Dục Đức (, ; born Nguyễn Phúc Ưng Ái, 23 February 1852 – 6 October 1883), was
Emperor of Vietnam
An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...
for three days, from 20 to 23 July 1883. He was the fifth emperor of the
Nguyễn dynasty
The Nguyễn dynasty (chữ Nôm: 茹阮, vi, Nhà Nguyễn; chữ Hán: 阮朝, vi, Nguyễn triều) was the last Vietnamese dynasty, which ruled the unified Vietnamese state largely independently from 1802 to 1883. During its existence, ...
and father of Emperor
Thành Thái
Thành Thái (, vi-hantu, 成 泰; 14 March 1879 – 20 March 1954) born Nguyễn Phúc Bửu Lân (阮福寶嶙), was the son of Emperor Dục Đức and Empress Dowager Từ Minh. He reigned as emperor for 18 years, from 1889 to 1907.
Biog ...
, who ruled from 1889 to 1907.
Early life
Dục Đức was born Nguyễn Phúc Ưng Ái and at age 17 was renamed Nguyễn Phúc Ưng Chân (
阮 福 膺 禛). He was the second son of
Nguyễn Phúc Hồng Y, the fourth brother of Emperor
Tự Đức
Tự Đức (, vi-hantu, 嗣 德, lit. "inheritance of virtues", 22 September 1829 – 19 July 1883) (personal name: Nguyễn Phúc Hồng Nhậm , also Nguyễn Phúc Thì) was the fourth emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty of Vietnam; he ruled ...
. He and his two cousins, Chanh Mong (later Emperor
Đồng Khánh
Đồng Khánh (, vi-hantu, 同 慶, lit. "collective celebration"; 19 February 1864 – 28 January 1889), born Nguyễn Phúc Ưng Kỷ (阮福膺祺) or Nguyễn Phúc Ưng Đường (阮福膺禟), also known as Chánh Mông (正蒙), was the ...
) and Duong Thien (
Kiến Phúc
Kiến Phúc (, 12 February 1869 – 31 July 1884) was a child emperor of Vietnam, who reigned for less than 8 months, 1883–1884, as the 7th emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty.
Biography
Born in 1869, also known as Nguyễn Phúc Ưng Đăng, he ...
), sons of Tự Đức's twenty-sixth brother Thien Thai Vuong, were adopted by the emperor, who had no children of his own.
[Bruce M. Lockhart, William J. Duiker Historical Dictionary of Vietnam 2006 p113 "Dục Đức (1852-1884). Emperor (r. 1883) under the Nguyén dynasty." Page 154 "A younger brother and adopted son of Emperor Tự Đức, iép Hoasucceeded his nephew Dục Đức after the latter was deposed by court officials in 1883. Hiép Hoa attempted to wrest power back from these officials, but he was not strong enough"]
After Tự Đức's death, his three regents,
Nguyễn Văn Tường
Nguyễn Văn Tường ( vi-hantu, , 1824–1886) was a mandarin of the Nguyễn dynasty in Vietnam. He is known for installing and dethroning three emperors in 1883–84: Dục Đức, Hiệp Hoà, and Kiến Phúc.
Biography
Tườ ...
,
Tôn Thất Thuyết
Tôn Thất Thuyết ( 尊 室 説; 12 May 1839 in Huế – 1913 in Longzhou) was the leading mandarin of Emperor Tự Đức of Vietnam's Nguyễn dynasty. Thuyết later led the Cần Vương movement which aimed to restore Vietnamese i ...
and
Tran Tien Thanh, declared the thirty-one-year-old Dục Đức would succeed him. This move was evidently controversial. Historian Pham Van Son and others write that Tự Đức had determined Dục Đức too decadent to rule, and amended his will to name Kiến Phúc as his successor instead. However, the Tam Cung, an alliance of powerful palace women, favored Dục Đức, and convinced the regents to alter the will and appoint him Emperor.
[
]
Reign and death
Dục Đức ruled for only three days before he was deposed and sentenced to death by the same regents who had enthroned him. The reasons are unclear. Pham Van Son wrote that Dục Đức so embarrassed the court with his debauchery at the coronation that Tôn Thất Thuyết revealed the incriminating sections of Tự Đức's will. The court quickly ruled to execute him with poison for violating the mourning rules and buried him in an unmarked grave, a notably disproportionate sentence. Other contemporary historians make no mention of this episode and say that Dục Đức was not executed but rather was left to die in captivity, a likelier sequence of events considering that he lived for another three months.[ The true motivation for the overthrow may have been political; the regents may have feared Dục Đức would strip them of the power they enjoyed under the weak Tự Đức.][
With Dục Đức in captivity, the regents named his 34-year-old uncle Hiệp Hòa, Tự Đức's half-brother, as emperor. They may have skipped over Dục Đức's adoptive brothers to mitigate the backlash from the court women who had favored Dục Đức.][ Open protest of the regents' actions came from one senior official, ]Phan Đình Phùng
Phan Đình Phùng (; 1847January 21, 1896) was a Vietnamese people, Vietnamese revolutionary who led rebel armies against French colonial empire, French colonial forces in Vietnam. He was the most prominent of the Confucian court scholars ...
, but he was quickly arrested and stripped of his position.[ During his brief reign, Hiệp Hòa similarly tried to rein in the regents' influence, but failed; he in turn was soon deposed and sentenced to die.][ Modern Vietnamese histories generally regard emperors from Dục Đức to ]Bảo Đại
Bảo Đại (, vi-hantu, , lit. "keeper of greatness", 22 October 191331 July 1997), born Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy (), was the 13th and final emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty, the last ruling dynasty of Vietnam. From 1926 to 1945, he was em ...
as puppets controlled by the French colonialists.
File:Từ Minh Huệ Hoàng hậu.jpg, Empress Minh Huệ, wife of Dục Đức and biological mother of Thành Thái
Thành Thái (, vi-hantu, 成 泰; 14 March 1879 – 20 March 1954) born Nguyễn Phúc Bửu Lân (阮福寶嶙), was the son of Emperor Dục Đức and Empress Dowager Từ Minh. He reigned as emperor for 18 years, from 1889 to 1907.
Biog ...
.
After several more years of turmoil, Dục Đức's young son Thành Thái
Thành Thái (, vi-hantu, 成 泰; 14 March 1879 – 20 March 1954) born Nguyễn Phúc Bửu Lân (阮福寶嶙), was the son of Emperor Dục Đức and Empress Dowager Từ Minh. He reigned as emperor for 18 years, from 1889 to 1907.
Biog ...
was installed as emperor in 1889. He constructed a mausoleum and shrine complex for his father in Huế
Huế () is the capital of Thừa Thiên Huế province in central Vietnam and was the capital of Đàng Trong from 1738 to 1775 and of Vietnam during the Nguyễn dynasty from 1802 to 1945. The city served as the old Imperial City and admi ...
known as the Tomb of Dục Đức. This eventually became a family tomb, housing Thành Thái and various other members of the Nguyễn dynasty.Tomb of Dục Đức
"Tomb of Dục Đức (An Lăng) is a relic of relics of the ancient capital of Hue, is the burial place of Dục Đức emperor, the fifth emperor of the Nguyen dynasty."
References
External links
{{DEFAULTSORT:Duc Duc
1852 births
1883 deaths
Emperors of Nguyen Vietnam
19th-century Vietnamese monarchs
Nguyen dynasty emperors
Executed Vietnamese people
Vietnamese monarchs