Rama III regarded his brother Mongkut, who was said to be very popular among the British, as his heir, although as a monk, Mongkut could not openly assume this role. He used his long sojourn as a monk to acquire a Western education from French and American missionaries and British merchants, one of the first Siamese to do so. He learned English and Latin, and studied science and mathematics. The missionaries no doubt hoped to convert him to Christianity, but he was a strict Buddhist and a Siamese nationalist. He intended using this Western knowledge to strengthen and modernize Siam when he came to the throne, which he did in 1851.