1 ‘Ship No. 13. 15 August 1675’, in The junk trade from Southeast Asia: Translations from the Tôsen Fusetsu-gaki, 1674–1723, ed. Ishii, Yoneo (Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1998), p. 105Google Scholar.

2 Jackson, Guida M., Women rulers throughout the ages: An illustrated guide (Oxford: ABC-CLIO, 1999)Google Scholar, lists around 500 female rulers from around 2600 BCE to the end of the twentieth century CE, but far from all of these ruled over a sovereign state or polity in their own name. The same is true for the probably most comprehensive (but somewhat unreliable) list of female rulers, historical and contemporary, available at http://www.guide2womenleaders.com/ (last accessed on 21 Sept. 2010).

3 For these and other possible instances of institutionalised female rule, see Fluehr-Lobban, Carolyn, ‘Nubian queens in the Nile Valley and Afro-Asiatic cultural history’, in Ninth international conference for Nubian studies (Boston: Museum of Fine Arts, 1998), pp. 1–9Google Scholar; Macurdy, Grace Harriet, Hellenistic queens: A study of womanpower in Macedonia, Seleucid Syria, and Ptolemaic Egypt (Baltimore: John Hopkins University, 1932)Google Scholar; Aoki, Michiko Y., ‘Jitō Tennō: The female sovereign’ in Heroic with grace: Legendary women of Japan, ed. Mulhern, Chieko Irie (Armonk: M.E. Sharpe, 1991), pp. 40–76Google Scholar; Hamilton, Bernard, ‘Women in the crusader states: The queens of Jerusalem’, in Medieval women, ed. Baker, Derek (Oxford: Blackwell, 1978), pp. 143–74Google Scholar; Andaya, Leonard, ‘“A very good-natured but awe-inspiring government”: The reign of a successful queen in seventeenth century Aceh’, in Hof en handel: Aziatische vorsten en de VOC 1620–1720, ed. Locher-Scholten, Elsbeth and Rietbergen, Peter (Leiden: KITLV, 2004)Google Scholar; Coughlan, Robert, Elizabeth and Catherine (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1974)Google Scholar; and Jackson, Women rulers, pp. 343–5. Several pre-colonial Southeast Asian states were occasionally headed by women, as were several Indian principalities during the eighteenth, nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

4 Jackson, Women rulers, for example, fails to mention any of the Patani queens. Neither are the Patani queens discussed in Mernissi, Fatima, The forgotten queens of Islam (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993)Google Scholar.

5 For a short introduction in English to the history of Patani, see Teeuw, A. and Wyatt, D.K., Hikayat Patani: The story of Patani, vols 1–2 (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1970), pp. 1–24Google Scholar. For Patani's historiography in relation to that of modern Thailand, see Puaksom, Davisakd, ‘Of a lesser brilliance: Patani historiography in contention’, in Thai South and Malay North: Ethnic interactions on a plural peninsula, ed. Montesano, Michael J. and Jory, Patrick (Singapore: National University of Singapore Press, 2008), pp. 71–9Google Scholar. See also Perret, Daniel, ‘Introduction’, in Études sur l'histoire du sultanat de Patani, ed. Perret, Daniel, Srisuchat, Amara and Thanasuk, Sombun (Paris: École française d'Extrême-Orient, 2004), pp. 9–12, on Patani's historiographyGoogle Scholar.

6 Reid, Anthony, Southeast Asia in the age of commerce 1450–1680: Volume 2: Expansion and crisis (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1993), pp. 210–11Google Scholar; Bradley, Francis R., ‘Piracy, smuggling, and trade in the rise of Patani, 1490–1600’, Journal of the Siam Society, 96 (2008): 27–50Google Scholar; Terpstra, H., De factorij der Oostindische Compagnie te Patani (‘S-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1938), p. 3. For the Japanese influenceGoogle Scholar, see also al-Fatani, Ahmad Fathy, Pengantar sejarah Patani (Alor Setar: Pustaka Darussalam, 1994), pp. 20–1Google Scholar; and Syukri, Ibrahim, History of the Malay kingdom of Patani (Bangkok: Silkworm Books, 2005 [c. 1950]), pp. 29–30Google Scholar.

