Info on King Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII)

King Ananda Mahidol (Rama VIII) is the eighth King of Thailand under the Chakri Dynasty era. was born in Heidelberg, Germany on 20th September 1925, the elder son and second child of H.R.H. Prince Mahidol Adulyadej, Prince of Songkhla and a son of King Chulalongkorn.

Since the kingdom was now governed under a constitution, it was the Cabinet who would decide who would succeed King Prajadhipok. Opinion was split on the right to succession of Prince Chulachakrapongse. A key figure was Pridi Phanomyong, who persuaded the Cabinet that the Law should be interpreted as excluding the Prince from succession, and that Prince Ananda Mahidol should be the next king. It also appeared to be convenient for the government as well to have a monarch who was only 9 years old and was attending school in Lausanne, Switzerland. On 2nd March 1935, Prince Ananda Mahidol was elected by the Thai parliament and government to succeed his uncle, King Prajadhipok.

At that time Ananda was still a young boy schooling in Switzerland, so he was represented in Bangkok by a regency comprising of Colonel Prince Anuwatjaturong, Lieutenant Commander Prince Artit Thip-apa, and Chao Phraya Yommaraj (Pun Sukhum) Except for a brief visit in 1938, Ananda did not return to his homeland until after the second World War. Only after the end of World War II did Ananda and family return to Thailand. He returned for a second visit in December 1945 with a degree in Law. Despite his youth and inexperience, he quickly won the hearts of the Thai people, who had continued to revere the monarchy through the upheavals of the 1930s and 1940s. He was a handsome young man and Thais were delighted to have their King amongst them once again. One of his well-remembered activities was a highly successful visit to Bangkok's Chinatown, which was calculated to defuse the post-war tensions that lingered between the ethnic Chinese and the Thais. Foreign observers, however, believed that Ananda Mahidol did not really want to be King and felt his reign would not last long. At a public function, Lord Louis Mountbatten wrote that "Ananda's nervousness increased to such an alarming extent, that I came very close to support him in case he passed out."

Tragedy ensued in the morning of 9th June 1946, Ananda was found dead in his quarters at the Grand Palace, only four days before he was scheduled to return to Switzerland to finish his doctoral degree in Law at the University of Lausanne. Ananda was only 20 years old at the time of death; he was shot in the head by a pistol. It is not known whether he had been murdered or if it was suicide. Given that it is over 60 years since Ananda's murder, it seems unlikely that it will be solved. King Ananda was never crowned and so shortly after his death, his young brother and successor, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, posthumously altered his regnal title and raised him from seven to nine levels of royal umbrella, as fully crowned and anointed sovereign.