David De Mayrena, Marie-Charles

Marie-Charles David de Mayrena, also called Marie I, (born Jan. 31, 1842, Toulon, Fr.—died 1890, Tioman Island, near Singapore), eccentric French adventurer who became the self-styled king of the Sedang tribe of the northern Central Highlands in what is now southern Vietnam.

After defrauding French authorities in Saigon, David de Mayrena fled to Kontum in the Central Highlands, where he impressed the French missionaries and persuaded the members of the Sedang tribe to acknowledge him as their chief. He then negotiated with the missionaries, promising to help convert the tribesmen in return for the missionaries’ assistance. Meanwhile, he had himself crowned king of the Sedangs, as Marie I.

King Marie declared Roman Catholicism to be the official tribal religion. But he did not try to force the conversion of his subjects, most of whom were Muslims; instead, he announced his own adoption of the religion of Muḥammad. He designed a national flag and an honorary insignia—the Order of Marie the First—which he had cast by goldsmiths in Hong Kong. He also sought to obtain official diplomatic recognition of his kingdom, and for this purpose he went to Hong Kong in 1889. When King Marie demanded official acknowledgment and claimed the Sedang land for himself, however, the French repudiated him. Enraged, he declared war on France and announced that he would seek the protection of Germany. He wrote to the German emperor offering the loyalty of his subjects in exchange for German backing, but the French intercepted his letter. In 1889 he returned to France, where he campaigned for funds and was forced to leave. Taking refuge in Belgium, he convinced a number of investors of his legitimacy and brought several of them back to Indochina, conferring upon them the Order of Marie the First. He assigned his backers positions as chiefs of state.

Then, imagining that French authorities had ordered his execution, he abandoned his companions and fled to Tioman Island, with the treasury of his kingdom. There, according to one account, an accomplice poisoned him; other sources say that he committed suicide, fearing reprisals from the Saigon government.