Later Le dynasty (Vietnam)
State | Defunct
1428 CE to 1788 CE
The Later Lê dynasty, sometimes referred to as the Lê dynasty (the earlier Lê dynasty ruled only for a brief period (980–1009)), is the longest-ruling dynasty of Vietnam, ruling the country from 1428 to 1788, with a brief six-year interruption of the Mạc dynasty usurpers (1527–1533).
Vietnamese historians usually distinguish the one hundred-year Primitive Lê Dynasty (1428 to 1527) from two hundred and fifty-six years of figurehead emperors of the Restored Lê Dynasty (1533 to 1789) following the dynasty's restoration by powerful warlords.
The dynasty officially begins in 1428 with the coronation of Lê Lợi after he drivesthe Ming army from Vietnam.
In 1527, the Mạc dynasty usurps the throne; when the Lê dynasty is restored in 1533, they still have to compete for power with the Mạc dynasty during the period known as Southern and Northern Dynasties.
The restored Lê emperors hold no real power, and by the time the Mạc dynasty is confined to only a small area in 1592 and finally eradicated in 1677, actual power is in the hands of the Nguyễn lords in the South and the Trịnh lords in the North, both ruling in the name of the Lê emperor while fighting each other.
Their rule officially ends in 1788, when the peasant uprising of the Tây Sơn brothers defeats both the Trịnh and the Nguyễn, ironically in order to restore power to the Lê dynasty.
The Lê dynasty's rule sees Vietnam's territories grow from a small state in northern Vietnam at the time of Lê Lợi's coronation into almost its current size by the time the Tây Sơn brothers take over.
It also sees massive changes to Vietnamese society: the previously Buddhist state becomes Confucian after twenty years of Ming rule.
The Lê emperors institute many changes modeled after the Chinese system, including the civil service and laws.
Their long-lasting rule is attributed to the popularity of the early emperors.
Lê Lợi's liberation of the country from twenty years of Ming rule and Lê Thánh Tông's bringing the country into a golden age was well-remembered by the people.
Even when restored Lê emperors' rule is marked by civil strife and constant peasant uprisings, few dared to openly challenge their power, at least in name, for fear of losing popular support.
When the Mạc dynasty tries to do so, they ae not successful and are considered as usurpers and not recorded in official histories by later dynasties.
Related Events
Showing 10 events out of 24 total
Le Loi, after supplying junks to transport the defeated Chinese troops back to China, orders Tran Cao killed and assumes the throne as the first ruler of the Le dynasty, soon afterward concluding a peace with Yongle’s successor.
The Vietnamese, or Annamese, to the north of Champa, invade once again in 1446 and seize the Cham capital of Vijaya (Binh Dinh).
The Chams, refusing assistance from the Chinese, manage to recapture their capital, but civil strife increasingly weakens their kingdom.
Queen Nguyễn Thị Anh, regent of Dai Viet, has over the past several years come into greater conflict with Imperial Councilor Trịnh Khả and the other oligarchs who rule the country.
The Queen has gained some support from the Confucian scholars who had passed the Imperial examinations and have tried to rule much like their Chinese colleges to the north rule in the Ming imperial system.
The nobles in turn have tried to limit the power of the scholars and maintain their own control over the government.
For reasons lost to history, the Queen had ordered Trịnh Khả and his eldest son executed in August 1451.
Two years later, upon the official enthronement of Lê Nhân Tông (at the age of twelve), Trịnh Khả had been pardoned and new lands had been given to the Trịnh family, which will continued to be a major noble family in Vietnam.
Prince Tu had been educated just like his half brother, the emperor, at the palace in Hanoi.
When his elder half brother, Nghi Dân, staged a coup in 1459 and killed the emperor, Prince Tu had been spared.
Nine months later, when the second counter-coup had been successfully carried out, the plotters ask Prince Tu to become the new emperor and he accepts, taking the throne as Lê Thánh Tông.
The leaders of the counter-coup that has removed (and killed) Nghi Dân are two of the last surviving friends and aides of Lê Lợi: Nguyen Xi and Đinh Liệt.
These two old men have been out of power since the 1440s but they still command respect due to their association with the heroic Lê Lợi.
The new king had appointed these men to the highest positions in his new government, Nguyen Xi as Emperor’s Councilor and Đinh Liệt as commander of the army of Vietnam.
With the death of Nguyen Xi in 1465, the noble families from Thanh Hóa province lose their leader and they are mostly relegated to secondary positions in the new Confucian government of Thánh Tông.
However, they still retain control over Vietnam's armies, the old general, Đinh Liệt, remaining in command of the army.
Civil warfare in the kingdom of Champa has resulted in five different rulers in little more than two decades.
Lê Thánh Tông, the ruler of Dai Viet, or Annam, launches a bloody campaign against the Chams in 1471, seizing and pillaging the Cham capital of Vijaya (Binh Dinh), killing about forty thousand Chams, and capturing thirty thousand more, including fifty members of the royal family.
Champa’s king is slain and most of its territory incorporated into Vietnamese, or Annamese, territory, leaving only a small, weak Cham kingdom in the south as a buffer state between the Vietnamese and the Khmers.
