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King Rajadhi Rajasinghe (1781-1798)

During the reign of this king, the Dutch power over the law country regions of the country were transferred into the hands of British.

Since British & Dutch were cooperating nations in Europe, either party didn’t desire to break into disputes in Asia too. But British expected to own the port of Trincomalee by making relationships with the Udarata King. But all these attempts rendered unsuccessfull.

Meanwhile, after the French revolution, French captured Holland and Prince William, the ruler of Holland (The Stad holder) fled to England. British, taking use of this situation obtained a letter from the Prince asking the Dutch Governor of Sri Lanka to hand over the territory to British. Since this letter was issued by Prince William while he was staying at Kew palace, it was widely known as the kew letter.

Yet the Dutch governor of Sri Lanka, Van Anledback refused to act accordingly in return, British East India Company assaulted the coastal area. They captured Trincomalee in August 1795 and mannar, Jaffna, kalpitiya, Galle was captured immediately and in January 1796 Colombo. In February 1796, The Dutch governor signed a treaty ceasing the rest of the maritime areas to British. Thus British rule over the coastal area of Sri Lanka begun.

Even though King Rajadhi Rajasinghe had 5 queens, he had no any children. Alavelu Amma, Upendra Amma, Renganayahi amma are 3 out of those 5 queens. The first and the third were siblings and the second was a cousin of them. The first and third queens had seven brothers namely Muththusami, Bangarusami, Kannasami, Appusami, Aiyasami & Ramasami. Upendra amma had a brother named Kondasami alias Gampola Nayakkar and a sister. Likewise, many relations of the king and his queens lived around Kandy & Gampola areas.Thus Sinhalese were inferior in comparison to Nayakkars. People accepted the Nayakkar reign because the embraced Buddhism & acted piously. But the Royal chiefs weren’t happy with their rule.

Since the king had no son, he was intended to pass the throne to Muththusami. But Pilimathalawe Maha Adikaram was against this idea and thus expected to win the throne for himself. But this wasn’t easy since Erewaalu Second Adikaram  & Dambagomuwe Disawe were against him. While he was making plans to get their support, the King Rajadhi Rajasinghe Died in 1798.

Comments

  • Zainab Ozeer
    16/04/2022 at 19:21

    I would like to have more information on the last king of SriLanka . Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe. Especially what happened to his son the Prince. Did the Prince at any time convert to Islam and marry a Muslim woman in South India ? Was the Price ever known by the name Abdul Rahman.

  • Meghan Bennett
    21/08/2023 at 11:10

    I would like to see some pictures of this king because I can’t find any pictures of this king and my daughter studies this king and needs pictures

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