7 The estimate is based on the information, given by van Neijenrode, Cornelis, ‘Vertoog van de gelegenheid des Koningrikjs van Siam’, Kroniek van het Historisch Genootschaap Gevestigd te Utrecht, 27 (1871 [1622]): 288Google Scholar, that in 1615 Patani contributed with 10,000 fighting men as allies of Siam against Aua (Burma). See also Reid, Southeast Asia, vol. 2, p. 76; and Commelin, Izaäk, Begin ende voortgang vande Vereenigde Neederlandtsche Geoctroyeerde Oost-Indische Compagnie, ed. Boxer, C.R., vol. 1 (Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, 1970 [1646]), p. 16Google Scholar, about the size of the population of Patani.

8 The term ‘Inland dynasty’ was coined by Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, p. 4, based on the assumption that the dynasty originated from the inland region of the Malay Peninsula.

9 The naming of the four Inland queens after the Malay words for green (h/ijau), blue (biru), violet (ungu) and yellow (kuning) follows the Hikayat Patani. The chronicle does not provide any particular explanation for the names, but names of colours for noble persons were relatively common in traditional Malay society; Teeuw & Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, p. 10, note 44. Andaya, Barbara Watson, The flaming womb: Repositioning women in early modern Southeast Asia (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2006), p. 171Google Scholar, has suggested that the colour green infers that the ‘queen's status is ultimately derived from Islam’, but she does not provide any further evidence of her hypothesis. On the contrary, the fact that Raja Ijau did not use an Islamic royal title – as had her male predecessors – suggests that her legitimacy was not based to any great extent on the Islamic faith.

The Hikayat Patani also gives posthumous names for all four queens of the Inland dynasty and for these, in contrast to the colour names, explanations are given: Raja Ijau was called Marhum (i.e. ‘the late’) Tambangan (after a place where a major channel was completed during her reign); Raja Biru was called Marhum Tengah (‘middle’, probably because she was the second of the three sisters who ruled successively); Raja Ungu was called Marhum Pahang (after her late husband, the raja of Pahang) and Raja Kuning was called Marhum Besar (‘great’ after her husband the ‘great lord’ (yang dipertuan besar) of Johor). Contemporary European sources, meanwhile, generally refer to each of the queens by their title in European languages (Queene, Coningin, Königin, Koninginne, etc) or by the locally and regionally used Thai title phra-cao (peracau in Malay).

10 Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, pp. 170–2.

11 Ibid., p. 173. The Dutch Admiral Jacob van Neck, who visited Patani in 1601–02, however, claimed that Raja Ijau had become queen upon the death of her husband; see van Neck, Jacob, ‘Journaal van Jacob van Neck’, in De vierde schipvaart der Nederlanders naar Oost-Indië onder Jacob Wilkens en Jacob van Neck (1599–1604), ed. van Foreest, Jhr. H.A. and de Booy, A., vol. 1 (‘S-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1980 [1604]), p. 226Google Scholar. The information is repeated in Commelin, Begin, p. 18. The exact chain of events is unclear. According to a local legend, recorded by Yun-Tsiao, Hsü, Da Bei-nian shi (Singapore: Nan Yang Press, 1946), pp. 117–21Google Scholar; English translation in Geoff Wade, ‘From Chaiya to Pahang: The eastern seaboard of the peninsula as recorded in classical Chinese texts’, in Perret, Srisuchat and Thanasuk, Études, pp. 75–8, Lin Dao-qian, a prominent Chinese pirate, arrived in Patani around 1578 (during Sultan Bahdur's rule) and married the king's daughter. Since Bahdur did not have any children, however, this probably referred to one of his sisters, generally assumed to have been the future Raja Ijau. If so, Lin would have been likely to have ruled jointly with Raja Ijau or at least aspired to the throne. Lin died in an accident, probably in the late 1580s, leaving Raja Ijau both the eldest daughter of Mansyur Shah, and the widow of Lin. See also Bradley, ‘Piracy’, pp. 40–2.

12 English translation from Wade, ‘From Chaiya to Pahang’, p. 56. For the Chinese text, see Xie, Zhang, Dong-xi-yang kao, ed. Fang, Xie (Beijing: Zhong-hua Shu-ju, 1981 [1617]), pp. 55–9Google Scholar.

13 See Watson Andaya, The flaming womb, p. 55.

14 Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, p. 165.

15 Ibid., p. 169. The Dutch merchant Jeremias van Vliet, writing in 1638, asserts that this title was conferred on the princes and princesses of Patani by the Thai king; see van Vliet, Jeremias, ‘Description of the kingdom of Siam (1638)’, in Van Vliet's Siam, ed. Baker, Chris, Pombejra, Dhiravat na, van der Kraan, Alfons and Wyatt, David K. (Bangkok: Silkworm Books, 2005), p. 128Google Scholar.

