Nyaungyan Min
A son of King Bayinnaung by a minor queen, Nyaungyan gradually emerged as a power in Upper Burma in the mid-1590s.
When major vassal rulers renounced their ties with King Nanda in 1597, he too broke away by seizing Ava (Inwa).
He also rebuilt the economy of Upper Burma, and (re-)established several social, financial and military standards, many of which would be retained to the end of the Toungoo dynasty in 1752.
His efforts paved the way for his eldest son and successor Anaukpetlun to restore major portions of the Toungoo Empire in the next two decades.
On 8 February 1581,[2] the king appointed Thissa to succeed Ubote, who died in January 1581,[3] as governor of Nyaungyan, a small town in present-day Meiktila District, south of Ava (Inwa).
[4] The small town governor was married to his half sister Khin Hpone Myint, who like him was a child of a junior queen.
He quietly ruled a small region which fell within the jurisdiction of his half-uncle Thado Minsaw, Viceroy of Ava (Upper Burma).
[6] He remained a loyal vassal during the Siamese rebellion (1584–93) although it is unclear how much he, a second-tier governor, could have contributed to the war effort.
[7] Given that Pegu possessed no institutional capacity to directly administer the upcountry, Nanda had essentially chosen to devolve power to myriad minor vassals rather than appoint an effective viceroy or governor who could turn against him.
[8] Nanda's policy of devolution created a power vacuum in the upcountry which ambitious governors like Nyaungyan now maneuvered to fill.
The opportunity for Nyaungyan to come to the forefront came in 1596 when Thado Dhamma Yaza III, the self-proclaimed king of Prome, invaded central Burma.
The king asked Nyaungyan, Minye Thihathu II of Toungoo and Nawrahta Minsaw of Lan Na to send their eldest sons to Pegu, essentially to hold them as hostages.
Rival governors at Yamethin and Pagan (Bagan) initially resisted but eventually submitted to the rising power on 12 July [O.S.
Upon hearing the news, Minye Thihahtu II opportunistically redirected the Toungoo army to invade Prome instead.
In 1605, as he lay dying, he asked his eldest son and heir-apparent Anaukpetlun to spare the life of Yan Naing when Prome was captured.
When asked why, the king replied that if Yan Naing had not broken up Prome's invasion, his then small army would likely have been defeated in a two-front war.
4 November] 1598, as Toungoo and its ally Mrauk-U (Arakan) invaded Lower Burma, he proclaimed himself king, not just of Ava but also of all of the lands that once belonged to his father Bayinnaung.
[16] But from a strategic standpoint, it was Nyaungyan whose control of Upper Burma, "the 'heartland' where most of the food of the country was produced and its population lived",[17] would ultimately come out ahead.
Fresh off the conquest of Lower Burma, Toungoo forces seized Yamethin, the border town, in September 1600.
His eldest son Anaukpetlun emerged as an able military leader, and won several key decisive victories for his father.
[22] Nyaungyan's drive into the Shan states was briefly interrupted by the short war with Toungoo over Yamethin in October 1600.
Nyaungshwe forces drove back three vanguard regiments trying to take an outer garrison located about 3 km from the town.
[28] After Bhamo, he closely watched developments in Lan Na whose embattled ruler Nawrahta Minsaw had just submitted to King Naresuan of Siam.
3 November] 1603,[32] after a relic chamber dedication ceremony at the Sanda Muni Pagoda in Ava, the king left for the front with a 6000-strong army.
[33] Afterwards, scores of Ava battalions fanned out to receive the allegiance from 37 vassals of Mone, which included Mobye (present-day northern Kayah State) to those along the Lan Na border.
[35] He was greatly relieved when Anaukpetlun was able to score a quick decisive victory, and captured the rebel saopha and his family.
[40] But the campaign was indefinitely postponed due to reports of 20 Siamese army regiments led by Naresuan himself marching toward the border.
11 July] 1605[42] to acquire the remaining Near Shan states of Momeik, Onbaung (Hsipaw/Thibaw), and Hsenwi, as well as the Hsenwi-backed Bhamo, in the upcoming dry season.
The troops rushed the ailing king back home but he died en route south of Hsipaw on 5 November [O.S.
"[48] The control of Upper Burma and near Shan states gave his successors "a huge reservoir of men and materiel" to take on several small, depopulated kingdoms to the south.
