Kingdom of Travancore in the context of Swathi Thirunal

The Anglo-Mysore wars were a series of four wars fought during the last three decades of the 18th century between the Kingdom of Mysore on the one hand, and the British East India Company (represented chiefly by the neighbouring Madras Presidency), Maratha Empire, Kingdom of Travancore, and the Kingdom of Hyderabad on the other. Hyder Ali and his succeeding son Tipu Sultan fought the wars on four fronts: with the British attacking from the west, south and east and the Nizam's forces attacking from the north. The fourth war resulted in the overthrow of the house of Hyder Ali and Tipu (the latter was killed in the fourth war, in 1799), and the dismantlement of Mysore to the benefit of the East India Company, which took control of much of the Indian subcontinent.

The Siege of Coimbatore was a siege conducted by forces of the Kingdom of Mysore against a garrison of British East India Company and Travancorean troops holding the fortress at Coimbatore in southern India during the Third Anglo-Mysore War. The siege began in May 1791, and several men trying to storm the fort were repulsed on 11 June, after which the garrison of Lieutenant John Chalmers was reinforced, and a larger Mysorean force was brought against it. The garrison eventually surrendered on 2 November. Tipu Sultan broke the terms of the surrender, and held the garrison's commanding officers prisoner.

Anizham Thirunal Marthanda Varma (Malayalam: അനിഴം തിരുനാൾ മാർത്താണ്ഡവർമ്മ; 1706 – 7 July 1758) was the founding monarch of the southern Indian Kingdom of Travancore (previously Venadu) from 1729 until his death in 1758. He was succeeded by Rama Varma ("Dharma Raja") (1758–98).

King Marthanda Varma defeated the Dutch East India Company forces at the Battle of Colachel in 1741. He also put an end to the Nair-Brahmin Administrative setup, Ettuveetil Pillamar and the Ettara yogam council and took the full power as the king. The Yogakars and Pillamars were always against the Royal Family to which King Marthanda Varma belonged. (Padmabhaswamy Temple Judgement page :16) He then adopted a European mode of discipline for his army and expanded his kingdom northward (to what became the modern state of Travancore). He built a sizeable standing army of about 50,000 nair men, as part of designing an "elaborate and well-organised" war machine, with the role of the travancore army and fortified the northern boundary of his kingdom (Travancore Lines). His alliance in 1757 with the ruler of Kochi (Cochin), against the northern Kingdom of Calicut, enabled the kingdom of Kochi to survive.