Mạc Đăng Dung, famed for his strength and cunning, had gotten got his start around 1506 as a bodyguard for the cruel and reviled Lê Emperor of Dai Viet, Lê Uy Mục.
Despite the deaths of several emperors, Mạc Đăng Dung had increased his power over time and gained many supporters.
However, he had also gained the enmity of other rivals for power.
A civil war starting around 1520 will last, with occasional breaks, for the next one hundred and fifty years.
The young Emperor, Lê Chiêu Tông, apparently fearing the growing ambition of Mạc Đăng Dung, fled to the south.
A revolt had begun, with the Trịnh and the Nguyễn families claiming to support the Emperor against the power of Mạc Đăng Dung.
Mạc Đăng Dung had responded by proclaimed the Emperor's younger brother, Prince Xuan, was now the true Emperor and installed him as Emperor under the name Lê Cung Hoàng.
The revolt had ended, temporarily, when Mạc Đăng Dung's forces captured and executed Lê Chiêu Tông along with the leaders of the revolt.
Mạc Đăng Dung in 1527 had removed the figurehead Emperor he had installed earlier and proclaimed himself as the new Emperor under the title Minh Đức.
This usurpation of the throne from the rightful Lê Emperors was not well received by the officials in the government.
Some were killed, some committed suicide, and some have fled to the south to join a new revolt by the Trịnh and the Nguyễn families against the Mạc Emperors.
A new revolt had begun, and both sides try to pull in allies, mainly the Ming dynasty but also King Phothisarat I of Lan Xang (modern-day Laos).
Mạc Đăng Dung, through submissive diplomacy and massive bribes, had persuaded the Ming not to attack in 1528, managing to obtain a temporary recognition of his rule.
He had abdicated his position as Emperor the following year in favor of his son, Mạc Đăng Doanh.
However, this had been done purely to solidify his son's claim to rule after he is gone.
In reality, Mạc Đăng Dung continues to rule with the title of Senior Emperor.
His son is not the equal of his father and as a result of several defeats, he has lost control of the provinces south of the Red River as the revolt has gathered strength.
The Nguyễn-Trịnh army in 1533 conquers the Winter Palace and proclaims Lê Trang Tông the rightful ruler of Vietnam.
The figurehead Lê emperor is officially crowned at the newly recaptured southern capital.
King Photisarath, one of the great kings of Lan Xang, had taken Nang Yot Kham Tip from Lanna as his queen as well as lesser queens from Ayutthaya, and Longvek.
Photisarath is a devout Buddhist, and has declared it as the state religion of Lan Xang.
In 1523 he had requested a copy of the Tripiṭaka from King Kaeo in Lanna, and in 1527 he had abolished spirit worship throughout the kingdom.
In 1532 the period of peace ended for Lan Xang when Muang Phuan rebelled; it will take Photisarath two years to fully suppress the rebellion.
In 1533 he moves his court to Vientiane, the commercial capital of Lan Xang, which is located on the floodplains of the Mekong below the capital at Luang Prabang.
Vientiane is the principal city of Lan Xang, and lies at the confluence of trade routes, but this access also makes it the focal point for invasion from which it is difficult to defend.
However, the move does allow Photisarath to better administer the kingdom and to respond to the outlying provinces that border the Đại Việt, Ayutthaya and the increasingly powerful Burmese polity.
The situation for Mạc Đăng Doanh turns desperate a few years later as an official Ming delegation reports that the Mạc rule is illegitimate and that the Lê should be restored to power.
As a result, in 1537 a huge Ming army comes down from the north with orders to defeat the Mạc.
In the summer of this year, Mạc Đăng Doanh dies and his father reclaims the throne.
Once again, Mạc Đăng Dung manages to send the Ming away by means of diplomacy (and bribes).
The Ming official position is that the Mạc should rule over the northern half of Vietnam, while the Lê should rule over the southern half (in other words, below the Red River).
The Ming army now returns home, but the Nguyễn and the Trịnh refuse to accept this division of the country and the war continues.
Major offensives by the Trinh in 1661 and 1672 founder on the walls built by the Nguyen, after which a truce in the fighting ensues that will last nearly one hundred years.
During this time, the Nguyen continues its southward expansion into lands held, or formerly held, by the Cham and the Khmer.
The Trinh, meanwhile, consolidates its authority in the north, instituting administrative reforms and supporting scholarship.
The nobility and scholar-officials of both north and south, however, continue to block the development of manufacturing and trade, preferring to retain a feudal, peasant society, which they can control.
The Thai capture of Lovek, more than their conquest of Angkor a century and a half earlier, marks the beginning of a decline in Cambodia's fortunes.
One possible reason for the decline is the labor drain imposed by the Thai conquerors as they march thousands of Khmer peasants, skilled artisans, scholars, and members of the Buddhist clergy back to their capital of Ayutthaya.
This practice, common in the history of Southeast Asia, cripples Cambodia's ability to recover a semblance of its former greatness.
A new Khmer capital is established at Odongk (Udong), south of Lovek, but its monarchs can survive only by entering into what amounts to vassal relationships with the Thai and with the Vietnamese.
In common parlance, Thailand becomes Cambodia's "father" and Vietnam its "mother."