Metacomet (died August 12, 1676), also known as King Philip or Metacom, was a war chief or sachem of the Wampanoag Indians and their leader in King Philip's War. Metacomet was the second son of Massasoit, the chief who had befriended the Pilgrims in 1621. He became chief in 1662 when his brother Wamsutta (or King Alexander) died.
At first he sought to live with the colonists. As a sachem, he took the lead in much of his tribes trade with the colonies. He adopted the European name of Philip, and bought his clothes in Boston. But the colonies continued to expand. To the west, the Iroquois Confederation continued expanding, pushing hostile tribes east, thereby encroaching on his territory.
Finally, in 1671 the colonial leaders of the Plymouth Colony forced major concessions from him. He surrendered much of his tribe's armament and ammunition, and agreed that they were subject to English law. The encroachment continued until actual hostilities broke out in 1675. Metacomet hurried to catch up with his warriors, to lead them in the uprising that bore his name, King Philip's War.
When the war eventually turned against him, he took refuge in the great Assowamset Swamp in southern Rhode Island. Here he held out for a time, with his family and remaining followers. He was fatally shot by another Indian, on August 12, 1676. His attacker was reported to have been paid by the English colonists. After his death, his wife and eight year old son were captured and sold as slaves in the Caribbean.
During this politically promising time, Massasoit had five children: "Moanam," or Wamsutta, also known as "Alexander," who was born sometime between 1621 and 1624; Pometecomet, Metacomet, or Metacom, also known as "Philip"; a third son, Sonkanuchoo; and two daughters, one whose name the English failed to record, and Amie.
Metacom, Massasoit's second son became sachem of the Pokanoket, and chief sachem of the Greater Wampanoag Confederacy.
Metacom, also known as "Philip," certainly believed that Wamsutta had been treacherously murdered at the hands of the English.
And, as Metacom, the Bashaba of the Wampanoags, was the chief spokesman of the policy of rebellion, he was the logical successor to Passaconaway as head of the Federation, though Wonalancet, Passaconaway’s son, had taken his place as head of the Penacook nation proper.
Metacom was making constant protests at the way the whites were claiming increasing areas of land as individual property and forcing the red peoples out of their own country where they had been hospitable enough to admit the whites and permit them to stay.
Curiously enough, the anniversary of the declaration of Metacom’s War has become a patriotic holiday in Boston under the Second Republic, since the hundredth anniversary of this declaration was celebrated by the rebels of 1775 by an attack on the hill of Mishawum which inflicted severe losses on the army of the Massachusetts Bay authorities.
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