History
Assisting the Lý Prince
Not much is known about Tô Trung Từ's past, other than that he is the brother-in-law of Trần Lý, who married his sister Tô Phu Nhân, and that he was a relative of Tô Hiến Thành, who was one of the most prominent mandarins at the time during the Lý dynasty. He was also the uncle of several prominent members of the Trần clan, such as the Marquis Trần Tự Khánh, Trần Thị Dung who was the last empress of the Lý dynasty and Trần Thừa who was the head of the Trần clan and whose son,Seizing control over the Lý Dynasty
Ascension within the Royal Court
Tô Trung Từ escorted Emperor Cao Tông to the capital city while Prince Sảm was still at Hải Ấp along with Trần Lý's son's Trần Thừa and Trần Tự Khánh, due to Quách Bốc's prior rebellion. At this point, Trung Từ wanted to seize all the power to himself, so he first decided to separate Prince Lý Sảm away from the Trần sons. At the beginning of 1210, King Cao Tông fell seriously ill, so the king wanted to welcome his son Prince Sảm to the throne. At this point, Tô Trung Từ staged a fake attack using a pretentious army in order to quell the supposed rebels at Khoái Châu, only to come to Hải Ấp to seize the prince. Not long afterwards, Cao Tông sent his officer Đỗ Quảng to come and pick up Prince Sảm. At the end of 1210, Emperor Lý Cao Tông finally succumbed and died from his illness, but before dying, he commissioned Master Đỗ Kính Tu to look after Prince Sảm. Lý Sảm then ascended to the throne after his father's death and took on the title of Lý Huệ Tông, but to much surprise, it was not Đỗ Kính Tu but Tô Trung Từ instead who had become the ruler of the court and thus was the closest one to the now emperor Huệ Tông. After ascending to the throne, Huệ Tông asked that Trần Thị Dung be his wife, but her brother, Trần Tự Khánh did not consent. By this time, Tô Trung Từ had won over the emperor away from the Trần clan should any contradictions or disputes arise with Tự Khánh.Rise to Power in Lý Dynasty
At this point, Emperor Huệ Tông, now seeing that Trung Từ had seized considerable power within the court, decided to send his officer Đỗ Kính Tu to seek out and battle him. In December 1210, the Empress along with Đỗ Quảng's group captured Kính Tu and handed him over to Trung Từ. Kính Tu was later drowned by Trung Từ and was found dead near Đại Thông. Afterwards, the ranking officers of the Lý dynasty continued to plot against the usurper Tô Trung Từ. Shortly thereafter, Trung Từ heard of news from his officers that Đỗ Thế Quy, Phí Liệt, and Đỗ Quảng were planning to dispatch their troops to fight against him, so he set out his forces to take down those people first. However, before he was about to launch his attack, Trung Từ realized that his army was smaller than Đỗ Quảng's and Phí Liệt's, who had too many soldiers for his forces to handle. Trung Từ thus changed his plans and tried to find a way to deceive the Lý generals in order to buy time to increase the size of his army. Trung Từ then sent a messenger to generals Đỗ Quảng and Phí Liệt, saying that: "The king has now died, the people are still in grief, why not retreat your soldiers, and then return to the dynasty to consider the plan of joining forces to assist the seventh king, is that not good?" Đỗ Quảng and Phí Liệt agreed to the plan and to meet with Trung Từ. Since that day was an afternoon, they planned to meet the following morning instead. That night however, Tô Trung Từ began to increase his troops more than the day before in preparation to attack and take out Quảng and Liệt. The following day, Đỗ Quảng and Phí Liệt arrived and waited for the arrival of general Trung Từ. Unbeknownst to them however, Trung Từ had secretly came first to Tứ Đạt and ordered his general Đào Phán to maneuver his army to the right side and build a place for the soldiers to reside in at Sa Trì and Long Trì, while general Nguyễn Tự and his son-in-law Nguyễn Ma La were stationed at the troops stronghold, Thiên Thu. At that time, while Quảng and