Left ‘Holding the Bag’: The Johor-voc Alliance and the Twelve Years Truce (1606–1613)

Abstract

This chapter explains one of the Dutch East India Company's (VOC) earliest allies in the Malay world, namely the Kingdom of Johor. In selecting the title 'Left Holding the Bag', the author seeks to present the case chiefly from the vantage point of this polity. He concentrates on two factions which, according to period materials of largely European provenance, broadly shaped decision-making at the royal court. Raja Bongsu, who chiefly handled Johor's foreign relations and other affairs of state was 'saddened' by the conclusion of the truce and the cessation of hostilities with the Iberian powers it entailed. As a result, he and his faction at the court felt abandoned by their Dutch allies, especially in their on-going hostilities with Portuguese Melaka. These developments within the Johor royal court also form the immediate historical backdrop to the genesis and revision of the Sejarah Melayu or 'Malay Annals' around 1612-15. Keywords: Dutch East India Company's (VOC); Johor royal court; Raja Bongsu; Twelve Years Truce