What Happened to Burma's Last Royal Family After the British Took Their Kingdom?

In November 1885, a British army took the kingdom of Burma in about two weeks. King Thibaw, Queen Supayalat and their two small daughters were sent into exile in India. This is what happened to them, told from the records: a reporter's notes from the day they left the palace in Mandalay, colonial government papers, a law written about the former king alone, the family's petitions, and interviews their grandchildren gave a century later. We follow thirty years in the small port of Ratnagiri, the king's death in 1916, the queen's return to Rangoon, and the four princesses who went four different ways: one to the Himalayan foothills, two back to Burma, and the eldest to a life in India with a man who worked for the household. Then the grandchildren, through war, independence and military rule, and the question the family still debates: should the king's remains go home? If you enjoyed it, please like the video and subscribe to Royal Afterlives. ▼ Chapters 0:00 Opening 1:41 Chapter 1 The Last Court of Mandalay 5:33 Chapter 2 Exile by Sea 8:02 Chapter 3 A State Prisoner in Ratnagiri 11:30 Chapter 4 The Eldest Princess 12:57 Chapter 5 The King's Death and the Queen's Return 15:28 Chapter 6 Four Princesses, Four Paths 17:21 Chapter 7 The Grandchildren 21:31 Ending ▼ Notes • Where the records disagree, we say so: the number killed in Mandalay in 1879, the exact day of the king's death in December 1916, and some birth and death years of the princesses vary between sources. • The First Princess's relationship with Gopal Sawant is described differently in different accounts; a formal marriage is not documented. • Later Burmese articles say Japanese officers considered a royal grandson as a possible king during the occupation; we treat this as a claim. • Quotations are as printed in the sources named on screen. • Some scenes are illustrative recreations made to convey the atmosphere of the time. They are not photographs of the people or places in this story. ▼ Main sources The Times, December 5, 1885 (report from Mandalay, November 29); Grattan Geary, Burma, After the Conquest (1886); Gazetteer of Upper Burma and the Shan States (1900); Hansard (House of Commons, 1886, 1964); Ex-King Thebaw's Act, Act XX of 1895; Land Revenue Administration Report, Bombay Presidency, 1906–07; Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908); India Office Records (British Library catalogue); Andrew Griffin, Bulletin of the Burma Studies Group (1996); Jessica Harriden, The Authority of Influence (2012); Sudha Shah, The King in Exile (2012); Thant Myint-U, The Making of Modern Burma (2001) and The River of Lost Footsteps (2006); Takeshima Yoshinari (2021); The New Light of Myanmar and Global New Light of Myanmar; The Irrawaddy; The Myanmar Times; AFP; Outlook; Hindustan Times; Scroll; Maharashtra Times; V&A. ▼ Image credits (Wikimedia Commons unless noted) CC BY 2.0: Abhishek Kumar, Ken Marshall, vivek Joshi CC BY 3.0: santoshkumar vijayan CC BY-SA 2.0: Clay Gilliland, Kristina D.C. Hoeppner CC BY-SA 3.0: Jononmac46, Lionslayer CC BY-SA 4.0: Aniket Konkar, Christophe95, Phyo WP, Xicoblendxxwysh Public domain / CC0 works and photos: British Library, Felice Beato / J. Paul Getty Museum, Library of Congress, Rijksmuseum, Rowe & Co., W. W. Hooper / British Library, and others. Map: based on Natural Earth (public domain). #Burma #Myanmar #History