Lê Trung Tông (983–1005) was the second emperor under the

Early Lê dynasty The Early Lê dynasty or the Former Lê dynasty ( vi, Nhà Tiền Lê; Hán Nôm: ; ) was a dynasty of Vietnam that existed from 980 to 1009. It followed the Đinh dynasty and was succeeded by the Lý dynasty. It comprised the reigns of thr ...

. He held the throne for only three days in 1005. His reign was considered one of two shortest reigns in Vietnam's history, along with the reign of

Dục Đức Dục Đức (, ; born Nguyễn Phúc Ưng Ái, 23 February 1852 – 6 October 1883), was Emperor of Vietnam for three days, from 20 to 23 July 1883. He was the fifth emperor of the Nguyễn dynasty and father of Emperor Thành Thái, who ruled ...

under 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, ...

Biography

He was born in 983 to Lê Đại Hành and Concubine Diệu Nữ. His birth name was Lê Long Việt (). He was one of ten princes of Lê Đại Hành. After the Crown Prince Long Thâu died, he was chosen as Crown Prince. In 1005, after Lê Đại Hành died, the princes immediately contested over the throne. The conflicts between the royal princes led to a civil war between these princes for eight months, and the nation fell into anarchy. The main war was between the running crown prince and the oldest surviving prince Long Ngân (the second prince in line to the throne after former crown prince Long Thâu). In October 1005, Long Ngân was defeated and quickly fled to Thạch Hà area, but he was captured and killed by locals. This enabled Long Việt to ascend to the throne. But after just three days, he was killed by an assassin sent by his brother

Lê Long Đĩnh Lê Long Đĩnh (; 黎龍鋌, 15 November 986 – 19 November 1009), also known as Lê Ngọa Triều (黎臥朝), was the last emperor of the Early Lê family of the kingdom of Đại Cồ Việt, ruling from 1005 to 1009. After killing his ...

, another rival prince. The assassin merely climbed over the wall, crept into the Emperor's chamber and killed him. As a result, Lê Long Đĩnh was the surviving and undisputed claimant to the royal throne.

Mysterious death

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 unde ...

http://www.informatik.uni-leipzig.de/~duc/sach/dvsktt/dvsktt06.html The emperor was killed by his younger brother Long Đĩnh in mysterious circumstances after reigning only 3 days. All the courtiers ran away except for

Lý Công Uẩn LY or ly may refer to: Government and politics * Libya (ISO 3166-1 country code LY) * Lý dynasty, a Vietnamese dynasty * Labour Youth of Ireland * Legislative Yuan, the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) Science and tech ...

, who wept and embraced the body of the emperor. Long Đĩnh succeeded the dead emperor.

References

Sources

* Trấn Bạch Đằng, Lê Vǎn Nǎm, Nguyễn Quang Vinh, ''Vua Lê Đại Hành'' (Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh: Nhà Xuất Bản Trẻ), 1998. * Trấn Bạch Đằng, Lê Vǎn Nǎm, Nguyễn Đức Hòa, '' Cờ Lau Vạn Thắng Vủỏng'' (Thành Phố Hồ Chí Minh: Nhà Xuất Bản Trẻ), 2005. {{DEFAULTSORT:Le, Long Viet 983 births 1005 deaths Early Lê dynasty emperors 11th-century Vietnamese monarchs Vietnamese monarchs