Ananda Mahidol

Ananda Mahidol became Siam's eighth Chakri king in March 1935 when the National Assembly recognised him at nine years old, then promptly left for Switzerland. He spent a decade abroad before returning to Thailand in December 1945, now twenty and facing a country he barely knew. Six months later, on 9 June 1946, he was discovered shot dead in his bed. What seemed at first an accident was ruled murder by medical examiners, though the circumstances remained murky and fiercely debated. Three royal aides were executed after trials widely considered irregular, but the truth of what happened that mor…