Trần Thiếu Đế ( vi-hantu, 陳少帝, 1396–?), was the twelfth and the last emperor of 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 ...

who reigned over

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making ...

from 1398 to 1400.

Biography

Trần Thiếu Đế's name (𤇼 / Yên) was suggested by ''

Khâm định Việt sử thông giám cương mục The ''Khâm định Việt sử Thông giám cương mục'' ( vi-hantu, 欽定越史通鑑綱目, lit. "The Imperially Ordered Annotated Text Completely Reflecting the History of Viet") was a history of Vietnam commissioned by the emperor Tự Đ ...

'', because

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, ...

's officials could not find the exact Chinese character for this sovereign (). At the age of only three, he was chosen to succeed his father Trần Thuận Tông who was forced by

Hồ Quý Ly Hồ Quý Ly ( vi-hantu, 胡季犛, born 1336) ruled Đại Ngu (Vietnam) from 1400 to 1401 as the founding emperor of the short-lived Hồ dynasty. Quý Ly rose from a post as an official served the court of the ruling Trần dynasty and a mili ...

to resign and hold the title

Retired Emperor Retired Emperor, Grand Emperor, or Emperor Emeritus is a title occasionally used by the monarchical regimes in the Sinosphere for former emperors who had (at least in name) abdicated voluntarily to another member of the same clan, usually their s ...

. Only two years after Thiếu Đế's coronation, Hồ Quý Ly overthrew the Emperor to establish his own dynasty, the

Hồ dynasty The Hồ dynasty (Vietnamese: , chữ Nôm: 茹胡； Sino-Vietnamese: ''Hồ triều, chữ Hán:'' 胡朝) was a short-lived Vietnamese dynasty consisting of the reigns of two monarchs, Hồ Quý Ly (胡季犛) in 1400–01 and his second s ...

Childhood

Thiếu Đế (''Young Emperor'') was born in 1396 as Trần Yên (陳安火缺字

), first child of the Emperor Trần Thuận Tông, and his wife, the Queen Thánh Ngâu who was daughter of Hồ Quý Ly. On March 15 of the

Lunar calendar A lunar calendar is a calendar based on the monthly cycles of the Moon's phases ( synodic months, lunations), in contrast to solar calendars, whose annual cycles are based only directly on the solar year. The most commonly used calendar, t ...

, 1398, under pressure of Hồ Quý Ly, Thuận Tông had to cede the throne to his three-year-old son, now Trần Thiếu Đế, and held the position of retired emperor. According to ''

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 ...

'', actually Hồ Quý Ly wanted to overthrow Thuận Tông but before his death, the Retired Emperor Trần Nghệ Tông made Quý Ly promise him supporting the Emperor therefore Hồ Quý Ly decided to force Thuận Tông to abdicate before taking over the throne from the new emperor. After the coronation, Thiếu Đế changed the

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 ...

to Kiến Tân (建新, 1398–1400).

As emperor

Only one year after Trần Thiếu Đế's ascension as emperor, Hồ Quý Ly ordered general Phạm Khả Vĩnh to put the retired emperor Thuận Tông to death. Sometimes later, however, Phạm Khả Vĩnh allied with some imperial house members and high-ranking officials such as Trần Khát Chân, Trần Hãng and Lương Nguyên Bưu in a plot to murder Hồ Quý Ly. The plot failed and Hồ Quý Ly issued the execution of every plotter along with their families and even their slaves. That resulted in the death of over 370 persons. In June 1399, Hồ Quý Ly took another step when he self-entitled Quốc Tổ Chương Hoàng (King Chương Father of the Nation) and began to use ceremonials which were reserved exclusively for the Emperor. Profiting the chaotic situation in royal court, Nguyễn Nhữ Cái gathered thousands of people to rise a revolt against Trần's rulers in the northwestern region. This revolt was put down in December by the troops of general Nguyễn Bằng Cử. Ultimately, the end of the Trần dynasty was tolled on February 28 of the Lunar calendar, 1400 when Hồ Quý Ly decided to overthrow Thiếu Đế and established a new dynasty, the

. Being Hồ Quý Ly's own grandson, Thiếu Đế was only downgraded to Prince Bảo Ninh instead of being killed like his father. His fate during the Hồ dynasty and the subsequent invasion of the Ming dynasty is unknown.

References

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