| Portuguese conquest of the Jaffna kingdom | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of Crisis of the Sixteenth Century | ||||||||
 Colonial era Map of the Jaffna kingdom c. 1619 | ||||||||
| ||||||||
| Belligerents | ||||||||
 Portugal | Jaffna kingdom |
 Kandy | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | ||||||||
|
Phillippe de Oliveira Constantino de Sá de Noronha |
Cankili II  Varunakulattan Migapulle Arachchi | Mudaliyar Attapattu | ||||||
| Strength | ||||||||
|
5,000 soldiers (by land) | Unknown | 10,000 | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | ||||||||
| Unknown | High | Unknown | ||||||
The Portuguese conquest of the Jaffna kingdom occurred after Portuguese traders arrived at the rival Kotte kingdom in the southwest of modern Sri Lanka in 1505. Many kings of Jaffna, such as Cankili I, initially confronted the Portuguese in their attempts at converting the locals to Roman Catholicism, but eventually made peace with them.
By 1591, the king of Jaffna Ethirimanna Cinkam was installed by the Portuguese. Although he was nominally a client, he resisted missionary activities and helped the interior Kandyan kingdom in its quest to get military help from South India. Eventually, a usurper named Cankili II resisted Portuguese overlordship only to find himself ousted and hanged by Phillippe de Oliveira in 1619. The subsequent rule by the Portuguese saw the population convert to Roman Catholicism. The population also decreased due to excessive taxation, as most people fled the core areas of the former kingdom.