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Queen Suriyothai's Death on Elephant-Back in 1548: What Each Source Says
Queen Suriyothai was King Naresuan's maternal grandmother. The story of how she dressed as a man, rode a war elephant into battle and was killed in 1548 is known to almost everyone in Thailand, but the sources do not tell it the same way: they differ on her name, on who actually died, and on who her opponent was.
What each version says
| Sources | What it says (summary) |
|---|---|
| Luang Prasoet Chronicle | Records under CS 910 that the chief queen and a royal daughter followed King Maha Chakkraphat on elephants, fought the enemy and both died on their elephants' necks. It gives no names and does not say who their opponent was. |
| Somdet Phra Phonnarat version (Bradley's printed text) | Names Queen Suriyothai. She dressed as an uparat (viceroy), drove her elephant in between when her husband was getting the worst of the fight, and was cut down by the Lord of Prome with a ngao. Prince Ramesuan and Prince Mahin brought her body back; she was cremated at Suan Luang and Wat Sop Sawan was built there. No royal daughter is mentioned. |
| British Museum version | Tells it much like the Phonnarat version: Queen Suriyothai rode in between to protect her husband, and the Lord of Prome struck her on the shoulder with his ngao, so that she died on elephant-back. |
| Testimony of the Old Capital's People | Says the king was ill, so his daughter Princess Borommadilok, aged about 13, dressed as a soldier and fought in his place; she could not control her elephant and was attacked and killed by the Hanthawaddy side. Queen Suriyothai did not go into battle. |
| Burmese chronicles (Maha Yazawin / Hmannan Yazawin) | Describes the war in detail but does not mention the Ayutthaya king's queen, and has no single combat involving the lord of Prome. It says the Prome army was a decoy that drew the enemy while the armies of Bayinnaung and King Tabinshwehti attacked from the flanks. |
The first war with Hanthawaddy
In 1548 King Tabinshwehti of Hanthawaddy led his army against Ayutthaya. King Maha Chakkraphat had been on the throne for only about seven months. The Burmese army besieged the city from the north for about a month and then withdrew. During the siege, about 50 Portuguese volunteer soldiers helped defend the weakest stretch of the city wall.
The Thai sources agree that during the fighting outside the city a royal lady of the inner court died on the back of an elephant, and that Prince Ramesuan and Maha Thammaracha were captured by the Burmese. The later chronicles say they had to be ransomed in exchange for prized royal elephants. But the details of who died and how it happened vary from one version to another.
The Luang Prasoet Chronicle: the chief queen and a royal daughter
The oldest chronicle records under CS 910 that when King Maha Chakkraphat rode out to fight, the chief queen and a royal daughter followed him on elephants, fought the enemy, and both died there on their elephants' necks.
The passage is very short and does not give the name of either the chief queen or the daughter, so the name Suriyothai does not come from this version. The important point is that this version says two royal women died, not one.
The Rattanakosin-period versions: the name Suriyothai and the Lord of Prome
The royal chronicles revised later tell it as a vivid scene, and the name Queen Suriyothai appears. The text printed by Bradley, which belongs to the same line as the Somdet Phra Phonnarat version, says she dressed as an uparat (viceroy) and rode her elephant into battle together with two royal sons. When she saw her husband the king getting the worst of the fight, she drove her elephant in between, and the Lord of Prome struck her with his ngao (long-handled glaive), cutting through her shoulder down to her breast.
Prince Ramesuan and Prince Mahin held off the enemy and brought her body back into the city. This version does not mention a royal daughter dying with her. The British Museum version tells it in much the same way, saying the Lord of Prome was the one who struck her down.
The Testimony of the Old Capital's People: Princess Borommadilok
The Testimony of the Old Capital's People, taken down from the accounts of Ayutthaya people carried off to Burma after 1767, tells it differently again. In this version the king was ill, so his daughter Princess Borommadilok, aged about 13, dressed as a soldier and went into battle in his place, but she could not control her elephant and was attacked and killed by the Hanthawaddy side. Queen Suriyothai, in this account, did not go into battle at all.
For this reason some have suggested that the heroine on the elephant may have been Princess Borommadilok rather than Queen Suriyothai. However, the Testimony was recorded more than 200 years after the event, and the Luang Prasoet Chronicle says that both the mother and the daughter died.
The Burmese side does not mention her
The Burmese chronicles describe this war in detail, even giving the names of the commanders' war elephants, but they do not mention the Ayutthaya king's queen, and they contain no single combat involving the lord of Prome. In the Burmese account, the Prome army served as a decoy while the armies of Bayinnaung and King Tabinshwehti attacked from two sides.
The Burmese silence does not disprove the Thai evidence, because each side's chronicles chose to record what that side considered important. But it does mean that the details of the scene on elephant-back are still debated.
Memorials that survive today
The text printed by Bradley says her body was taken to Suan Luang, and that after the cremation the king had a chedi (bell-shaped stupa) and a wihan (assembly hall) built on the spot, naming the temple Wat Sop Sawan. Today the Queen Suriyothai Chedi, in the former Suan Luang area on the west side of the city island, is her most important memorial.
Another is the Queen Suriyothai Memorial Park at Thung Makham Yong, created in 1992 to mark the 60th birthday of Queen Sirikit. Her death came only 7 years before King Naresuan was born, so visitors to the chedi are looking at the starting point of the wars between Siam and Hanthawaddy that dragged on into his own reign.
Where historians still disagree
- Who was the heroine on the elephant? The Luang Prasoet Chronicle says the chief queen and a royal daughter both died; the versions revised in the Rattanakosin period say it was Queen Suriyothai; the Testimony of the Old Capital's People says it was Princess Borommadilok. Some writers have therefore suggested that Borommadilok was the real heroine.
- The name Suriyothai: it does not appear in the Luang Prasoet Chronicle but does appear in the chronicles revised in the Rattanakosin period, which has led some to ask which source the name came from.
- The opponent and the nature of the fight: the Rattanakosin-period Thai versions say the Lord of Prome struck her down; the Testimony of the Old Capital's People says it was the King of Hanthawaddy's side; and the Burmese chronicles contain no single combat by the lord of Prome at all.
Frequently asked questions
How was Queen Suriyothai related to King Naresuan?
She was his maternal grandmother: she was the mother of Princess Wisutkasat, who was King Naresuan's mother.
In what year did Queen Suriyothai die?
The chronicles record it under CS 910, which corresponds to BE 2091, or 1548, during the war in which King Tabinshwehti marched on Ayutthaya.
Do all the chronicles call her Suriyothai?
No. The Luang Prasoet Chronicle calls her only the chief queen, without giving a name. The name Suriyothai appears in the versions revised in the Rattanakosin period.
Where is the Queen Suriyothai Chedi?
In the former Suan Luang area on the west side of Ayutthaya's city island. The Rattanakosin-period chronicles say the place where she was cremated was made into a temple with a chedi.
- Events in Ayuddhya from Chulasakaraj 686-966 (translation of the Luang Prasoet Chronicle) - O. Frankfurter, Journal of the Siam Society
- Queen Suriyothai or Princess Borommadilok: who was the heroine of the elephant battle? - Manager Online (in Thai)
- Burmese documents say Maha Borommadilok, not Queen Suriyothai, gave her life fighting the Burmese king on elephant-back - Silpa Wattanatham (in Thai)
- Burmese–Siamese War (1547–1549) - Wikipedia
- Suriyothai - Wikipedia
- The Detailed Royal Chronicles, Bradley edition (PongSawaML digital text dataset) (in Thai)
Last updated 10 November 2026