Srirangapatnam, Storming of, was the last stage in the fourth and final war fought between the British East India Company and Tipu Sultan in the 1700’s. Tipu was the ruler of Mysore, an independent kingdom in south India.
Smarting under a humiliating defeat suffered at the end of the third war in 1792, Tipu appealed to various foreign powers for help. The governor of the French colony of Mauritius sent reinforcements to Mysore, and this was sufficient excuse for a fourth war.
The Indian forces were quickly defeated by the British, and Tipu was besieged in his fortress capital of Srirangapatnam. The siege began on April 17, 1799, and the final assault took place on May 4, led by Sir Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington). Tipu rejected British calls for surrender and died in combat. The storming of Srirangapatnam finally eliminated the French threat to British India. Srirangapatnam is sometimes spelled Seringapatam.
