Chapter 13 : Secret Link of the British Royalty with Lakan Dula of Tondo

The English register of Oseney abbey

Clark, Andrew, 1856-1922.

OSENEY CARTULARY ENGLISHED

[VII. How St. George's Church was given to Oseney]

[23.] A confirmacion of Henry Doylly þe ffirst þe Sone*. [MS. has 'the Sone the Sone.' This is a genuine deed, extant as Brit. Mus. Add. Charter 20,361.] of þe saide Robert Doylly his ffadur off þe saide thynges.

A D. 1149. Grant to Oseney, by Henry Doyly I, of St. George's church.

BE hit i-knowe to all trew men of holy church that I, Henry Doylly, with þ^e consent and grauntyng of my Broþer Gilbert, and with þe counsell of Syre Robert (þ^e soone of Roger*. [A most misleading slip. The Latin has 'domini Roberti filii regis'; i.e. of lady Edith's son by Henry I.]) my broþer and of my modur and of oder ffrendes and of my men, yefe and graunte, in-to perpetuell almys, for þe sowle of Kyng Henry and for þe sowle of my ffadur Robert Doylly and other kynnesfolkes and of myne aunceturs and for my helth and of my modur and of my brethryn and of oþer of my ffrendes and for þe state and welefare of all þe realme, to þe church of Saynte marye þe which my ffadur fundid in þe Ile þe which is i-called Oseney and to þe chanons in hit seruyng god, my church of Saynte George the which is in þe Castell of Oxonforde, with all thynges þe which ben of my fee and perteynyng to hit, þat is to say, in howses in tithis in playne in woode in ryvers and in ffedynges and in all oþer thynges, with customs & liberteis þe which he*. [Read 'it'; i.e. the church.] helde in þe tyme of my aunceturs þe which foundid hit. Wherefore I wille and surely ordeyne þat þe forsayde church of Saynte George*. [A strange error. Latin has, correctly, 'prefata sancte Marie ecclesia'; i.e. Ose|ney.], of þe which my ffadur was foundur and of þe which I am patrone and advocate, This addyng*.['additamentum.' This 'adding,' really by Henry Doyly I, is attributed to his father in the spurious deed (no. 21).] to þencresyng of my ffadurs almys þe which*. ['quam,' scil. eleemosinam. The refer|ence is to the foundation-gift (no. 12).] be ordeyned þere, hit holde, of me and of all myne heyres and successours, quietly and worschipfully, all exaccion i-put*. ['postposita.'] a-bak, fro this tyme nowe and for Euer Witnesses: Daniell, Abbot of Mussendene; Alurede*. [Alfred, abbot of Dorchester, 1146-63.], Abbot of Dorchester, et cetera.

Sulayman I is the ruler of the united kingdoms of Manila. He was the kingdom's second to the last indigenous ruler (Lakan Banao Dula is the last), as the state was absorbed into the Spanish Empire during the latter's conquest of Luzon and the archipelago. His eldest son, Lakan Banao Dula was crowned Lakan (paramount ruler) or King of the united kingdom when Sulayman I was too sick to function as monarch. Sulayman I is the grandson of Abdul Bolkiah and the son of Sulayman Bolkiah. Sulayman I however did not use the surname Bolkiah but instead used the official title Rajah Soliman Dula l, to mark the new lineage of the united Manila aristocracy ^[2][3][4]. The regnal surname Dulay, later spelled as Dula came from the native ancient alibata direct translation of Doylly, the surname of the royal blooded British wife of Rajah Sulaiman I named Ysmeria Doylly, mother of Lakan Dula and Rajah Sulaiman II. In the ancient baybayin alphabet, there is no letter Y but YA so, the alibata translation of Doylly becomes Dulay , and later became Dula, the current regnal surname of the Lakan Dula Kingdom of Manila.