Liệt were eating, Liệt heard from Cao Kha that Tô Trung Từ had been gathering his soldiers in preparation for an attack; Cao Kha had seen the soldiers throw chopsticks and threateningly raise their weapons as they arrived at Long môn, and he saw Đào Phán's troops beating their drums and yelling provokingly, signifying aggression. General Quảng and Liệt were able to drive off Đào Phán and his forces; Đào fled away after battle to Thiên Thu gate in order to escape Quảng and Liệt. Đào Phán then, along with his troops, attacked Đỗ Thế Quy. Thế Quy then ran off and hid under the tomb of the now deceased Emperor Cao Tông. Tô Trung Từ then came to the scene and was able to capture Thế Quy, where he then proceeded to order the execution of Thế Quy at chợ Đông. Upon hearing the news of Emperor Cao Tông's death, Trần Tự Khánh brought forth his troops to Tế Giang (Mỹ Văn, Hưng Yên) and asked for Tô Trung Từ to attend the Emperor's funeral, but Trung Từ refused, fearing that Trần Tự would burn down the citadel. Trần Tự thus was forced to draw his forces back to Thuận Lưu. In early 1211, Emperor Huệ Tông sent a person to pick up Trần Thị Dung. This time, Tự Khánh agreed to send his sister to the court and ordered two military commanders Phan Lân and Nguyễn Ngạnh to act as military escorts. When the troops escorted to Thăng Long, it was time for Trung Từ to clash with Đỗ Quảng's troops. Trung Từ and his two generals Phan and Nguyễn were able to destroy Quảng's army. The following month, Quảng was captured and beaten by Từ's forces.Downfall and Death
Though Trung Từ succeeded in disposing of the former royalties of the Lý dynasty, his internal insight was doubtful. His "Bộ tướng", or lower ranked general Nguyễn Tự wanted to dispose of his son-in-law, Nguyễn Ma La and tried to betray Trung Từ, which Tô Trung later found out when one of Nguyễn Tự's lower generals reported this news to him. In response, Từ stripped Nguyễn Tự of his military position. Tự later fled away to Quốc Oai where he later ruled as a feudal lord. Things continued to deteriorate for Trung Từ; he became fascinated by the beauty of the princess Thiên Cực, who was the wife of the Minister Vương Thượng and who had previously had a former relationship with the then deceased Phạm Du, who had been previously killed by an ambush in Ma Lãng. One night, on June 6, 1211, Tô Trung Từ went to Gia Lâm alongside the princess Thiên Cực, where he was then arrested in an ambush by Vương Thượng and executed thereafter. According to the Lý dynasty law, if a man and woman were caught cheating, the husband could kill the rival without being found guilty of a crime. Soon after Trung Từ's death, the city fell into chaos. His son-in-law, Nguyễn Ma La saw his father-in-law being murdered, so he started to plot with the Trần family; Ma La later asked Tự Khánh to use his soldiers in order to quell the chaos within the city. Later, Ma La, along with his wife Tô thị (the younger cousin of Trần Tự Khánh) boarded a boat headed towards Thuận Lưu to meet with one of Tô Trung Từ's generals, Nguyễn Trinh, but Trinh then killed Nguyễn Ma La and had also toke Tô thị. Tô thị ordered somebody to accuse Trần Thừa of masterminding the plot. Trần Thừa thus ordered Tô thị to seduce and kill Trinh, dealing a devastating blow to Trung Từ's forces. Soon afterwards, Tô Trung Từ's forces fell into complete disintegration as a result. While Ma La's body was being pulled out by the troops, and as the entire city vacated, Tự Khánh returned the troops back to the capital and then later had a funeral for Tô Trung Từ in Hoạch village. After that, the fighting and hostilities between the warlords grew fiercer until finally Trần Tự Khánh was able to defeat the former Lý dynasty and toke control of the Lý dynasty afterwards.Legacy
Tô Trung Từ's rise to power and downfall in the Lý dynasty draws many parallels with and is often compared to the rise and fall ofReferences
{{DEFAULTSORT:To, Trung Tu 1211 deaths Lý dynasty generals Lý dynasty officials