Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh (1780–1801), also known as Prince Cảnh, was the eldest son of the Vietnamese Prince
Nguyễn Phúc Ánh, the future Emperor
Gia Long
Gia Long (Chữ Hán, Chữ hán: 嘉隆) ( (''Hanoi, North''), (''Ho Chi Minh City, South''); 8 February 1762 – 3 February 1820), born Nguyễn Phúc Ánh (阮福暎) or Nguyễn Ánh (阮暎), was the founding emperor of the Nguyễn dynas ...
. At the age of seven, he famously visited France with the French
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
Father
Pigneau de Béhaine to sign an alliance between France and
Vietnam
Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...
. Although Prince Cảnh was the legitimate heir to the throne, he died before his father, and none of his descendants ascended the throne after his half-brother
Nguyễn Phúc Đảm was chosen by Gia Long.
Life
Born April 6, 1780, Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh was the second son of Nguyễn Phúc Ánh and his first wife,
Empress Tống Thị Lan (his older brother died soon after birth).
Embassy to France
In 1785, at the age of five, Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh accompanied the French
Catholic
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
Father
Pigneau de Béhaine to France in order to sign a treaty of alliance between France and Vietnam, the
1788 Treaty of Versailles.
[A History of Vietnam by Oscar Chapuis, p.175]
/ref>[''Dragon Ascending'' by Henry Kamm p.86]
/ref> Prince Canh was also accompanied by two mandarins, a cousin, who became a Catholic known as Prince Pascal, soldiers and servants.[Mantienne, p.84, p.200] The party reached Pondicherry
Pondicherry, officially known as Puducherry, is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of the Puducherry (union territory), Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the southeast coast of Indi ...
in February 1785. Unable to obtain help, they left Pondicherry for France in July 1786. which they reached in February 1787.
The party met with King Louis XVI
Louis XVI (Louis-Auguste; ; 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793) was the last king of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. The son of Louis, Dauphin of France (1729–1765), Louis, Dauphin of France (son and heir- ...
on May 5 or 6, 1787. The Treaty of Versailles (1787) was signed on 28 November 1787. Prince Cảnh created a sensation at the court of Louis XVI, leading the famous hairdresser Léonard to create a hairstyle in his honour "''au prince de Cochinchine''". His portrait was made in France by Maupérin, and is now on display at the Séminaire des Missions Étrangères in Paris. Prince Canh dazzled the Court and even played with the son of Louis XVI, Louis-Joseph, Dauphin of France.
Prince Canh became highly favourable to Christianity. He strongly desired to be baptized, but Pigneau de Behaine refrained doing so in order to avoid a negative reaction at the Vietnamese court.
Return to Vietnam
The party would leave France in December 1787 on board the ''Dryade'', again staying in Pondicherry
Pondicherry, officially known as Puducherry, is the Capital city, capital and most populous city of the Puducherry (union territory), Union Territory of Puducherry in India. The city is in the Puducherry district on the southeast coast of Indi ...
from May 1788 to July 1789. After his return from France, he refused to kneel in front of the altar of his ancestors, and painted crosses on Buddhist statues. He would regularly attend Catholic mass, but was not formally baptized although he wished to.
In 1793, Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh became "Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace" (). From 1794 he participated to all the military expeditions, and his father Nguyễn Ánh insisted that he be accompanied every time by Father Pigneau de Behaine.[Mantienne, p.135] He was besieged by the Tây Sơn with Pigneau de Behaine in the citadel of Duyen Khanh in 1794.
After Pigneau de Behaine died at the Siege of Quy Nhon in 1799, Prince Cảnh made a funerary oration to his former master:
Prince Canh seems to have been baptized secretly towards the end of his life. According to Vietnamese annals:
He died in 1801 of smallpox.[Viêt Nam Exposé By Gisèle Luce Bousquet, Pierre Brocheux, p.204](_blank)
/ref> Missionaries claimed however that he was poisoned. Cảnh was given the posthumous name
A posthumous name is an honorary Personal name, name given mainly to revered dead people in East Asian cultural sphere, East Asian culture. It is predominantly used in Asian countries such as China, Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Malaysia and Thailand. ...
