The decline of the Ban Phlu Luang Dynasty leading to Ayutthaya’s catastrophic defeat in 1767, followed by Siam’s resurgence under King Taksin at Thonburi and then its transformation with the Chakri Dynasty’s relocation to Bangkok in 1782, are well known to every citizen and resident of Thailand. But is the course of those events fully and correctly understood? In his dissident Chronicle and Testament, the court scribe Diogo d’Almeida (1745-1808) sought to fill in many of the missing details and revise others to correct the redacted record. The recent discovery and translation of Diogo’s apocryphal manuscripts form the subject of this talk. In his struggle to right the expurgated record, Diogo produced a revisionist history of the time. But who was Diogo, and what were his motives? In what ways did his writings deviate from the conventional record? Can his stirring words be trusted? Those issues are touched on in this introduction to Diogo’s Chronicle.

Published copies of Diogo’s Chronicle: Siam in Crisis, from Ayutthaya to Thonburi to Bangkok (Bangkok: River Books, 2025) will be on sale at the conclusion of the lecture at a discount price.