Dipangkorn
| Dipangkorn ทีปังกร | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| King Rama XI | |||||
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| King of Thailand | |||||
| Reign | 15 February 2022 - 21 February 2022 | ||||
| Predecessor | Vajiralongkorn | ||||
| Successor | Monarchy abolished Yingluck Shinawatra (as President of Thailand) | ||||
| Born | 29 April 2005 Siriraj Hospital, Bangkok, Thailand | ||||
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| House | Mahidol (Chakri dynasty) | ||||
| Father | Maha Vajiralongkorn (Rama X) | ||||
| Mother | Srirasmi Suwadee | ||||
| Religion | Theravada Buddhism | ||||
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Dipangkorn (Thai: ทีปังกร; RTGS: Thipangkon; born 29 April 2005) was the eleventh and last King of Thailand, reigning from 15 February to 21 February 2022, a period of six days that is the shortest in Thai history.
The son of King Vajiralongkorn and Srirasmi Suwadee, his third legal wife, Dipangkorn was born as his father's fifth son as well as the seventh and youngest overall child. Despite this, following Vajiralongkorn's disowning of his second wife Sujarinee Vivacharawongse, thereby making his four sons by her effectively ineligible for the throne, Dipangkorn became the king's only recognised son although not necessarily the heir apparent.
Long rumoured to have had a developmental disorder, on 15 February 2022, following his father's abdication as a result of the 2022 Thai Revolution, Dipangkorn ascended to the throne as Rama XI, temporarily becoming the world's youngest reigning monarch and the youngest serving state leader at seventeen years old. However, on 21 February 2022, after just six days on the throne, a nationwide referendum saw Thailand officially abolish the monarchy and proclaim a republic in its place, effectively ending the country's centuries-old monarchy. Beforehand, Dipangkorn's great-grand uncle Prajadhipok, who reigned from 1925 to 1935, oversaw the country's transition from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy although the monarchy still retains considerable power to a certain extent.
Since the monarchy's abolition, and following a proclamation by the republican government that stripped Thai royals of their titles, Dipangkorn's official name has been "Dipangkorn Chakri" as a mere private citizen while his father currently remains imprisoned at a German prison.
Early Life
Dipangkorn was born on 29 April 2005 at the Siriraj Hospital in Bangkok, Thailand. The fifth son as well as the seventh and youngest overall child of his father, he is the only child of his mother Srirasmi Suwadee, a major general in the Royal Thai Army. As the son of Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn, Dipangkorn was born during the reign of his grandfather King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
On 11 December 2014, when Dipangkorn was nine years old, his mother was officially stripped of her royal titles and was granted a divorce from the then-Crown Prince. Whereas the prince himself remained at the royal palace under his father's care, his mother and maternal grandparents were otherwise arrested, the latter for lèse-majesté. Meanwhile, Srirasmi Suwadee subsequently embraced the monastic life of a maechi while subjected to house arrest which lasted until she was freed from imprisonment in the aftermath of the 2022 Thai Revolution.
Reign
On 15 February 2022, the 2022 Thai Revolution saw his unpopular father King Vajiralongkorn forced to abdicate the throne by revolutionaries. Initially, as the new government consolidated its power, Dipangkorn, being the heir presumptive, was allowed to ascend to the throne as Rama XI, effectively becoming the youngest monarch in the world and the world's youngest serving state leader at just seventeen years old. However, his reign, which was always intended to be a stop-gap measure, did not last long as just six days later, a nationwide referendum saw Thais vote to abolish the monarchy in favour of a parliamentary republic, effectively ending the country's centuries-old monarchy and putting an end to Dipangkorn's six-days-long reign.
Despite having officially ascended to the throne and later abdicating, Dipangkorn had actually done all this while residing at his father's villa in Bavaria, Germany, where the royal family had been staying for fear of their security and repercussions back home. Nonetheless, both his ascension and abdication were officially recognised, thereby making him the last monarch of Thailand. Coincidentally, Dipangkorn's abdication came just three days before Russia later invaded Ukraine on February 24th, an event that is otherwise unrelated to the revolution itself.
End of the Thai monarchy
Almost immediately after the monarchy's abolition, Dipangkorn, who had been living in Germany with his father and two stepmothers, attempted to flee to China to seek political asylum. However, upon a request made by the Thai republican government, German authorities promptly blocked the royal family's attempted exit from the country and subsequently had them extradited back to Thailand under the strict supervision and security of elite GSG 9 operatives sent by Chancellor of Germany Olaf Scholz. Eventually, after about a twelve hours long flight, the royal family arrived in Thailand and were promptly detained by a select group of Thai security forces who were judged to not harbour any sympathy for the monarchy. Following this, while Dipangkorn himself was spared from any charges due to his relatively young age and an extremely short period of reign, his father, the former King Vajiralongkorn, was put to trial for crimes against humanity and other offences. Eventually, on 10 August 2022, after a much-publicised six-month-long trial, Vajiralongkorn was found guilty of all charges and sentenced to life imprisonment by the courts, a ruling that was contested by royalists who demanded the king's release. Nonetheless, amidst fears of him being potentially freed by royalists in the country and hoping to prevent the prison in which he would be detained from becoming a rallying point for monarchists, Germany, which had previously detained the former Thai monarch, was chosen and agreed to house Vajiralongkorn in a German maximum security prison. Consequently, any attempts at freeing him from imprisonment would be complicated while monarchists would have no clear rallying point to congregate at and support their deposed leader.
On 21 February 2023, the first anniversary of the Thai monarchy's abolition, it was announced that Dipangkorn and his imprisoned father would have their royal titles revoked, thereby making their new names "Dipangkorn Chakri" and "Vajiralongkorn Chakri" respectively. Meanwhile, when asked if Dipangkorn would be charged with anything once he reaches the age of majority of twenty, which he would do on 29 April 2025, the Thai government announced that the young former king would not be put to trial upon reaching adulthood given that he had not ordered any of the repressions committed by security forces who had instead acted under the name of his father. In an ensuing statement, President Yingluck Shinawatra said, "We are a fair and democratic government and therefore we do not prosecute or imprison people at will irrespective of their actual guilt. While we do acknowledge wholeheartedly that he is the son of the former king, his brief reign meant that he is most likely not responsible for any atrocities committed by those who did so during the revolution". Meanwhile, ever since his father was detained, Dipangkorn has been reportedly staying at a fairly lavish estate in Bangkok under the care of his mother, who was freed from detention by the new government, where he is monitored 24/7 by security forces who are said to have allowed him relative freedom of movement but only to a certain extent.