So this came up because my wife found a reference to a presumably spectacular cat's eye that belonged to the "King of Candy".
Google has gotten me this much info: There is an island named Ceylon near India, it's interior was ruled by "the king of candy" until 1815 when the British took the interior by force.
References seem to completely gloss over who this person was, or the origins of the title. The name "candy" is probably entirely coincidental to the English word, BUT I MUST KNOW. Can any one give a good summary of who this person/place/title was?
The Kingdom is more often spelled as "The Kingdom of Kandy" (yes, this is not nearly as cool as "The Kingdom of Candy").
It was a kingdom with its capital in the city of Kandy in the interior of Ceylon, which remained independent long after coastal regions had been colonized by the Portuguese, then Dutch, then British.
The British occupied Dutch possessions in Ceylon (Sri Lanka as the modern nation on the island calls itself) in 1795, to keep them out of the hands of the French.
The British took advantage of internal politics in Kandy to try to invade and unify the whole island between 1803 and 1805, but they were repulsed.
In 1815, the British took advantage of the unpopularity of King Sri Vikrama Rajasingha of Kandy with his own nobles to invade a second time. This time, with most of the nobility of the kingdom on their side, the British were successful. The King was deposed and exiled to India, where he died 17 years later.
That was the end of the Kingdom of Kandy, which had lasted for 400 years. The city of Kandy is still the religious (Buddhist) capital of Sri Lanka.
Candy used to be the title of the last Sri Lankan kingdom to fall to the British. It is now modern day Kandy.
There is not much information on why the British called it by its interesting name. Its modern Sinhalese name is Maha Nuwara- meaning great city. It was previously called "Kanda Uda Pasrata", which roughly means land in the hills. That is one of the likely names, Kanda sounding similar to Kandy.
Sri Lanka was feudal, and the area referred to as Candy/Kandy was under control of several dynasties and families, so Im not sure which king you want to know about. The last king of Kandy- and the last King in Sri Lanka- was Sri Vikrama Rajasinha. Either way, Kandy is a very interesting area. It was ruled by Sinhalese and Tamil kings alike.
You can find a list of Kandyan monarchs here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Kandyan_monarchs
If you are interested, read about Sri Vikrama Rajasinha (Raja sinha can literally mean king lion/ lion king) and the Kandyan convention