16 The Hikayat Patani (in Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, p. 155) for example, writes that ‘heathen practices such as worshipping trees and stones and making offerings to spirits were not abandoned by them [the Patanis]; it was only the worship of idols and the eating of pork which they no longer practiced’. See also ibid., pp. 148–52 about the great reluctance with which the conversion of Patani's first Muslim king took place, and van Neck's, ‘Journaal’, p. 224, for a description of the relaxed sexual morals of the Patanis in spite of their adherence to Islam.

17 See the account by the Dutch traveller John Nieuhoff of his visit to Patani around 1660 printed in Sheehan, J.J., ‘XVIIth century visitors to the Malay peninsula’, Journal of the Malay Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 12, 2 (1934): 83Google Scholar; Milner, A.C., ‘Islam and the Muslim state’, in Islam in South-East Asia, ed. Hooker, M.B. (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1983), p. 34Google Scholar.

18 On Islamic opposition to female rule in Aceh, see Reid, Anthony, ‘Trade and the problem of royal power in Aceh: Three stages, c. 1550–1700’, in Reid, An Indonesian frontier: Acehnese and other histories of Sumatra (Singapore: Singapore University Press, 2005), pp. 105–11Google Scholar. The forthcoming study on the Acehnese sultanahs by Sher Banu Khan promises to shed further light on the other major case of female rule in seventeenth-century Southeast Asia.

19 See Andaya, ‘“A very good-natured but awe-inspiring government”’, pp. 70–1. By contrast, in Patani, when the Dutch vice-admiral Cornelis Pietersz on one occasion went to see Raja Ijau in her palace, he reportedly found the queen sleeping ‘having chewed betel nut and drunk tobacco’; see Terpstra, De factorij, pp. 18–19.

20 See Watson Andaya, The flaming womb, pp. 70–103; and Stearns, Peter N., Gender in world history (New York and London: Routledge, 2006), p. 64Google Scholar.

21 Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, pp. 100–1, 173–5.

22 Ibid, pp. 174–5.

23 Watson Andaya, The flaming womb, p. 171, for example, argues that mention of the Friday prayer and the colour green might be interpreted as references to the fact that Raja Ijau ultimately derived her power from Islam, a circumstance which rendered her sufficiently powerful to fend off the rebellion in spite of the strong odds against her. Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, p. 244, meanwhile, have speculated that the story might imply that the queen surrendered sexually to the prime minister – although there is little in terms of direct evidence in the text that supports such an interpretation. More reasonably, however, they also notice that the story probably reflects a political development in which ‘some precarious political balance was agreed upon at the time between the queen and the bendahara, which left the Bendahara Kayu Kelat in the undisputed possession of Sai’; ibid., pp. 235–6.

24 As Frazer, Antonia, The warrior queens: The legends and the lives of the women who have led their nations in war (New York: Anchor Books 2004), p. 12Google Scholar, has pointed out, this so called ‘shame syndrome’ is a recurring theme in relation to politically powerful women in various historical and cultural contexts.

25 See Heine-Geldern, Robert, ‘Conceptions of state and kingship in Southeast Asia’, Far Eastern Quarterly, 2 (1942): 15–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 Peter Floris, Peter Floris, his voyage to the East Indies in the Globe 1611–1615: The contemporary translation of his journal, Works issued by the Hakluyt Society; Ser. 2, 74, ed. W. H. Moreland (London: The Hakluyt Society, 1934 [1615]), p. 62.

27 Ibid., p. 62.

28 Roelof Roelofsz., ‘Journaal van Roelof Roelofsz.’, in van Foreest and de Booy, De vierde, p. 258, translated from Dutch by the author. See also van Neck, ‘Journaal’, pp. 226–7, for a similar description of the splendour of the queen's entourage in the preceding year. It is uncertain who Roelofsz. referred to by the queen's ‘little daughter’; there are no other mentions in the sources of the queen having a daughter, and her niece, Raja Kuning, was probably only born around 1608.

