Ang Eng

Modern kingdom › Oudong

1. Funanto about 550
2. Chenla6th to 8th century
3. Angkor802 to 1431
4. After Angkor1431 to 1794
5. Modern kingdomfrom 1794

BeforeNo monarch on the list1628 to 1794Ruler before it: Chey Chettha II (Jayajettha II)

This reignAng Engcrowned 1794; short reign in the mid-1790s (Theam 1981)

AfterAng Chan II1806 to 1835 (Theam 1981)

All Khmer monarchs

Ang Eng (អង្គអេង) was king of Cambodia from 1794 to 1796, after more than ten years of exile at the Siamese court in Bangkok. Siam crowned him and sent him home to rule, and in the same years the provinces of Battambang and Siem Reap passed under Siamese control.

A tiered white ceremonial parasol on a gold stand in a pillared hall, in watercolor

Historical figure details
Also known as	King Eng; Eng
Roles	King of Cambodia
Period	1794 to 1796
Country	Cambodia

In the Explorer

Ang Eng connects to 5 pages

Siem Reap province, Battambang province, Oudong, Ang Duong and Ang Chan II.

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Explore the 5 connected pages

On this page

1. Exile
2. Reign
3. Family
4. References

On this page

1. Exile
2. Reign
3. Family
4. References

Exile

Wars between royal factions in the 1770s killed most of the Cambodian royal family, and by 1779 Eng, then seven years old, was the only male of the line left alive. About four years later, Vietnamese attacks drove him to seek refuge in Bangkok, where Rama I, the newly crowned founder of the Chakri dynasty, gave him a house. He spent eleven years there. Cambodian leaders asked in the early 1790s for Eng to be sent back to rule, but the Siamese king said no, reasoning that the royal line would end with Eng if he died after his return.

Reign

In 1794, once Eng had come of age, Rama I granted him official royal titles in Bangkok, which in effect let him become king; the historian David Chandler sees in this a new form of Siamese hold over the Cambodian court. He was crowned in Bangkok that year and sent back to reign from Udong. Pok, a minister who favored Siam and had been his guardian in Bangkok, brought him home and held wide powers in his government.

Chandler writes that Rama I used Eng's coronation as a pretext to take Battambang and Siem Reap, the northwestern quarter of the kingdom, out of Eng's control, and gave the governorship to a Cambodian official named Baen. Theam Bun Srun writes that the governor, whom he calls Ben, handed Battambang and Siem Reap to the Thai administration on his own authority, fearing Eng's revenge for his part in the 1770s civil war in which Eng's father had died.

Eng's reign at Udong lasted barely two years; he died in 1796, following a ceremonial journey to Bangkok. Chandler reports a popular Cambodian belief that the Thai poisoned him there, and judges it unlikely, since by every sign Eng had been loyal to Rama I.

Family

On Eng's death, Pok took full powers as regent for his son Chan, then six years old, who later reigned as Ang Chan II. Chan was born in 1791; his brothers Snguon and Im were born in 1794, of different mothers, and Duong in 1796. Duong became king in 1848 as Ang Duong (ព្រះបាទអង្គឌួង).

References 3