The Sinhalese monarchy was established in 543 BC with Prince Vijaya founding the Kingdom of Tambapanni and ended with Sri Vickrama Rajasinghe of Kandy in 1815 with the signing of the Kandyan Convention.
[1] The list of Sinhalese monarchs was recorded in the chronicles of the island such as the Deepavamsa, Mahavamsa, Chulavamsa and the Rajaveliya.
In 1796 the British first entered the island and gained control of the coastal areas from the Dutch.
After the Kandyan Wars and the signing of the Kandyan Convention in 1815 the sovereignty of the kingdom of Kandy was vested in the British Monarch, which ended 2357 years of native Sri Lankan monarchy.
Ceylon gained independence from Britain in 1948, and remained a monarchy until 1972.