Mae Aung Myat

Mae Aung Myat (Silaungese: မယ်အောင်မြတ်; 1305-c. 18 February 1343), was the first chief queen consort of King Swashin (Silaungese: စွာရှင်) of Silaung during the Hsinpyu dynasty, and mother of the next king, Minkhaung (Silaungese: ပြည် မင်းခေါင်). She was framed by Hnangyi Boya (Silaungese: နန်ကြီး ဘို့ရာ), which caused her death penalty.

Life
Of Chinese origin, she was born Cao Shuang Zhu (likely 曹双珠), daughter of a minister Cao Yongde and his Silaungese wife Daw Hpo Nu. Daw Hpo Nu was an aunt of Queen Saw Hnaung Ma (Silaungese: စောနှောင်းမ), the principal queen of King Puba Min. Saw Hnaung Ma arranged Cao Shuang Zhu to be a maid in the palace in 1319 by the request of Daw Hpo Nu who wanted her daughter to serve the king.

Cao Shuang Zhu was introduced to Swashin, the crown prince, by Saw Hnaung Ma, and was pushed to marry the prince, however, it was objected by Maha Yadana Dewi, Swashin's mother, the chief queen, because she didn't like Chinese girls. In 1320, Cao Shuang Zhu became a concubine to the crown prince and changed her name to Aung Myat in attempt to gain the chief queen's favor, which was never successful.

Aung Myat gave birth to Swashin's first child, Princess Sanda Thiri, in 1322, then the eldest son in 1323 who died in infancy. Swashin conferred another Chinese-origin maid, Min Hla (Silaungese: မင်းလှ), as his concubine in 1324, but it didn't threat Mae Aung Myat's state.

In 1326, the king married Thanaung Htin's daughter, Shin The Kyi Phyu (Silaungese: ရှင်သဲကြည်ဖြူ), to Swashin as the crown princess. When Aung Myat gave birth to Prince Minkhaung, she was suggested by her mother and Saw Hnaung Ma to send Minkhaung to Shin The Kyi Phyu that he can become the heir as the crown princess's son. Aung Myat finally agreed although she was unhappy about that.

Just 1 year later, Princess Shin The Kyi Phyu died in illness. As the mother of heir-apparent, Aung Myat succeeded her position incontrovertibly.

Swashin came to the throne in 1330. He conferred Mae Aung Myat as chief queen consort, Min Hla as Queen of the Western Palace, Su Kyi Lee Thai (Silaungese: စုကြည်လီထိုင်း) and Khin Lat (Silaungese: ခင်လတ်), picked by Maha Yadana Dewi, as Queen of the Northern Palace and of the Central Palace.

Aung Myat was never adored by the dowager queen, and was ignored by her who still reigned the harem as the chief queen. When Hnangyi Boya came into favor of the king, she had many confrontations with other royal consorts, and Aung Myat can't deal with it. Maha Yadana Dewi punished Hnangyi Boya, and condemned Aung Myat due to her incompetence.

The queen mother died in 1342, after when Hnangyi Boya began to express her ambition of ascending to the chief queen. In league with some court ladies, she secretly bury some curse items around Aung Myat's palace, then told the king that Aung Myat hated the king and wanted to kill him by witchcraft. Swashin ordered to arrest Aung Myat's attendants to interrogate. The inquisitor was bribed by Hnangyi Boya that tortured those attendants then killed them, and made false evidences to mislead the king into believing that Aung Myat killed her attendants to cover up her sin. In 1343, Swashin declared Aung Myat's death sentence, which was insisted by the king although Saw Hnaung Ma, Min Hla, Crown Prince Minkhaung and many nobles and ministers wanted to change his mind. In February, as the tradition, Aung Myat was executed by using a sword to poke her heart. Her body was cremated and her ashes were scattered at the palace gate at Hnangyi Boya's command.

In 1347, Minkhaung succeeded the throne. With many people's support, Minkhaung began to investigate his mother's case and rehabilitated her, while Hnangyi Boya, was mercilessly tortured to death by the king, and her ashes were scattered in the toilet.