29 Van Neck, ‘Journaal’, p. 222. For an attempt to describe the main physical features of Patani in the early seventeenth century, see Bougas, Wayne A., ‘Patani in the beginning of the XVIIe century’, Archipel, 39 (1990): 113–38CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

30 For example, Kheng, Cheah Boon, ‘Power behind the throne: The role of queens and court ladies in Malay history’, Journal of the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 66, 1 (1993): 9Google Scholar. Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, pp. 12, 21, also seem to subscribe to this view. Reid, Anthony, ‘Charismatic queens of Southern Asia’, History Today, 53, 6 (2003): 30–5Google Scholar, emphasises the influence of ‘mercantile oligarchs’ and their desire to curb royal power, although he does not go as far as to say that this necessarily meant that the ruling queens of Patani and other South and Southeast Asian polities in the early modern period were mere figureheads. See Andaya ‘“A very good-natured but awe-inspiring government”’, pp. 61–2, for a critique of the theme of passive queens in relation to the Acehnese sultanahs of the seventeenth century.

31 Van Neck, ‘Journaal’, p. 226.

32 Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, pp. 177–8.

33 For example, Floris, Peter Floris, p. xxv.

34 Terpstra, De factorij, p. 9; and Anderson, John, English intercourse with Siam in the seventeenth century (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co., 1890), pp. 48, 61Google Scholar.

35 For example, Terpstra, De factorij, pp. 5, 18–19; Roelofsz., ‘Journaal’, p. 256; Floris, Peter Floris, p. 35; Anderson, English intercourse, p. 48.

36 Roelofsz., ‘Journaal’, p. 260; van Neck, ‘Journaal’, p. 227; Floris, Peter Floris, pp. 63, 87, 96.

37 Floris, Peter Floris, pp. xxv, 75, 92. Floris also mentions ‘Chattis’, i.e. merchants from the South Coromandel coast, acting as interpreters; ibid., p. 33.

38 Van Neck, ‘Journaal’, p. 226 (translated from Dutch with the kind assistance of Dr Mona Arfs, University of Gothenburg). See also the description of the prosperous trade and natural fertility of Patani in Commelin, Begin, pp. 16–17. Bradley, ‘Piracy’, p. 45, has even suggested that Raja Ijau was entrusted with the throne by Patani's leading families ‘because she possessed a skill in economic bargaining that was widely attributed to women throughout modern Southeast Asia’.

39 Floris, Peter Floris, pp. 63, 87. The word ‘antickly’ is best translated as ‘fancifully’ in modern English. See also Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, pp. 257–8, Sheehan, ‘XVIIth century’, p. 83; and Malek, Mohd. Zamberi A., Pensejarahan Patani (Kuala Lumpur: Penerbit Universiti Malaya, 2006), p. 126Google Scholar, about Patani as a cultural centre in the seventeenth century.

40 Terpstra, De factorij, p. 93.

41 Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, p. 178.

42 Reid, Southeast Asia, vol. 2, p. 265; see also Reid, Anthony, Southeast Asia in the age of commerce 1450–1680: Volume one: The lands below the winds (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1988), p. 171Google Scholar.

43 As we have seen, Roelofsz., ‘Journaal’, p. 258, did mention Raja Ijau as having a ‘little daughter’ (dochterken), but if this observation was correct she probably did not survive to adulthood.

44 Reid, ‘Charismatic queens’, argues that the institutionalisation of female rule in Aceh from 1641 to 1699 was ‘presumably’ modelled on Patani, although he does not provide any evidence to substantiate his claim. See also Andaya, ‘“A very good-natured but awe-inspiring government”’.

45 Floris, Peter Floris, p. 62.

46 Cf. Reid, ‘Charismatic queens’.

47 Floris, Peter Floris, p. 63, tells us that, at the end of 1612, she was an ‘unmaried mayden aboute 46 yeares of age’, and it is unlikely that she would have married after that.

48 bin Mohamed, Abdullah, Keturunan raja-raja Kelantan dan peristiwa-peristiwa bersejarah (Kota Bharu: Muzium Negeri Kelantan, 1981), pp. 21–2Google Scholar. Unfortunately, Mohamed does not specify his sources. The event is also, somewhat surprisingly, not mentioned in the Hikayat Patani.

49 Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, pp. 178–9.

50 Terpstra, De factorij, p. 105. There is, however, some uncertainty as regards the chronology of event as concerns Raja Ungu and her marriage to the king of Pahang, Sultan Abdul-Ghafur (r. 1590–1614). According to Peter Floris, Peter Floris, p. 72, the marriage took place at least 28 years before 1612, i.e. in 1584 by the latest. According to Pahang sources, however, the marriage took place only in 1612; Wade, ‘From Chaiya to Pahang’, p. 69. It may be, however, that Raja Ungu continued to reside in Pahang after her husband's death and that she only returned to Patani and became heiress to the throne after 1620.

