Chapter 5 turns to attempts by French missionaries and envoys to convert the ruler of the most powerful state in Southeast Asia, King Narai of Ayutthaya, in the 1680s. It first lays out the setting into which these proselytisers arrived, playing particularly close attention to the elevation of the king in both divinised and righteous modes and his relationship with the sangha. It then shows how the commercial and administrative functioning of the kingdom pulled in sources of outside strength, which promoted the relevance of religious diplomacy. In the 1680s, a Greek adventurer, Constantine Phaulkon, became the most powerful officer at court, and he fashioned an image to the French of a ruler ripe for conversion, giving rise to a series of embassies received in Versailles and Ayutthaya. The French sought to enhance their prestige through the use of astronomical–astrological science and had a chance at a healing miracle in the 1660s. If this failed the French could take comfort from the fact that Narai was somewhat restless within his ceremonialised role, had tense relations with the Buddhist monkhood, was a cosmopolitan attracted to French culture, and was concerned to maintain the good will of Louis XIV. Some even portrayed him (mistakenly) as moving towards deism.

Chapter 6 elucidates the forces that lay behind the coup of 1688, which brought Phetracha to the throne through a popular rejection of Christian and French influence. As Narai fell ill, Phaulkon schemed to keep the game of religious diplomacy going, even as French intentions took on a more colonial guise. But, in order to arrive at the throne, Phetracha played a more skilful game still, side-lining Phaulkon, Narai, his favoured successor and the French troops now based in Bangkok. He did this, in good part, by using the sangha as the means by which to arouse popular opposition to the prospect of a Christian king: Crowds carried the Sangkharat of Lopburi to the palace door. The chapter considers the role of anti-French feeling among officials but argues that the role of Buddhism was fundamental, uncovering an intellectual mobilisation against Christianity underway from the 1660s and centred on the anti-Buddhist figure of Devadatta, showing how ‘the people’ acquired a political voice, perhaps for the first time in Thai history, and analysing the meaning of the brief persecution of Christian groups. Features typical of transcendentalism had played a role in ejecting Christianity and entrenching the hegemonic role of Buddhism in Ayutthaya.