Lê Anh Tông ( chữ Hán: 黎英宗; 1532–1573),

posthumous name A posthumous name is an honorary name given mostly to the notable dead in East Asian culture. It is predominantly practiced in East Asian countries such as China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, and Thailand. Reflecting on the person's accomplishments ...

Tuấn Hoàng đế (峻皇帝) birth name Lê Duy Bang (黎維邦) was the 12th emperor of Vietnamese

Later Lê dynasty Later may refer to: * Future, the time after the present Television * ''Later'' (talk show), a 1988–2001 American talk show * '' Later... with Jools Holland'', a British music programme since 1992 * ''The Life and Times of Eddie Roberts'', or ...

, ruling nation's south realm from 1556 to 1573 during the Lê-Mạc war. Through his reign, Anh Tông was just a nominal emperor of south Đại Việt, with actual governing and military power possessed by the Trịnh, a warrior house from

Thanh Hóa Thanh Hóa () is the capital of Thanh Hóa Province. The city is situated in the east of the province on the Ma River (Sông Mã), about 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of Hanoi and 1560 kilometers (969 miles) north of Ho Chi Minh City. Thanh ...

. Although the Lê house was namely the main enemy of the Mạc house in the north, Lê troops fighting the northerners were actually commanded by Trịnh warlords. Lê Anh Tông eventually grew hostile against those warlords, who he saw as occupying too much power. The emperor made a plot against one of them, Prime Minister Trịnh Tùng. The plot failed at the cost of Anh Tông's life. However, after Anh Tông's death, Trịnh Tùng decided to maintain the Lê imperial house by keeping Anh Tông's youngest son Lê Duy Đàm (

Lê Thế Tông Lê Thế Tông (chữ Hán: 黎世宗, 1567 – 12 October 1599, reigned 1573–1599), real name Lê Duy Đàm (黎維潭) was the 15th emperor of the later Lê dynasty of Vietnam. He was the fifth son of Lê Anh Tông, born during the Trịnh� ...

) as figurehead emperor.

Biography

Lê Duy Bang was born in 1532 in

. According to the

Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư The ''Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư'' ( vi-hantu, 大越史記全書; ; ''Complete Annals of Đại Việt'') is the official national chronicle of the Vietnamese state, that was originally compiled by the royal historian Ngô Sĩ Liên under ...

, the official historical chronicle of

Đại Việt Đại Việt (, ; literally Great Việt), often known as Annam ( vi, An Nam, Chữ Hán: 安南), was a monarchy in eastern Mainland Southeast Asia from the 10th century AD to the early 19th century, centered around the region of present-day H ...

under the

Revival Lê dynasty The Revival Lê dynasty ( vi, Nhà Lê trung hưng 茹黎中興; Hán-Việt: 黎中興朝 ''Lê trung hưng triều''), also called the Later Lê Restoration, was a Vietnamese dynasty that existed between 1533 and 1789. The Primal Lê dynasty ( ...

, he was the fourth generation descendant of Lê Trừ, the second brother of

Lê Thái Tổ Le is a romanization of several rare East Asian surnames and a common Vietnamese surname. It is a fairly common surname in the United States, ranked 975th during the 1990 census and 368th during the 2000 census. In 2000, it was the eighth-most-co ...

, the Lê dynasty's founding emperor. It was recorded that Duy Bang's father was Lê Duy Khoáng and his mother was an unnamed woman from Thanh Hóa. In 1556, emperor Lê Trung Tông died at an early age without any heir. That spelled the extinction of Lê Thái Tổ's direct lineage. Grand Chancellor

Trịnh Kiểm Trịnh Kiểm (1503–1570) ruled northern part of Vietnam from 1545 to 1570. Trịnh Kiểm was the founder of the Trịnh lords or House of Trịnh who ruled Dai Viet while a succession of figurehead Later Lê emperors took the role as puppet g ...

, who had been the virtual ruler of south Đại Việt since the reign of

Lê Trang Tông Lê Trang Tông (, 1515 – 9 March 1548) was the 13th emperor of the Later Lê dynasty and the first of the Revival Lê dynasty.《歷朝憲章類誌》卷二十一·禮儀誌·太廟殿奉事各位。 His enthronement marked the re-establishment ...

, decided to select Duy Bang as the new emperor. Since 1533,

entered a fierce civil war that divided the nation into two parts. The territory from Chinese border to

was governed by the

Mạc dynasty The Mạc dynasty ( vi, Nhà Mạc / ''Mạc triều''; Hán Nôm: 茹莫 / 莫朝) (1527-1627), as known as House of Mạc ruled the whole of Đại Việt between 1527 and 1540 and the northern part of the country from 1540 until 1593, and ...

. The realm from Thanh Hóa to Thuận Hóa was nominally ruled by Lê emperors, with actual authority exerted by

Generalissimo ''Generalissimo'' ( ) is a military rank of the highest degree, superior to field marshal and other five-star ranks in the states where they are used. Usage The word (), an Italian term, is the absolute superlative of ('general') thus me ...