51 For the problems of dating the succession, see Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, p. 247.

52 Fernberger, Cristoph Carl, In sieben Jahren um die Welt: Die Abenteuer des ersten österreichischen Weltreisenden (1621–1628), ed. Lehner, Martina (Wien: Folio Verlag, 2008), pp. 83–6Google Scholar.

53 Ibid., p. 80.

54 Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, p. 179; van Vliet, ‘Description’, p. 128.

55 Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, pp. 179–80, 239–40; Terpstra, De factorij, p. 105.

56 Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, pp. 181–2. There is some confusion about the different husbands of Raja Kuning. According to Peter Floris, Peter Floris, pp. 62–3, she was married already in 1612, when she would have been about four years old, to the Raja Siak, a younger brother of the king of Johor at the time. This marriage, presumably, had been dissolved, or the husband had died, sometime between 1612 and 1620.

57 Bowrey, Thomas, A geographical account of countries round the Bay of Bengal, 1669 to 1679, Works issued by the Hakluyt Society, Second series, no. XII, ed. Temple, Richard Carnac (Cambridge: Hakluyt Society, 1905 [1701]), pp. 275–6Google Scholar.

58 Puaksom, ‘Of a lesser brilliance’, p. 74.

59 Van Vliet, ‘Description’, pp. 128–9.

60 Caen, Antonie, ‘Verslag zijner zending naar Patani en Siam (31 Juli – 27 November 1632)’, in Bouwstoffen voor de geschiedenis der Nederlanders in den Maleischen Archipel. Tweede Deel, ed. Tiele, P.A. (‘S-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff 1890 [1632]), pp. 216–17 (translated from Dutch by the author)Google Scholar.

61 Dagh-Register 26 Nov. 1632, cited in Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, p. 17.

62 Van Vliet, ‘Description’, pp. 129–32.

63 Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, pp. 17–18; Puaksom, ‘Of a lesser brilliance’, pp. 74–5.

64 Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, p. 185.

65 Calenbrander, H.T., ed., Dagh-Register gehouden int Casteel Batavia vant passerende daer ter plaetse als over geheel Nederlandts-India Anno 1641–1642 (‘S-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1900), p. 154 (translated from Dutch by the author)Google Scholar.

66 Ibid., p. 155.

67 See ibid., p. 82; Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, p. 185.

68 Calenbrander, H.T., ed., Dagh-Register gehouden int Casteel Batavia vant passerende daer ter plaetse als over geheel Nederlandts-India Anno 1643–1644 (‘S-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff, 1902), p. 32Google Scholar.

69 Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, p. 186.

70 Ibid., pp. 187–8; see also the commentary to the text in ibid., pp. 254–5.

71 Ibid., pp. 188–91; the event is also mentioned in Dutch sources: see van der Lijn, Cornelis, Maetsuijker, Joan and van Alphen, Simon, ‘De Raden van Indië aan Bewindhebbers der O. I. Compagnie, 9–11 Juli 1645’, in Bouwstoffen voor de geschiedenis der Nederlanders in den Maleischen Archipel. Derde Deel, ed. Heeres, J.E. (‘S-Gravenhage: Martinus Nijhoff 1895 [1645]), p. 231Google Scholar.

72 al-Fatani, Pengantar, pp. 28, 30, 34; see also Mohamed, Keturunan, p. 22. Raja Bahar was probably identical to the Raja Bakal mentioned by the Hikayat Patani as the first ruler of the Kelantan dynasty and the Raja Bakar mentioned by Ibrahim Syukri; see Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, p. 197.

73 Low, James ‘A translation of the Keddah annals termed Marong Mahawangsa’, in The Journal of the Indian Archipelago and Eastern Asia, vol. III, ed. Logan, J.R. (Singapore: G.M. Frederick, 1849), p. 180Google Scholar; see also Syukri, History, p. 46. Few contemporary accounts of the period between 1644 and 1674 seem to have survived apart from the one by John Niehoff, who vistited Patani in the 1660s; see J.J. Sheehan, ‘XVIIth century’, pp. 83–6, and the Hikayat Patani also treats the first years of the Kelantan dynasty very summarily.

74 al-Fatani, Pengantar, p. 35, claims that the reason was that the king left on a war expedition to Java, whereas Gervaise, Nicolas, Histoire naturelle et politique du Royaume de Siam (Paris: Claude Barbin, 1688), p. 316Google Scholar, indicates that the king was deposed because of his maltreatment of the Patanis.

