On This Day in History: January 18

Single combat in Siam

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You know how in some movies about grand battles there is a challenge between leaders to single combat to settle it without thousands having to die? That pretty much never happens. One account said it happened in 1593 between the king of Siam and the crown prince of Burma, but other historians called bullshit. Still, it was a big deal as far as battles go, and one of those two guys did die in it.

--On This Day in History Shit Went Down: January 18, 1593--

It was on fucking elephants, no less. Figurative fucking. If those pachyderms were busy making actual bab—never mind.

Naresuan became king of the Ayutthaya Kingdom in 1590, which was a precursor to modern Thailand, which used to be called Siam. Mingyi Swa was heir apparent of Burma (now called Myanmar), and he led three invasions of Siam during his life. The last one killed him. Thanks a lot, Dad.

Yeah, it was Mingyi’s father, King Nanda, who told him to invade Siam yet again. And so he did in November 1592. Part of their arsenal for making war, on both sides, involved fighting atop elephants. It was a 16th-century arms race, I guess. They have elephants? We need elephants. We cannot afford to have an elephant gap!

Anyway, the romanticized Thai version is that on January 18, 1593, the Siamese were facing certain death and so Naresuan said to Mingyi in an act of desperation: you and me throw down, motherfucker. And Mingyi said bring it, ya Siamese fucknut. And they fought atop their elephants which would probably much rather have been eating grass, and both armies just stopped killing each other to watch shit go down.

As the story goes, Mingyi hit Naresuan with his spear/sword thing (a glaive) in the head, but his helmet took the blow. Then Naresuan cleaved Mingyi through the shoulder and he died. Historically, all we know is that Mingyi died that day, possibly from a bullet or a mortar round. Or maybe it was 10 days earlier. The Burmese say it happened January 8. Whatever.

Most historians proclaim the epic throwdown “accept my fucking challenge” formal duel never actually happened. After the battle, Naresuan and the Siamese forces were in retreat, because they’d been losing. The likely scenario is that after retreating, they learned of Mingyi’s death and said hey let’s hold back and see what happens now that their leader is taking a dirt nap. That was wise, because with Mingyi’s death the Burmese were bummed and fucked off back home.

The victory of Naresuan over Mingyi is why Thailand celebrates January 18 as Royal Thai Armed Forces Day.

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