The Trunajaya war (1674–1680)

Trunajaya, a Madurese noble from Sampang, led a rebellion against Amangkurat I with the support of Makassarese forces driven from Sulawesi after 1667 and of part of the coastal nobility. In 1677 his army took and sacked the Mataram capital at Plered. Amangkurat I fled west and died on the road at Tegalarum.

The fall of the capital is a rare event in Mataram's history and carried consequences beyond the war: the court regalia changed hands, and his successor built a new capital at Kartasura. That the taker was a Madurese noble and not a foreign power also matters to the reading, since it shows Mataram's hold over the coast and over Madura was less firm than its babad state.

Amangkurat II regained the throne with VOC help, and the help was paid for: the accompanying treaty gave the VOC rights of levy at several ports, the cession of Semarang, and a debt that could not be discharged. This pattern — the losing side in a succession calls in the VOC, wins, and surrenders authority in payment — repeated several times afterwards, each repetition leaving the court less authority.

The Trunajaya war is therefore a decisive point of entry. Before it the VOC was a trading party that fought when it had to; after it, it was the party whose decisions settled who sat on the Javanese throne. That change of standing proceeded through treaties rather than conquest, which is what makes it easy to miss in accounts looking for an event of conquest.