Three women with strange fates in Vietnamese history

In the feudal history of Vietnam, there have been many women with strange fates. Among them, the cases of Ly Chieu Hoang - Queen of the Ly Dynasty, Le Uy Muc's royal concubine, and Ngoc Binh Princess of King Le Hien Tong are those with the strangest fates.

The ups and downs of Ly Chieu Hoang's life

As the only queen in Vietnamese history, Ly Chieu Hoang could neither protect the Ly dynasty nor decide her own future. Her life was full of ups and downs, hardships that no one could have predicted.

According to Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu, Ly Chieu Hoang (1218-1278) real name Ly Phat Kim, later changed to Ly Thien Hinh, daughter of King Ly Hue Tong and Queen Tran Thi Dung. At the age of 7, Ly Chieu Hoang was ceded the throne by her father.

Ascending the throne at a young age, the royal power fell into the hands of the Tran family. In 1225, according to the arrangement of Tran Thu Do, Ly Chieu Hoang was forced to abdicate the throne to her husband, Tran Canh. The Ly dynasty fell and was replaced by the Tran dynasty.

After abdicating the throne, Ly Chieu Hoang was crowned Queen Chieu Thanh. Seven years later, she gave birth to her first child but the prince died soon after. Fearing that Tran Thai Tong would not have a son to succeed him, Tran Thu Do forced the king to establish a new queen and demoted Chieu Thanh to princess.

Faced with the continuous events of her life, too sad and depressed, she shaved her head and became a nun. However, the fate of the only queen in history was not over yet.

After the resistance war against the Mongols (1257-1258), she was restored to her title of princess and married to Le Phu Tran, who saved King Tran Thai Tong. During the 20 years of living with her new husband, Chieu Thanh gave birth to 2 children.

In 1278, she passed away at the age of 60 during a visit to her hometown in Co Phap (Tu Son, Bac Ninh). During her life, Ly Chieu Hoang had 7 titles. From princess, crown prince, queen of the Ly dynasty to queen, princess, nun, and finally lady under the Tran dynasty.

From slave to queen

In feudal times, slaves were the lowest class in society. They had almost no basic human rights. However, there were people from that low status who became royal concubines. This strange story happened during the reign of King Le Uy Muc of the Later Le Dynasty.

Among the concubines of Le Uy Muc, we must especially mention the case of the royal concubine Le (some documents record her name as Le Thi Thanh), from Vinh Linh district, Quang Tri province today.

According to Dai Viet Thong Su, because her family committed a crime, she was forced to work as a maid in the palace. When Le Uy Muc had not yet ascended the throne, he accidentally saw her and fell in love with her. After becoming king, Le Uy Muc welcomed the maid into the palace and made her his royal concubine.

According to the book O Chau Can Luc, thanks to his favor, the queen's brother, Le, was also given a title and given the important responsibility of recruiting people to reclaim land and establish many new villages in Quang Tri province today.

After her death, the people were grateful to her brothers for their contributions in reclaiming land and establishing villages, so they built temples in many places. Currently, most of the temples are abandoned, only the main temple in Vinh Linh district, Quang Tri province is still preserved. Every year, the people in the area hold a ceremony to worship the Le princess at her temple on the 27th day of the third lunar month.

Princess with strange fate

Like Ly Chieu Hoang, although born into a royal family and bearing the title of "a precious child", Princess Ngoc Binh (1783-1810) of the Later Le Dynasty also had to go through a life of ups and downs.

She was the 23rd daughter of King Le Hien Tong, the younger sister of Princess Ngoc Han - the famous wife of King Quang Trung. Famous for her beauty, in the year At Mao (1795), Princess Ngoc Binh was married to Nguyen Quang Toan (later King Canh Thinh).

After becoming the wife of the Tay Son king, Princess Ngoc Binh was appointed as the main queen. Although she was the queen of the Tay Son dynasty for 6 years, she and King Canh Thinh were still quite young at that time and did not have any children.

After the Tay Son dynasty collapsed in 1801, King Canh Thinh and Princess Ngoc Binh were both captured. King Gia Long decided to take Ngoc Binh as his wife, appointing her as the Third Palace Duc Phi.

According to the book Nine generations of lords, thirteen generations of Nguyen kings, although at that time King Gia Long had many concubines, Ngoc Binh was the one who was closest to the king most often. During nearly 10 years as Gia Long's concubine, Ngoc Binh gave birth to two princes and two princesses.

The forced marriage with Nguyen Anh turned Ngoc Binh into a woman with the strangest fate in Vietnamese history. She was born the daughter of a king, but ended up marrying two husbands who were kings of two opposing dynasties in history.

Because of the special fate and difficult life of Princess Ngoc Binh, people have since spread the song: What a strange fate/ The king's daughter married two kings.