Marquis Chương Thành Trần Tự Khánh (1175-1223) was a general of the Lý dynasty during the reigns of

Lý Cao Tông Lý Cao Tông (6 July 1173 – 15 November 1210), born Lý Long Trát, courtesy name Long Cán, was the seventh emperor of the Lý dynasty, ruled Đại Việt for 35 years. He identified himself with Buddha, similar with Angkorian Khmer Empire c ...

and

Lý Huệ Tông Lý Huệ Tông (chữ Hán: 李惠宗; born Lý Sảm 李旵; July 1194 – 3 September 1226) was the emperor of Vietnam from 1211 to 1224, the penultimate leader of the Lý dynasty. During Lý Huệ Tông's rule, many members of the Trần famil ...

. He was son of Trần Lý, head of the Trần clan, and brother of Trần Thừa and Trần Thị Dung who married to Lý Huệ Tông. Renowned as a skilled general, Trần Tự Khánh was one of the most prominent figures during the turbulent time at the end of Cao Tông and the beginning of Huệ Tông's rule. He had many victories on the battlefield and was responsible for putting down several revolts against the Lý dynasty. Although died before the coronation of his nephew

Trần Thái Tông Trần Thái Tông (17 July 1218 – 5 May 1277), personal name Trần Cảnh or Trần Nhật Cảnh, temple name Thái Tông, was the first emperor of the Trần dynasty, reigned Đại Việt for 33 years (1226–58), being Retired Emperor ...

, Trần Tự Khánh was considered one of the main factors that led to the rising position of the Trần clan in the royal court and ultimately the overthrowing of the Lý dynasty by

Trần Thủ Độ Prince Trung Võ Trần Thủ Độ ( vi-hantu, 陳守度, 1194–1264) was a general and leader of the Trần clan during the reign of Lý Huệ Tông and Lý Chiêu Hoàng of Vietnam. Trần Thủ Độ was credited for overthrowing the Lý dy ...

to create the

Trần dynasty The Trần dynasty, ( Vietnamese: Nhà Trần, chữ Nôm: 茹陳）also known as the House of Trần, was a Vietnamese dynasty that ruled over the Kingdom of Đại Việt from 1225 to 1400. The dynasty was founded when emperor Trần Thá ...

Background

Trần Tự Khánh was born as the second son of Trần Lý who made his great fortune by fishing in Lưu Gia village (now Hưng Hà,

Thái Bình Thái Bình City () is a city in the Red River Delta of northern Vietnam. It is the capital of Thái Bình Province. The city is located 110 km from Hanoi. The city area is 67.7 square km, with a population of 210,000 people (2006). History ...

). He had an elder brother Trần Thừa, who fathered the future first emperor of

, and a younger sister Trần Thị Dung. During the troubled time under the reign of

, the Crown Prince Lý Sảm sought refuge in Trần Lý's family and decided to marry his beautiful daughter Trần Thị Dung in 1209.

History

In March 1210 Trần Tự Khánh with his army of Trần's house servants helped the Crown Prince return to the capital,

Thăng Long Hanoi or Ha Noi ( or ; vi, Hà Nội ) is the capital and second-largest city of Vietnam. It covers an area of . It consists of 12 urban districts, one district-leveled town and 17 rural districts. Located within the Red River Delta, Hanoi i ...

; therefore he was awarded the title Count Thuận Lưu (

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia ** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam. * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overse ...

: Thuận Lưu bá). One year after, the Crown Prince Lý Sảm was enthroned as

after the death of

, by then the Trần clan's position began to rise in the royal court. After his coronation, Huệ Tông ordered Trần Tự Khánh to bring his sister to royal palace, the mission was successfully conducted by Trần Tự Khánh's subordinate Phùng Tá Chu who also helped general

Tô Trung Từ Tô Trung Từ (chữ Hán: 蘇忠詞, ?-1211) was a high ranking general near the end of the Lý dynasty in the History of Vietnam, and attempted to usurp the Lý dynasty during his reign of the dynasty's royal court. He was born in Lưu Gia villa ...

pacify the revolt of Đỗ Quảng near Thăng Long. As a result, Tô Trung Từ was promoted to Regent of the Emperor while Trần Tự Khánh was also granted the title Marquis Chương Thành (Chương Thành hầu). Besides the revolt of Đỗ Quảng, there were many warlords who rose up their troops against the rule of the Lý dynasty. One of them,

Đoàn Thượng Duan ( zh, c=段, p=Duàn; ; vi, Đoàn) is an East Asian surname of Chinese origin that can be found in China, Vietnam and Korea. Notable people Mainland China * Duan Sui (died 386), a ruler of the Xianbei state Western Yan * Duan Ye (died ...

