In 1684, during her regency, the English East India Company obtained a sandy piece of land at Anchuthengu (Anjengo) on the sea coast, about 32 km north of Thiruvananthapuram city, for erecting a factory and fortifying it. The place had earlier been frequented by the Portuguese and later by the Dutch. It was from here that the English gradually extended their domain to other parts of Thiruvithamcore, anglicised as Travancore.