The history of Việt Nam: my very brief version - Part 3

The Later Lê Dynasty - Beginning (1428 CE - 1527 CE)

In 1428 CE, after ten years of fighting against the Ming's army, Lê Lợi finally defeated it and ascended the throne, establishing the longest dynasty in Việt Nam, through twenty seven kings, for 355 years. The Later Lê Dynasty is divided into two periods: the Beginning, lasting for 99 years, and the Revival, lasting for 256 years. According to various websites relating to the Lê's clan genealogy, Lê Lợi was a descendant of Lê Hoàn, the founder of the Earlier Lê Dynasty, but this claim was not substantiated by official historical records. The Later Lê Dynasty is related to the Trần Dynasty through a marriage between King Lê Uy Mục, the seventh king, and Queen Trần Thị Tùng, a descendant.

Lê Thái Tổ (Lê Lợi) changed the name of the country back to Đại Việt (Great Việt), the name of Việt Nam since the Lý Dynasty. He also changed the name of Thăng Long to Đông King or Eastern Capital. The first period of the dynasty has ten kings. With the exception of three kings, all of them ascended the throne at a young age. They also died prematurely, either by ill health or by being killed, which greatly affected the stability of dynasty. Most historians believed that the reign of King Lê Thánh Tông, the fourth king, between 1460 and 1497 CE, was the height of the Later Lê Dynasty. He promoted Neo-Confucianism at the expense of Buddhism and Taoism, continuing the trend that started during the brief Hồ Dynasty. Also, he revised and improved the laws in existence since the Lý Dynasty. Under the new laws, Hồng Đức Laws, women had the same rights as men regarding inheritance and marriage, which were unlike that of the Ming's laws in China. He also promoted agriculture as the foundation of the country at the expense of mercantilism.

During the reign of King Lê Thánh Tông, there was a major campaign against Champa in 1471 CE. Its territory was greatly reduced to just today's Phú Yên, Khánh Hòa, Ninh Thuận, and Bình Thuận provinces. From this point onward, Champa no longer posed a threat and its remaining territory was slowly absorbed by Việt Nam in the next four centuries. King Lê Thánh Tông also waged a successful campaign against Laos and its allies between 1479 CE and 1480 CE, expanding the boundary of northern Việt Nam westward to approximately present day's.

In 1516 CE, Duke of Nguyên, Trịnh Duy Sản, staged a coup d'etat by killing King Lê Tương Dực, the eighth king, thus signaling the beginning of the end of the first period of the Later Lê Dynasty. Internal conflicts were constant in the next eleven years among various factions of the royal family and their supporters, which allowed Prince of An Hưng, Mạc Đăng Dung, an outsider, to take the throne from King Lê Cung Hoàng, the tenth king, in 1527 CE.

I notice that some of the princes of the Later Lê Dynasty not only killed their rivals, who were their brothers, for the throne, but also killed other royal members such as the mothers of their rivals and in one instance the grandmother. It is something that I have not seen during the Lý-Trần period. I wonder if the decline of Buddhism was one of the causes?

Source: Multiple authors. "Lê Lợi." en.wikipedia.org. Updated on February 23, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%AA_L%E1%BB%A3i

Multiple authors. "Nhà Hậu Lê." vi.wikipedia.org. Updated on January 20, 2025. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nh%C3%A0_H%E1%BA%ADu_L%C3%AA

Multiple authors. "Nhà Lê Sơ." vi.wikipedia.org. Updated on November 26, 2024. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nh%C3%A0_L%C3%AA_s%C6%A1

Lê Thị Loan. "Vương triều nhà Hậu Lê với 7 cái nhất trong lịch sự chế độ phong kiến Việt Nam." March 9, 2024. https://danviet.vn/vuong-trieu-nha-hau-le-voi-7-cai-nhat-lich-su-che-do-phong-kien-viet-nam-co-vua-len-ngoi-tre-nhat-20240903113528803.htm

