Throughout the 1570s, the Sultanate of Aceh subjected most parts of the Malay Peninsula to continual harassment. The sudden disappearance of Perak's Sultan Mansur Shah I in mysterious circumstances in 1577 gave rise to rumours of abduction by Acehnese forces. Soon afterwards, the late Sultan's widow and his 16 children were taken as captives to Sumatra. Sultan Mansur Shah I's eldest son, Raja Alauddin Mansur Syah, married an Acehnese princess and subsequently became Sultan of Aceh. The Sultanate of Perak was left without a ruling monarch, and Perak nobles journeyed to Aceh in the same year to ask the new Sultan Alauddin for a successor. The ruler sent his younger brother to become Perak's third monarch. Sultan Ahmad Tajuddin Shah ruled Perak for seven years, maintaining the unbroken lineage of the Malacca dynasty. Although Perak did fall under the authority of the Acehnese Sultanate, it remained entirely independent of Siamese control for over two hundred years from 1612, in contrast with its neighbour, Kedah, and many of the Malay sultanates in the northern part of the Malay Peninsula, which became tributary states of Siam.