After king Prasat Thong died, some fighting between his sons about the succession broke out. Two kings were crowned and quickly put to death, until with the coronation of Narai on September 26 1655 stability returned.

Narai allowed french missionaries to settle in Ayutthaya in 1662, in 1664 the Dutch enforced a monopole in fur trading by a sea blockade of Ayutthaya. This even led Narai to build a second capital in Lopburi and built his palace there.

In 1675 the greek adventurer Constantine Phaulkon came to Ayutthaya and started working for the royal court. With time he became First Counsellor of the king, a position which gained him much envy amoung the other members of the court. Paired with the xenophobic prejudice it made Phaulkon a controversial person - he is still controversial amoung historians today.

King Narai had no heir, however he wanted his foster son Mom Pi to follow him on the throne, a choice also preferred by Phaulkon. However when Narai became terminally ill, his old foster brother Petraja started a coup d'état and killed both Mom Pi as well as Phaulkon, and leaving Narai to die with the knowledge that his power has slipped away. Petraja then expelled the French and cut the connections with the west of 200 years, until in the 19th century King Mongkut reestablished them.