, even self-entitled as Prince (Vương) and was so powerful that no generals of the Emperor could put down his revolt. These revolts with the incapability of the royal court made the ruling Lý dynasty gradually weaken. In February 1213, afraid that his sister was ill-treated by the Empress Mother Đàm, Trần Tự Khánh led his army to the royal palace with the petition of receiving the Emperor, Trần Tự Khánh's action made Lý Huệ Tông suspected that he in fact wanted to overpower the Emperor, Huệ Tông thus ordered an issue of imprisoning Trần Tự Khánh and downgrading his sister Trần Thị Dung from Royal Consort (''nguyên phi'') to palace maid (''ngự nữ''). The imprisonment of Trần Tự Khánh was not carried out and he again brought troops near Thăng Long in January 1214 with the same petition. Afraid that Trần Tự Khánh had a conspiracy against the royal family, Lý Huệ Tông decided to escape from Thăng Long to

Lạng Sơn Lạng Sơn () is a city in far northern Vietnam, which is the capital of Lạng Sơn Province. It is accessible by road and rail from Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, and it is the northernmost point on National Route 1. History Due to its ge ...

, always with the pursuit of Trần Tự Khánh. Only after Trần Tự Khánh put down the revolt of Đinh Khả and Bùi Đô in May 1214, the Emperor restored his sister as Lady Thuận Trinh (Thuận Trinh phu nhân). However, she was still distrusted by the Empress Mother Đàm who tried to force Trần Thị Dung commit suicide several times and finally Lý Huệ Tông had to escape with Lady Thuận Trinh to the garrison of Trần Tự Khánh in Cửu Liên Marsh (now Yên Mỹ,

Hưng Yên Hưng Yên () is a city in Vietnam. It is the provincial capital of Hưng Yên Province and is a third-graded city according to Vietnam's city classification table. Geography *Hưng Yên is a delta city. It is located in the south of Hưng Yên ...

). The first child of Huệ Tông and Lady Thuận Trinh, Princess Thuận Thiên was born here in June 1216. In December 1216 Lady Thuận Trinh was entitled as empress of the Lý dynasty, hence Trần Tự Khánh was appointed for the position of Regent of the Emperor and commander in charge of military training and preparing. Being a skilled general, Trần Tự Khánh was able to improve the military situation of the Lý dynasty's army. During that time, Huệ Tông's health declined rapidly and so the power in the royal court was gradually fallen into the hand of the Trần clan led by Trần Tự Khánh. Outside the royal palace, Đại Việt was still in a chaotic situation by the revolts

Nguyễn Nộn Nguyễn () is the most common Vietnamese surname. Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as Nguyen. Nguyên (元）is a different word and surname. By some estimates 39 percent of Vietnamese people bear this s ...

, Đoàn Thượng, and mountainous people in

Chương Mỹ Zhang () is the third most common surname in China and Taiwan (commonly spelled as "Chang" in Taiwan), and it is one of the most common surnames in the world. Zhang is the pinyin romanization of the very common Chinese surname written in simp ...

. After his failure of pacifying the revolt in Chương Mỹ, Trần Tự Khánh advised the Emperor to pardon Nguyễn Nộn and appoint him to take charge of putting down the Chương Mỹ's revolt. Trần Tự Khánh died in December 1223 and was posthumously entitled as Prince Kiến Quốc (Kiến Quốc đại vương). Although unable to witness the successful plot to overthrow the Lý dynasty and found

by his cousin

in 1225, Trần Tự Khánh was still considered as one of the main figures that led to the collapse of the Lý dynasty and the creation of the Trần dynasty.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tran, Khanh Tu Lý dynasty generals Lý dynasty officials Lý dynasty marquises 1223 deaths Year of birth unknown