Yogyakarta Palace Looted at Dawn, Its Treasures Lost
Dawn had not yet broken when the atmosphere in Yogyakarta suddenly turned tense. The treasures of the Yogyakarta Palace were plundered by British troops who launched a military attack at dawn on 20 June 1812, exactly 214 years ago today. The royal treasury and important manuscripts belonging to the kingdom vanished.
“The Yogyakarta Palace was looted, its library and archives seized. A large sum of money was taken and Hamengkubuwana II was deposed from the throne and exiled to Penang,” wrote historian M.C. Ricklefs in Modern Indonesian History (1999).
In greater detail, historian Peter Carey in The Origins of the Java War (1976) revealed the amount of treasure taken by the British was not insignificant. Besides various documents and royal assets, approximately 800,000 Spanish dollars from the palace treasury were reported to have fallen into British hands. At that time, the value was equivalent to around 150,000 pounds sterling or roughly 350 kilograms of gold.
How did this event come to pass? The conflict began after Britain took over Java from the Dutch in 1811. Unlike other kingdoms, Sultan Hamengkubuwana II refused to submit to the British leader, Thomas Stamford Raffles, viewing Britain as a foreign power threatening Mataram’s sovereignty. Relations between the two parties worsened when Raffles demanded the Yogyakarta Sultanate reduce its military strength. Hamengkubuwana II refused and instead reinforced the palace defences. The tension finally peaked at dawn on 20 June 1812, when Raffles ordered a military assault on Yogyakarta.
“1,200 soldiers of European and Indian Sepoy nationality, supported by 800 soldiers of the Mangkunegaran Legion, succeeded in capturing the Yogyakarta Palace after artillery fire,” Ricklefs stated. After fierce fighting, the invading forces broke through and seized control of the Sultanate’s seat of government. Hamengkubuwana II was captured, deposed, and subsequently exiled to Penang. “The Sultan himself, together with his relatives, was captured in a most humiliating manner after their attempt to sue for peace failed,” wrote Peter Carey.
The victory was immediately followed by looting. Various valuable items belonging to the kingdom were carried off. Cash, gold, ancient manuscripts, important documents, heirlooms, and the library collection containing records of Javanese history all changed hands. As a result of this event, the Yogyakarta Sultanate’s operations were hampered due to a lack of funds. For Javanese nobility, the incident was a massive blow. For the first and last time, a royal palace was successfully seized through a direct attack by a European government force. More than two centuries later, traces of the looting can still be found. A number of manuscripts and collections originating from the Yogyakarta Palace are now stored in various institutions in Britain, including the British Library.