.
Then in 1597 Nanda ordered that the rulers of Toungoo, Lan Na and Upper Burma send their first born sons to Pegu, essentially to be kept as hostages.
[23][24] Others like Nyaungyan of Upper Burma and Vorapita of Lan Xang may not have formally declared independence but they essentially broke away as well.
Over the next year, his power further deteriorated in the two remaining regions he still ruled: the Pegu province and the Irrawaddy delta.
[20][26] Minye Thihathu eyed Pegu for the city's enormous riches as well as access to maritime trade of Lower Burma.
He chose Arakan, the farthest kingdom, figuring that after getting their share of the loot, the Arakanese would return home and not be a rival for Lower Burma.
About nine months into the siege, Nanda's heir-apparent Minye Kyawswa defected on a promise of good treatment but was promptly executed.
[33] The victors divided the enormous wealth of Pegu, accumulated over the past 60 years as the capital of Toungoo Empire.
The Arakanese share included several brazen cannon, 30 Khmer bronze statues, and a white elephant.
While he planned to hold Lower Burma, Minye Thihathu's first priority was to get the loot to the secure confines of Toungoo.
5 February] 1600,[note 4] he and his army returned with their loot to Toungoo, leaving the Arakanese in charge of the city.
The Arakanese forces, which Naresuan had not counted on remaining in Lower Burma, had been cutting off Siamese supply lines, and had returned to Pegu.
[30][34] With the Siamese threat still so close, Minye Thihathu agreed to holding Lower Burma together with Arakan.
[38] In June 1600,[39] King Raza appointed a Portuguese captain named Filipe de Brito e Nicote[note 7] in his service as governor, and left a garrison consisted mainly of foreign mercenaries.
In the following negotiations, in 1604, the Arakanese agreed to a ransom of 50,000 ducats for the release of the crown prince, and to Syriam's status as a Portuguese colony.
[44][46] In his last years, Minye Thihathu saw his kingdom increasingly squeezed by a resurgent Ava and a powerful Portuguese Syriam.
The Portuguese takeover of Syriam (along with the Arakanese withdrawal) essentially ended Toungoo's hold over Lower Burma.
Chronicles state that Minye Thihathu's troops were powerless to stop the Portuguese looting the relic chambers of the Buddhist pagodas around Pegu.