''Anh Duệ Hoàng thái tử'' (英睿皇太子 lit. "The Crown Prince who is outstanding and forethoughtful") by Gia Long. He was buried in Bình Dương, Gia Định (in modern Bình Dương Province).
As Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh was the presumptive heir to Gia Long, Canh's eldest son Mỹ Đường was next in line for the succession. Gia Long however changed the primogeniture
Primogeniture () is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn Legitimacy (family law), legitimate child to inheritance, inherit all or most of their parent's estate (law), estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some childre ...
rule of succession to include "testamental measures" (''gia thien ha''), and ultimately changed his successor to his fourth son, who became emperor Minh Mạng
Minh Mạng (), also known as Minh Mệnh (, vi-hantu, 明 命, lit. "the bright favour of Heaven"; 25 May 1791 – 20 January 1841; born Nguyễn Phúc Đảm, also known as Nguyễn Phúc Kiểu), was the second emperor of the Nguyễ ...
.
Descendants
In 1824, My Duong, the eldest son of Prince Canh, was apparently accused of incest with his mother (Prince Canh's widow) by mandarin Lê Văn Duyệt, with the result that he was banished from the royal court, while his mother died in prison. My Duong was only rehabilitated in 1848 during the reign of Tự Đức
Tự Đức (, vi-hantu, :wikt:嗣, 嗣:wikt:德, 德, , 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, and the country's la ...
, one year before his death.[''A Vietnamese Royal Exile in Japan'' by My-Van Tran, Tran My-Van My Duong p.2]
/ref>
The 1833-1835 Le Van Khoi revolt attempted to reestablish Prince Canh's line to the throne. This choice was designed to obtain the support of Catholic missionaries and Vietnamese Catholics, who had been supporting with Lê Văn Duyệt the line of Prince Canh.[McLeod, p.30]
My Duong's eldest son was Le Trung, who received the title of Marquis ''Ứng Hòa Hầu'' in 1826. Le Trung's eldest son was Anh Nhu (also known as Tang Nhu), who was considered as a candidate to the throne under French rule, following the establishment of the protectorate on Annam in 1884, and once again after the death of Đồng Khánh in 1889.
Anh Nhu, grand-grandson of Prince Canh, was the father of Cường Để
Cường Để (, ; born Nguyễn Phúc Dân ( vi-hantu, 阮福民); 11 January 1882 - 5 April 1951) was an early 20th-century Vietnamese revolutionary and nationalist who, along with Phan Bội Châu, unsuccessfully tried to liberate Vietnam from ...
, the eldest son of three, who became a well-known independentist and collaborator with the Japanese during World War II. Cường Để, according to the old rule of primogeniture was the heir
Inheritance is the practice of receiving private property, titles, debts, entitlements, privileges, rights, and obligations upon the death of an individual. The rules of inheritance differ among societies and have changed over time. Offi ...
of the Nguyễn dynasty
The Nguyễn dynasty (, chữ Nôm: 茹阮, chữ Hán: 朝阮) was the last List of Vietnamese dynasties, Vietnamese dynasty, preceded by the Nguyễn lords and ruling unified Vietnam independently from 1802 until French protectorate in 1883 ...
.
See also
* Empress Thừa Thiên
* France-Vietnam relations
Notes
References
*Mantienne, Frédéric 1999 ''Monseigneur Pigneau de Béhaine'' Eglises d'Asie, Série Histoire,
*McLeod, Mark W. ''The Vietnamese response to French Intervention, 1862-1874'' Greenwood Publishing Group, 1990
External links
A Prince, A Missionary and Three Revolutions
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nguyen, Phuc Canh
Nguyen dynasty princes
1780 births
1801 deaths
Gia Long
Catholic Church in Vietnam
Heirs apparent who never acceded
People from Ho Chi Minh City