page_title: Sinhalese–Portuguese War
section_title: Portuguese conquest of Jaffna 1619
hierarchical_section_title: Sinhalese–Portuguese War / Portuguese conquest of Jaffna 1619
caption_attribution_description: English: Map of the Portuguese colony of Ceilão (1505-1658) Emerson
context_page_description: The Sinhalese–Portuguese War was a series of conflicts waged from 1527 to 1658 during the Transitional and Kandyan periods in Sri Lanka between the Sinhalese kingdoms and their allies, against the Portuguese Empire. The Crisis of the Sixteenth Century, started with the Vijayabā Kollaya, the division of the Sinhala Kingdom, then centered at Kotte. The country was divided among three brothers resulting in a series of Wars of Succession. It was also at this time that the Portuguese, whose arrival in Sri Lanka was largly accidental, intruded into the internal affiars of Sri Lanka, establishing control over the maritime regions of the island and sought to control its lucrative external trade.
  The Portuguese expanded their influence in the island by exploiting the political rivalries between the divided kingdoms, placing client rulers on the thrones of several kingdoms and directly ruling other areas. These machinations allowed them to control the Kingdom of Kotte from 1551, but the main beneficiary was the Kingdom of Sitawaka, which from 1521–87 was able to expand – through conquest of other native kingdoms – to cover most of Sri Lanka.
context_section_description: Although the Portuguese confirmed Cankili as the ruler of Jaffna, Cankilis' brutal murder of political rivals made him an unpopular ruler, and incapable of preventing dissatisfaction especially from the rising number of native Christians of the Kingdom. In August 1618, a rebellion instigated by Christian mudaliars Dom Pedro and Dom Luiz and aided by local Portuguese casados evicted Cankili from the throne, but was eventually suppressed with the assistance of 5000 men of the Hindu Nayak of Tanjore, in south-east India. As Cankili was a weak ruler who failed to prevent growing unrest in the kingdom, to pay due tribute to the Portuguese, and was rumoured to be allowing supplies to reach the southern rebels and even seeking aid from the Dutch, in March 1619 the Portuguese captain-general of Ceylon Dom Constantino de Sá decided to dispatch Filipe de Oliveira ahead of 230 Portuguese and 3000 lascarins to subjugate Jaffna. Furthermore, the captain-general had received reports that a Christian Malabarese privateer on the service of the Zamorin, Dom Pedro Rodrigues, was attacking Portuguese and allied shipping in the vicinity of the island of Mannar, and tasked Oliveira to deal with the issue en route.
  Upon reaching Mannar, Dom Pedro sailed away, and Oliveira proceeded towards Jaffna. Once there, he demanded the payment of due tributes but as negotiations with Cankili failed, in June the Portuguese-Sinhalese forces of Filipe de Oliveira marched on the capital Nallur, defeated the Tamil forces at Jaffna, captured Cankili and formally annexed Jaffna to the Portuguese Crown. The ancient capital of Jaffna was moved to the coastal city of Jaffna itself (Jafanapatão), and with the kingdom secured from outside threats by February 1621, navigation in the Palk Strait became much safer. Cankili was sent to Goa to face trial, where he was found guilty. However, he agreed to convert before being formally executed.
caption: Maximum extent of Portuguese Ceylon (cyan), after the conquest of Jaffna in 1619 and the Vanni Chieftains in 1621
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