Duarte Fernandes
Duarte Fernandes was the first European envoy to the kingdom of Siam. Almost nothing is recorded of his origins beyond that he was a Portuguese soldier who had been taken prisoner some years earlier at Malacca and had been held there long enough to learn something of the region's languages and politics — which is precisely why he was chosen. Afonso de Albuquerque took Malacca in August 1511, seizing the entrepôt through which the trade of the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean passed. The conquest immediately raised a diplomatic problem: Malacca had been a tributary of Ayutthaya, the Siamese kingdom, which had a substantial army and might reasonably regard the Portuguese as usurpers. Albuquerque sent Fernandes to Ayutthaya within weeks, on a junk, carrying letters and gifts including a sword. He was received by King Ramathibodi II and returned with a Siamese envoy and with gifts for Manuel I, having established that Siam had no intention of contesting Malacca and was interested in Portuguese firearms. The outcome was a treaty concluded by a later mission in 1516, granting the Portuguese residence and trading rights at Ayutthaya, Tenasserim, Mergui and Pattani in exchange for arms and munitions. Portuguese mercenaries subsequently served in the Siamese army, and a Portuguese quarter existed at Ayutthaya for two centuries; its cemetery has been excavated. He is otherwise absent from the record, which is the usual fate of the people who conducted the first contacts and did not command the fleets. His mission is the beginning of relations between Europe and Thailand, which are dated from it.
- Lived: 1480 CE – 1522 CE
- Nationality: Portuguese
- Roles: explorer, diplomat, envoy