Multiple authors. "Lê Thái Tổ." vi.wikipedia.org. Updated on February 19, 2025. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%AA_Th%C3%A1i_T%E1%BB%95

Unknown author. "Họ Lê Việt Nam." holevietnam.vn. Date unknown. https://holevietnam.vn/truyen-thong-dong-ho/

Lê Đình Long. "Viết về gia sử của dòng ho." vietnamgiapha.com. Date unknown. https://vietnamgiapha.com/XemPhaKy/41/pha_ky_gia_su.html

Unknown author. "Viết về thủy tổ của dòng ho." vietnamgiapha.com. Date unknown https://vietnamgiapha.com/XemThuyTo/7027/thuyto.html

Lê Thái Dũng. "Số phận bi thảm của hai hoàng hậu nhà Hậu Lê." Nghiên cứu lịch sử. January 23, 2013. https://nghiencuulichsu.com/2013/01/23/so-phan-bi-tham-cua-hai-hoang-hau-nha-hau-le/

Multiple authors. "Trần Thị Tùng." vi.wikipedia.org. Updated on November 18. 2024. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tr%E1%BA%A7n_Th%E1%BB%8B_T%C3%B9ng

Multiple authors. "Lê Thánh Tông." vi.wikipedia.org. Updated on February 21, 2025. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%AA_Th%C3%A1nh_T%C3%B4ng

Hoàng Đông. "Thăm kinh thành cổ Lam Kinh." October 13, 2021. Thanh Hóa Radio and Television. https://truyenhinhthanhhoa.vn/tham-kinh-thanh-co-lam-kinh-1808367355.htm

Image source: Created by author, "Ba Đình District, Hà Nội," 2025. https://www.google.com/maps/@21.0347355,105.8333586,2029m/data=!3m1!1e3?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDEyMi4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D Altered from source photo.

Image source: Unknown photographer, "Khu di tích lịch sử Lam Kinh ," 2024. https://doanhnghiephoinhap.vn/ngay-xuan-ve-xu-thanh-tham-thanh-co-lam-kinh-957.html Altered from source photo.

Image source: Chí Tâm, "Thái miếu nhà Hậu Lê," 2024. https://congthuong.vn/dau-xuan-ghe-tham-thai-mieu-nha-hau-le-303078.html Altered from source photo.

Image source: Doãn Hiệu, "Bản đồ thay đổi lãnh Việt Nam trong lịch sử," 2019. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/L%C3%A3nh_th%E1%BB%95_Vi%E1%BB%87t_Nam_qua_t%E1%BB%ABng_th%E1%BB%9Di_k%E1%BB%B3 Unaltered from source photo.

The Mạc Dynasty (1527 CE - 1592 CE)

Mạc Đăng Dung ascended the throne in 1527 CE to establish the Mạc Dynasty, through six kings for 65 years. King Mạc Đăng Dung was a direct descendant of Mạc Đĩng Chi, a top ranked doctorate graduate and a high ranking Mandarin during three reigns of the Trần Dynasty. Mạc Đĩnh Chi led several diplomatic missions to the Yuan Court, in present day Beijing. During one of those missions, he visited the Goryeo Kingdom, present day Korea, and married a niece of a Grand Mandarin of that country, whom he met at the Yuan Court, earlier. He had several children with her but she decided to stay in Goryeo with their offsprings. In 1926, there was a story in An Nam magazine by Lê Khắc Hòe, that recounted a chance meeting of the author and a 20th generation descendant of Mạc Đĩnh Chi, who came back to Việt Nam to search for his ancestry in Hải Dương province.

The Mạc Dynasty got a bad rap from historians of the Revived Later Lê Dynasty but today's historians are much more magnanimous. First of all, King Mạc Đăng Dung ended the factional fightings among court officials and also among members of the previous royal family, which had caused so much hardships for the common people. Secondly, he continued the policies of the Later Lê Dynasty with the exceptions that he promoted tradings with nearby Southeast Asian nations, the opposite of the previous dynasty. Thirdly, he did not suppress Buddhism and Taoism even though he continued to elevate Neo-Confucianism.