75 ‘Ship No. 115. 13 September 1687’ in Ishii, The junk trade, p. 112.

76 Gervaise, Nicolas, Natural and political history of the Kingdom of Siam, trans. and ed. Villiers, John (Bangkok: White Lotus, 1998), pp. 196–7Google Scholar. For the original French text, see Gervaise, Histoire, p. 316.

77 Bradley, Francis R., ‘Moral order in a time of damnation: The Hikayat Patani in historical context’, Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 40, 2 (2009): 273–6CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Kelantan itself may also have served as a model of female rule since the country possibly was reigned over by queens between c. 1610 and 1667; see Cheah Boon Kheng, ‘Power behind’, p. 10.

78 This translation of galants is used by, for example, Teeuw and Wyatt, Hikayat Patani, p. 12; Reid, Anthony, ‘Trade and State Power in the 16th and 17th Century Southeast Asia’, in Proceedings: Seventh IAHA Conference, Bangkok, 22–26 August 1977. Volume I (Bangkok: Chulalongkorn University Press, 1979), p. 409Google Scholar; Villiers in Gervaise, Natural and political, p. 197; and Bradley, ‘Moral order’, p. 274.

79 See Furétieres, Antoine, Dictionaire universel contenant generalement tous les mots françois: Tome second (La Haye and Rotterdam: Arnout & Reinier Leers, 1690)Google Scholar, s. v. ‘galant’: ‘GALANT, se dit aussi d'un homme qui a l'air de la Cour, les matieres ageables, qui tâche à plaire, & particulierement au beau sexe.’ I am grateful to Dr Britt-Marie Karlsson, University of Gothenburg, for help with the translation.

80 Translated and published by Ishii, The junk trade. Gervaise's statement may also have been influenced by the account by Fernberger, who visited Patani during Raja Ungu's reign, over half a century earlier. In his diary (unpublished, however, at the time when Gervaise wrote) he claimed that the queen was known to be a passionate woman (leidenschaftliche Frau) and that she entertained herself with numerous galants (Galanen); Fernberger, In seiben Jahren, pp. 83, 88.

81 ‘Ship No. 78. 8 July 1690’ in Ishii, The junk trade, p. 119.

82 ‘Ship No. 66. 28 August 1694’ in ibid., p. 122.

83 The three queens preceding Raja Kuning also ‘had to refrain from marriage’ (‘auf eine Heirat verzichten’), according to Fernberger, In seiben Jahren, p. 83, although it is possible that they were able to take lovers, as Fernberger reports of Raja Ungu. The latter, moreover, was a widow (and thus not a virgin) when she ascended the throne, as was possibly also Raja Ijau, a circumstance which may have contributed to their greater sexual freedom compared with the latter queens of the Kelantan dynasty.

84 In 1690, a Chinese visitor reported that when a queen died, a female from her family was chosen as her successor. By contrast, another Chinese visitor in 1694 reported that queenship was not hereditary and that the queen could be elected from any family, including commoners; see ‘Ship No. 78. 8 July 1690’ in Ishii, The junk trade, p. 119 and ‘Ship No. 66. 28 August 1694’ in ibid., p. 122.

85 ‘Ship No. 55. 15 August 1692’ in Ishii, The junk trade, p. 63; see also ‘Ship no. 115. 13 September 1687’ in ibid., pp. 112–13, ‘Ship No. 48. 19 July 1689’ in ibid., pp. 115–16 and ‘Ship No. 78. 8 July 1690’ in ibid., p. 119. For the general process of decline, see Reid, ‘Trade and state power’, pp. 411–12; and Reid, Southeast Asia, vol. 2, particularly pp. 200–325. See also the early eighteenth-century report by Hamilton, Alexander, A new account of the East Indies, vol. II (London: Argonaut 1930 [1727]), p. 84Google Scholar.

86 For example, Bodin's, Jean discussion of ‘Les invonvenients de la Gynocratie’, in Les six livres de la république (Paris: Iacquees du Puys, 1583), pp. 1006–13Google Scholar. Bodin, whose discussion was part of the wider debate in Europe at the time about the legitimacy of female rule prompted by Elizabeth I's ascendancy to the English throne in 1558, specifically warns of the risk that a male foreigner might marry the queen, take charge over the country's army and fortification, usurp power and use this to advance the positions and interests of his fellow countrymen. Bodin also cites several alleged examples of such developments in European history.