Lakan Dula was born on December 16, 1503 A.D and died on March 21, 1589 A.D. He was the last King of Manila before the kingdom was totally subjugated by the Spaniards and his descendants were forced to do self exile to escape the bloody hispanic persecution by settling in far flung areas within the sea and river routes. It was in Lakan Dula's era when Britain and Spain are rivals for world power. Britain's way is to gain the trust of native royalties all over the world by diplomacy or intermarriages and then group these royalties into federation under its leadership. Spain's way is through conquest and subjugation. Lakan Dula's tall and fair appearance came from his great grand father who has British blood, a Lord of Manor from Oxfordshire. The birth of Lakan Dula is the early attempt of the British crown to gain the trust of the native Manila aristocracy. It is one of the ways to slowly defeat Spain as the world power of that time. A not so popular footnote in the Philippine history is the early attempt of the British Royalty to drive out the Spaniards from Manila and reinstall the British – blooded Lakan Dula lineage into the old Manila Kingdom. The British Royalty assigned a distant relative of Lakan Dula, Thomas Cavendish from the British Royalty along Oxfordshire, to lead the attack with the backing of the subjects of the Lakan Dula of the Manila aristocracy. This is now recorded in the Philippine history as the “Ang Subwatan ng mga Maharlika”.

In 1586, three years before the death of Lakan Dula of Manila, Queen Elizabeth I of England, sent support to the Protestant causes in the Netherlands and France, and Sir Francis Drake launched attacks against Spanish merchants in the Caribbean and the Pacific, along with a particularly aggressive attack on the port of Cadiz. In 1588, hoping to put a stop to Elizabeth’s intervention, Philip sent the Spanish Armada to attack England. Favourable weather, more heavily-armed and manœuverable English ships, and the fact that the English had been warned by their spies in the Netherlands and were ready for the attack resulted in defeat for the Armada.

After the death of Lakan Dula in 1589, an intense drive to erase once and for all the British - blooded Manila native aristocracy from their Intramuros homeland was launched by the Spanish authorities after realizing that the Lakan Dula descendants have, afterall, British lineage and therefore, these descendants might side with the British forces, in case of a full blown Spanish - British war. The Spaniards were eventually proven right because the British eventually invaded and occupied Manila from Spain, from 1762- 1764, far two centuries after the death of Lakan Dula. In the short - lived British occupation of Manila, the British introduced the elections as a way of teaching the concept of democracy at the same time, to ease out local leaders loyal to the Spaniards. The first ever election in the Philippines was held in Marikina Valley, a stronghold of Lakan Dula descendants who moved out from the Intramuros homeland via river routes and where the British are more at home and have a strong link, according to the former executive director of the National Historical Institute. Marikina Valley then was part of the Province of Manila, the Manila proper is the City of the Province of Manila, or simply, City of Manila.

But as early as 1587, a year before the Spanish Armada will be defeated by the British, Magat Salamat, one of the children of Lakan Dula, and Augustin de Legazpi, Lakan Dula's nephew, and the chieftains of modern Tondo, Pandacan,Marikina, Candaba, Navotas and Bulacan were executed for secretly conspiring to revolt against the Spanish settlements. Several decades later, mestizo by the name of David Dula y Goiti, a grandson of Rajah Lakan Dula with a Spanish mother escaped the intense persecution of the descendants of Lakan Dula by settling in Isla de Batag, Northern Samar and settled in the placed now called Candawid.^[4]

More than half a century after the death of Lakan Dula, his descendants in Northern Samar started the Sumuroy Rebellion of 1649-1650, led by the Waray hero Juan Ponce Sumuroy of Palapag Town. Warays are known for conspiratorial tendency, suicidal courage and closely knit family loyalty, which manifested in the fact that most of the inner core of the Sumuroy Revolt are his blood relatives. One of the trusted co conspirators and relative of Sumuroy, a son of David Dula y Goiti of nearby Laoang Town, sustained the Filipino quest for motherland with a greater vigor. Due to his hatred for the Spaniards; he dropped the name Goiti in his surname and adopted a new name David Dulay.^[5] He was however wounded in a battle, was captured and later was executed in Palapag, Northern Samar by the Spaniards together with his seven key lieutenants, one of who was the great grandfather of current Northern Samar Governor Raul Daza. They were accused of masterminding several attacks on Spanish detachments. The place where David came from was named later as Candawid (Kan David or owned by David in Waray dialect) in Isla De Batag, Laoang, Northern Samar. Some of David's descendants changed their surnames to Dulay to avoid Spanish prosecutions. Some maintained their surname Dula, which up to these days is the source of minor internal frictions among some descendants of David Dula y Goiti in Laoang, Northern Samar accusing each side as "sigbinan", a native Waray folklore which originated in Isla de Batag, which connotes "a family secretly keeping bear-like creatures", which are being fed with all kinds of meat, sometimes, including human flesh of dead Spanish Guardia Civil. Several famous Northern Samarenos are tracing their ancestry among the seven co conspirators executed with David Dula y Goiti in Palapag, Northern Samar.