Nguyễn Kim Nguyen Kim (; 1468–1545) was a Vietnamese statesman who was the ancestor of the famous Nguyễn Lords who later ruled south Vietnam (and much later, all of Vietnam). During his rule, the war with the Mạc dynasty started. Nguyễn Kim claim ...

, and, after Kim's death in 1545, his son-in-law

. Therefore, having become emperor, Lê Anh Tông/Lê Duy Bang had to cooperate with Trịnh Kiểm in conducting the war with the Mạc house in order to unite Vietnam. With the help of Trịnh Kiểm and capable general, Lê Cập Đệ, emperor Anh Tông achieved several victories against the Mạc forces. However, the Mạc army guided by

Mạc Kính Điển Mạc ( Hán tự: 莫) is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Mo in Chinese and Mua in Hmong language. It is also of Gaelic origin, meaning son, used as a prefix in many Irish and Scottish surnames e.g. MacDonald, and MacG ...

, an exceptionally talented prince and military leader, managed to hold large portions of the north. The constant battles between the two imperial houses caused heavy damage to the agricultural economy of Đại Việt. In 1565, Anh Tông organized an imperial examination to select

Confucianist Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China. Variously described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or ...

scholars as civil officials. Ten scholars passed the examination at highest grades. In 1570, Trịnh Kiểm died. Anh Tông appointed Kiểm's eldest son, Trịnh Cối as Generalissimo, controlling both the government and army of the Lê realm. Trịnh Cối soon proved to be an incompetent ruler, and was overthrown by his younger brother Trịnh Tùng. Under the resourceful command of Trịnh Tùng and Lê Cập Đệ, Lê forces repelled an offensive of Mạc Kính Điển in Thanh Hóa lowlands in 1570. In spring 1571, Lê Anh Tông appointed Trịnh Tùng as Prime Minister. In the same year, the northern court ordered Mạc Kính Điển to invade Nghệ An while another Mạc general conducted an amphibious offensive on

Thuận Hóa Thuận Hóa (, ) was a historic territory in central Vietnam. It consisted of the modern provinces of Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị, and Thừa Thiên–Huế (historically, Thừa Thiên–Thuận Hóa). In 1306, the king of Champa, Che Man, ...

, the Lê realm's extreme south prefecture, in order to open a second battlefront against the Lê dynasty. Mac forces landed on Thuận Hóa but were utterly defeated by general

Nguyễn Hoàng Nguyễn Hoàng (28 August 1525 – 20 July 1613) was the first of the Nguyễn lords who ruled the southern provinces of Vietnam between 1558 and 1613, from a series of cities: Ai Tu (1558–70), Tra Bat (1570–1600), and Dinh Cat (modern-day H ...

, Trịnh Tùng's uncle-in-law. On the Nghệ An front, Lê Anh Tông's forces led by Trịnh Tùng managed to repulse Mạc Kính Điển's army. Lê Anh Tông and Trịnh Tùng defeated another offensive of Mạc Kính Điển in 1572. Throughout his 16 years reign, Emperor Lê Anh Tông changed his

era name A regnal year is a year of the reign of a sovereign, from the Latin ''regnum'' meaning kingdom, rule. Regnal years considered the date as an ordinal, not a cardinal number. For example, a monarch could have a first year of rule, a second year of ...

three times. The era names he used were respectively Thiên Hựu (天祐; 1557), Chính Trị (正治; 1558–1571) and Hồng Phúc (洪福; 1572–1573). In 1573, Anh Tông began to feel uneasy at the fact that Trịnh Tùng governed every aspect of the state. The emperor cooperated with Lê Cập Đệ to make a plot against Trịnh Tùng. The plot failed and Trịnh Tùng promptly killed Lê Cập Đệ. Anh Tông abandoned the imperial capital, Vạn Lại (Thanh Hóa) and escaped with his four eldest sons Bách, Lựu, Ngạnh and Tùng to Nghệ An. Trịnh Tùng organized a council with state ministers to announce that emperor had listened to unworthy persons and left the state in chaos. As Tùng claimed, the nation could not survive for even one day without an emperor, so Tùng decided to find the 5 year old youngest son of Anh Tông, Lê Duy Đàm, and raised Đàm to the throne. That was emperor

. In the next move, Tùng ordered his trusted lieutenants to come to Nghệ An and persuade Anh Tông to return to the capital. On his way to the capital, Lê Anh Tông was assassinated by Tùng's protégé Tống Đức Vị. The court, guided by Trịnh Tùng, officially announced that Anh Tông had committed suicide. The emperor died at 42 years old and was buried in the Bố Vệ mausoleum, Thanh Hóa. It was after his death that he was given

temple name Temple names are posthumous titles accorded to monarchs of the Sinosphere for the purpose of ancestor worship. The practice of honoring monarchs with temple names began during the Shang dynasty in China and had since been adopted by other dyna ...

Anh Tông (英宗) and

Tuấn Hoàng đế (峻皇帝).

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Le Anh Tong 1532 births 1573 deaths Lê dynasty emperors 16th-century Vietnamese monarchs 16th-century murdered monarchs Vietnamese monarchs Murder in 1573