…accompanied by Essex men under Jack Straw,…

The region of present Burma, or Mynamar, had divided in the fourteenth century into a number of rival kingdoms, chief of which are Ava in Upper Burma and Pegu in Lower Burma.

These two states, while warring with each other, also fight Toungoo (a state on the Ava-Pegu frontier), the neighboring Shan people, and the Arakan kingdom on the west coast.

Since 1369-1539, Hanthawaddy has been the capital of the Mon Kingdom of Ramanadesa.

A succession dispute following the death of Ava’s King Minyekyawswa in 1401 enables Pegu’s King Rajadhirat, or Razadarit, to launch several attacks against his northern neighbor.

His flotilla sails up the Irrawaddy river in 1406 and, despite defeats suffered en route, manages to reach and settle outside the town walls of Sagaing, across the river from Ava.