Mongkut Mongkut Phra Bat Somdet Phra Poramenthra Maha Mongkut Phra Chom Klao Chao Yu Hua (), or Rama IV, known in English-speaking countries as King Mongkut (18 October 18041 October 1868), was the fourth monarch of Siam (Thailand) under the House of Chakri, ruling from 1851 to 1868. Outside Thailand, he is best known as the king in the 1951 musical and 1956 film "The King and I", based on the 1946 film "Anna and the King of Siam"in turn based on a 1944 novel by an American missionary about Anna Leonowens' years at his court, from 1862 to 1867. During
Anna Leonowens in Poona, over the objections of her stepfather and mother, she married her childhood sweetheart, Thomas Leon (or Lane/Lean) Owens; he later merged his second and last names as Leonowens. Her husband was a civilian clerk (rather than the army officer suggested by her memoir). In 1852 the young couple, accompanied by Anna's uncle, W. V. Glasscott, sailed to Australia via Singapore, where they boarded the barque "Alibi". The journey from Singapore was long and while on board Anna gave birth to a son, also named Thomas. On 8 March 1853, nearing the Western Australian coast, the "Alibi" was almost