Versailles Receives the Siamese Embassy

1684

A delegation from King Narai of Ayutthaya arrived at Versailles bearing gifts of gold, silk, and lacquerware for Louis XIV. The Sun King, enchanted by the exoticism, sent Jesuits and soldiers to Siam in return. The brief Franco-Siamese alliance collapsed within five years, but it produced some of the century's most vivid diplomatic theater.