Trunajaya

Trunajaya, also spelled Trunojoyo and proclaimed by himself Panembahan Maduretna Panatagama (the English article gives Panembahan Maduretno), was a prince and warlord from Arosbaya, Bangkalan, Madura, known for leading the Trunajaya rebellion against the rulers of the Mataram Sultanate on Java.¹² He was born in 1649 — the Indonesian article's early-life section says about 1649 — and his uncle was the Sampang prince Cakraningrat II.¹²

Trunajaya descended from the last rulers of West Madura, who were forced to live at Mataram after its annexation, and his father was killed on Amangkurat I's orders in 1656, after which he left the Plered court for Kajoran.² At Kajoran he married the eldest daughter of Panembahan Rama, who in 1670 introduced him to the crown prince, the future Amangkurat II, and encouraged the understanding between his slighted son-in-law and the prince who resented his father — the conspiracy against Amangkurat I.²¹

In 1674 Trunajaya rose against Amangkurat I and Amangkurat II, supported by itinerant Makassarese fighters led by Karaeng Galesong; the rebellion moved swiftly and captured the Mataram court at Plered in mid-1677.¹³ Amangkurat I fled to the north coast with his eldest son, leaving his younger son Prince Puger behind; Trunajaya looted the court and withdrew to his stronghold at Kediri, leaving Puger in control of a weak court, and Amangkurat I died in flight, making his son king in 1677 and driving him to seek Dutch help.¹ The multi-ethnic VOC forces defeated Trunajaya at Kediri in November 1678, he was captured in 1679 near Ngantang west of Malang, and Amangkurat II killed him with his own hand — the Indonesian article says he stabbed him with a keris during a ceremonial visit — at Payak, Bantul, on 2 January 1680.¹²

The rebellion is remembered with pride as a heroic struggle of the Madurese people against the forces of Mataram and the VOC, and today Trunojoyo Airport in Sumenep and Trunojoyo University in Bangkalan, both in Madura, bear his name in the Trunojoyo spelling.¹²