Great King and Supreme Overlord (Kaloomte') of Calakmul
"His kingship was bestowed before the eyes of Yuknoom Ch'een, Divine Lord of Kaan, the Supreme Overlord (Kaloomte') who seats kings across the lands."— Formulaic tribute inscribed on Maya Stelae by vassal rulers at Dos Pilas, Cancuén, and Moral-Reforma honoring Yuknoom Ch'een II.
Yuknoom Ch'een II (600–686 CE, reigned 636–686 CE), known to historians as 'Yuknoom the Great,' ruled Calakmul (the Kaan Kingdom) for fifty years and forged the most extensive hegemonic network of allied and vassal states in the history of the Classic Maya civilization.
Ascending the Kaan throne in 636 CE, Yuknoom Ch'een II moved decisively to counter a resurgent Tikal. Seeking to outflank Calakmul's northern blockade and secure the highland trade in jade and obsidian along the Pasión River, Tikal had founded the southern fortress city of Dos Pilas and placed it under the rule of a young Tikal prince, B'alaj Chan K'awiil.
In 650 CE, Yuknoom Ch'een II marched hundreds of kilometers south and seized Dos Pilas. Rather than executing the defeated Tikal prince, Yuknoom Ch'een II executed a political masterstroke: he recognized B'alaj Chan K'awiil as the legitimate divine king (K'uhul Ajaw) of Mutul at Dos Pilas under Calakmul's protection. At a single stroke, Tikal's royal family was fractured into a fratricidal civil war, and Tikal's southern trade outpost became Calakmul's forward base.
With Tikal encircled from north and south, Yuknoom Ch'een II launched a direct Star War assault on Tikal itself in 657 CE. Tikal's king, Nuun Ujol Chaak, was driven from his capital and forced to acknowledge Yuknoom Ch'een II as his overlord alongside his estranged brother B'alaj Chan K'awiil.
To secure the western frontier, Yuknoom Ch'een II married his royal daughter, Lady K'abel, to the ruler of Waka' (El Perú) and personally presided over the accessions of roughly twenty client kings at Cancuén, Piedras Negras, Moral-Reforma, and beyond as supreme Kaloomte'. When Nuun Ujol Chaak rebelled one final time in 679 CE, Yuknoom Ch'een II dispatched Kaan forces to Dos Pilas to crush and kill the Tikal ruler, preserving Calakmul's golden age until his death at age eighty-six in 686 CE.