In 1529 CE, Marquis of An Thanh, Nguyễn Kim, escaped to Laos with his family. There, he raised a small army to fight the Mạc's forces sporadically between 1530 and 1531 CE. In 1533 CE, Nguyễn Kim crowned a son of King Lê Chiêu Tông, the ninth king of the Later Lê Dynasty, as King Lê Trang Tông, to continue the Later Lê Dynasty or better known as the Revived Later Lê Dynasty. In 1545 CE, Nguyễn Kim was poisoned by a Mạc's general, Marquis of Trung Hậu, whom he thought was defecting to his side. His son-in-law, Trịnh Kiểm, took over the campaign to overthrow the Mạc Dynasty.

In 1592 CE, King Mạc Cảnh Tông, the sixth king, lost Thăng Long to the Trịnh Kiểm and got captured and executed. The descendants retreated to Cao Bằng province to continue the dynasty concurrently with the second period of the Later Lê Dynasty, for another 85 years, until it finally ended in 1677 CE, when Mạc Kính Vũ was defeated. He fled to Longzhou, in Guangxi province, China, and died in exile.

When the Mạc Dynasty collapsed, Vietnamese with Mạc as their last name were forced to change to forty different ones in order to avoid persecution.*

*My maternal grandfather, a minor Mandarin of the Nguyễn Dynasty during the French Colonial period, recounted in his memoir that the family last name was once Mạc but later changed to Nguyễn.

Source: G.S. Văn Tạo. "Nhà Mạc và Thái tổ Mạc Đăng Dung trong lịch sử dân tộc." Hà Nội Mới. July 3, 2015. https://hanoimoi.vn/nha-mac-va-thai-to-mac-dang-dung-trong-lich-su-dan-toc-399293.html

Multiple authors. "Mạc Đĩnh Chi." vi.wikipedia.org. Updated on February 8, 2025. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%E1%BA%A1c_%C4%90%C4%A9nh_Chi

Lý Xuân Chung. "Hậu duệ Mạc Đĩnh Chi có ở Hàn quốc." mactoc.com. February 28. 2012. https://mactoc.com/hau-due-mac-inh-chi-co-o-han-quoc-2/

Multiple authors. "Nhà Mạc." vi.wikipedia.com. Updated on December 19, 2024. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nh%C3%A0_M%E1%BA%A1c

Phạm Xuân Dũng. "Lạ lùng cái chuyện họ tên: một họ thành bốn mươi họ." July 14, 2015. https://tuoitre.vn/mot-ho-thanh-bon-muoi-ho-777072.htm

Multiple authors. "Mạc Thái Tổ." vi.wikipedia.com. Updated on September 5, 2024. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%E1%BA%A1c_Th%C3%A1i_T%E1%BB%95

The Later Lê Dynasty - Revival (1533 CE - 1789 CE)

The Revived Later Lê Dynasty began with the crowning of King Lê Trang Tông in 1533 CE. It would last for another 256 years, until 1789 CE, through seventeen kings, who did not actually rule. The Trịnh Lords ruled in their names.

The Trịnh Lords (1545 CE - 1787 CE)

Duke Trịnh Kiểm took Thăng Long in 1592 CE to end the Mạc Dynasty. He established a ruling family that governed Việt Nam from north of present day Quảng Bình province to the current boundary with China, through eleven lords, until 1787 CE. The Later Lê Kings sat on the throne but did not actually rule. The two families, Lê and Trịnh, were intertwined through marriages between the daughters of the Trịnh Lords and the Later Lê Kings. It is interesting to note that the opposite did not happen. Historians of the Nguyễn Dynasty referred to the Trịnh's territory as the Outer Realm (Đàng Ngoài).

