King Don Juan Dharmapala remained unmoved when the Portuguese captains were fighting against the King of Sitawaka. He tried to remain impartial. The areas that belonged to him too were ruined. The
subjects left the city and the king fled. With no
further hopes of
remaining in Kotte, Don Juan Dharmapala fled to Kelaniya. When Prince Rajasinghe heard this, he tried to capture him. Then the Portuguese intervened and saved the king.
King Mayadunne
retreated with the idea of entering the fight later.
The Portuguese
leaders in Colombo sent messages to Goa, asking for more armies. Meanwhile, the Portuguese were
harbouring a rivalry against King Sangkili,
the King of Jaffna, for killing Christians there. They were awaiting a chance to punish him and
several times they tried to attack Jaffna. But on every such occasion, they had to give up their plans. The King of Portugal too was angry over what was happening in Jaffna.
On many an
occasion, the king had ordered the Portuguese viceroys to bring about peace in Jaffna. But, as the Portuguese had to face unforeseen battles, this could not be accomplished and attention on Jaffna had been postponed.
Don Constantine Bragaza, was keen to implement the orders of the King of Portugal. He also wanted to conquer Jaffna and erect a fort there. His intention was to settle the Portuguese who were in Jintupitiya, in Jaffna.
Keeping this in mind, he led a huge
army against Jaffna in
1560 AD. He landed in Kayts in October of that year. King Sangkili marched forward with his army, to meet him. The Portuguese left Kayts. They were planning to land in Colombo. The Viceroy Bragaza thought that there were about 4,000 soldiers in this huge army.
However, in actual fact, there were only 1,200
soldiers and the viceroy was
surprised. He wanted to find out the reason for this. It became clear to him, that this was the result of the leaders presenting wrong figures. They had enlisted the names of even their
household servants, into the list of soldiers,
fraudulently claiming
salaries for them. As a result, the number of
soldiers was limited. Yet, the viceroy did not retreat. He took this comparatively small army and marched to Nallur.
Nallur was the main city of King Sangkili. This city was situated in an open plain. There was a well-guarded fortress there. The city was
complete with all the walls around. The Portuguese, who passed through the walls, went into the city. The people of the city, fought with courage, but were
defeated by the Portuguese. This foreigner, who won in battle, ruined the entire city. In the night, they went to a place called Rajakope.
It is here that the king’s palace was
situated. The Portuguese set fire to the palace and fled. Most of the wealth found in this city was all that was bestowed by Veediya Bandara on this king at his death. Once again, the Portuguese marched to Kope and captured the city. They stopped there, with the intention of capturing the King of Jaffna.
Armies were sent in all
directions to look for King Sangkili.
The Portuguese,
however, were unable to capture him. By this time, King Sangkili had fled to another area, called Maha. From there, he sent a group of representatives, saying that he would allow his kingdom to be brought under Portuguese rule. He also promised to pay taxes and permit the spread of Christianity in his kingdom. |
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