to that king. The power of Calakmul extended as far as the north shore of Lake Petén Itzá, where Motul de San José is recorded as its vassal in the 7th century, although it was traditionally aligned with Tikal. Yuknoom Che'en II commanded the loyalty of three generations of kings at Cancuen, to the south, and supervised the enthronement of at least two of them, in 656 and 677. King Yuknoom Che'en II was involved, directly or indirectly, in the crowning of a king at Moral to the west in Tabasco and one of Yuknoom's nobles supervised a ritual at Piedras Negras on the Guatemalan bank of the Usumacinta River. Yuknoom Che'en II died in his eighties, probably at the beginning of 686. When he died, Calakmul was the most powerful city in the central Maya lowlands. Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ak' succeeded Yuknoom Che'en II, his crowning on 3 April 686 was recorded on monuments at Dos Pilas and El Peru. He was born in 649 and was likely to have been the son of his predecessor. He already held high office before he was named king and may have been responsible for the major successes of the latter part of Yuknoom Che'en II's reign. He retained the loyalty of K'inich B'alam of El Peru and B'alaj Chan K'awiil of Dos Pilas and gained that of K'ak' Tiliw Chan Chaak in 693, when he was installed on the throne of Naranjo at the age of five. However, the texts on sculpted monuments do not reveal the full complexity of diplomatic activity, as revealed by a painted ceramic vase from Tikal, which depicts an ambassador of Calakmul's king kneeling before the enthroned king of Tikal and delivering tribute. Just four years later, in August 695, the two states were once again at war. Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ak' led his warriors against Jasaw Chan K'awiil I in a catastrophic battle that saw the defeat of Calakmul and the capture of the image of a Calakmul deity named Yajaw Maan. It is unknown what happened to Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ak'; a stucco sculpture from Tikal shows a captive and the king is mentioned in the accompanying caption but it is not certain if the captive and the king are the same person. This event marked the end of Calakmul's apogee, with diplomatic activity dropping away and fewer cities recognising Calakmul's king as overlord. No stelae remain