Pakubuwono I

Pakubuwono I, also written Pakubuwana I, was born Raden Mas Darajat about 1648 — the Indonesian article gives 1648, its infobox adding a day of 2 February that its lead does not support — and was known before his reign as Prince Puger.¹² A younger son of Amangkurat I by Ratu Wetan of the Kajoran family, he became susuhunan of Mataram, proclaimed on 6 July 1704 and master of Kartasura from 17 September 1705 until his death on 22 February 1719, and founded the Pakubuwono line of Surakarta.¹²

He was made crown prince (adipati anom) when his father fell out with his elder half-brother Rahmat, the future Amangkurat II, and stripped of the title when the Kajoran family was found to support the Trunajaya rebellion in 1674.¹ When Trunajaya stormed Plered in 1677, Rahmat fled with his father while Puger stayed to defend the palace, to prove not all the Kajoran were rebels; overwhelmed, he withdrew to Jenar, built the Purwakanda palace and proclaimed himself susuhunan ing Alaga, then cleared Plered of Trunajaya's remaining men and claimed the throne.¹²

Amangkurat II, restored with Dutch help, built Kartasura and summoned Puger, who refused; civil war followed, and on 28 November 1681 Puger surrendered to the Dutch officer Jacob Couper, was re-titled Prince Puger and recognised his half-brother's rule — though the chronicles, written under his own descendants, say the government of Kartasura was in practice controlled by him.¹ In February 1686 he was secretly tasked by Amangkurat II, disguised among Untung Surapati's followers, in the fight at Kartasura in which Captain François Tack and his 75 Dutch troops were killed.¹²

When Amangkurat II died in 1703, his unpopular son Amangkurat III moved in May 1704 to exterminate Puger's family; Puger escaped, and through the regent of Semarang won Dutch forgiveness for Tack's death and Dutch arms, signing the Semarang treaty that ceded eastern Madura to the Company.¹ Proclaimed susuhunan Pakubuwono on 6 July 1704, he marched on Kartasura a year later with Dutch, Semarang, Madurese and Surabaya troops; Amangkurat III was talked into evacuating by his own uncle Arya Mataram, and the throne fell to Pakubuwono I on 17 September 1705.¹²

His new treaty with the VOC replaced the 4.5 million guilder war debt with an obligation to deliver 13,000 tons of rice a year for twenty-five years.¹ Kartasura and Dutch troops pursued Amangkurat III to Pasuruan, where Untung Surapati was killed in 1706, and the deposed king surrendered in 1708 and was exiled to Ceylon; Jangrana II of Surabaya, who had helped Pakubuwono I rise, was executed on Dutch evidence of treason, and his brother Jayapuspita's rebellion was crushed by 1718.¹ He died at Kartasura on 22 February 1719 and was succeeded by his son Amangkurat IV.¹²