Source: Multiple authors. "Chúa Trịnh." vi.wikipedia.org. Updated on January 12, 2025. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ch%C3%BAa_Tr%E1%BB%8Bnh

Unknown author. "Triều đại Hậu Lê - Lê Trung Hưng (1533-1789)." Cổng Thông Tin Điện Tử Huyện Thọ Xuân. October 6, 2021. https://thoxuan.thanhhoa.gov.vn/web/trang-chu/du-lich-di-tich-lich-su/du-lich-tho-xuan/di-tich-danh-thang/trieu-dai-hau-le-le-trung-hung-1533-1789.html

Multiple authors. "Nhà Lê trung hưng." vi.wikipedia.org. Updated on January 10, 2025. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nh%C3%A0_L%C3%AA_trung_h%C6%B0ng

Unknown author. "Các chúa Trịnh - vị trí vai trò lịch sử." quansuvn.net. Date unknown. https://www.quansuvn.net/index.php?topic=10484.15;wap2

Multiple authors. "Thể loại: Vương phi chúa Trịnh." vi.wikipedia.org. Updated on April 18. 2020. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Th%E1%BB%83_lo%E1%BA%A1i:V%C6%B0%C6%A1ng_phi_ch%C3%BAa_Tr%E1%BB%8Bnh

The Nguyễn Lords (1558 CE - 1777 CE)

Marquis Nguyễn Hoàng, the first Nguyễn Lord, was the younger son of Duke Nguyễn Kim. According to some historical sources, Nguyễn Hoàng asked his sister, Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Bảo, to intercede with Trịnh Kiểm, her husband, to allow him to govern Thuận Hóa, a distant land in present day Quảng Bình, Quảng Trị, Huế Thừa Thiên provinces and the northern part of Quảng Nam province, so that he would be far from danger. His elder brother, Duke Nguyễn Uông, was rumored to be assassinated by Trịnh Kiểm, earlier. In Thuận Hóa, Nguyễn Hoàng established a rival ruling family, that also acknowledged the Revived Later Lê's rulers as its kings, similarly to that of the Trinh's. Its rule would last until 1777 CE, through nine lords, and its territory would expand south to the Gulf of Thailand. The historians of the Nguyễn Dynasty referred to the territory of the Nguyễn Lords as the Inner Realm (Đàng Trong). His daughter, Nguyễn Thị Ngọc Tú, married Trịnh Tráng, the second Trịnh Lord. His granddaughter, Trịnh Thị Ngọc Trúc, was Queen of King Lê Thần Tông, the seventeenth King of the Later Lê Dynasty. His son and successor, Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên, married King Mạc Đăng Dung's granddaughter, Mạc Thị Giai. His direct descendant, Emperor Gia Long, went on to establish the Nguyễn Dynasty. Similarly to the Lý's and their Trần's in-law, who shaped the history of Việt Nam for four centuries after independence, the Nguyễn's along with their in-laws: Lê's, Mạc's, and Trịnh's, determined its course for the next five centuries.

Source: Multiple authors. "Trịnh Thị Ngọc Trúc." vi.wikipedia.org. Updated on February 21, 2024. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tr%E1%BB%8Bnh_Th%E1%BB%8B_Ng%E1%BB%8Dc_Tr%C3%BAc

Multiple authors. "Nguyễn Hoàng." vi.wikipedia.org. Updated on January 19, 2025. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguy%E1%BB%85n_Ho%C3%A0ng

Multiple authors. "Công Nữ Ngọc Tú." vi.wikipedia.org. Updated on June 7, 2023. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%B4ng_n%E1%BB%AF_Ng%E1%BB%8Dc_T%C3%BA

Multiple authors. "Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên." vi.wikipedia.org. Updated on January 17, 2025. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguy%E1%BB%85n_Ph%C3%BAc_Nguy%C3%AAn

Multiple authors. "Mạc Thị Giai." vi.wikipedia.org. Updated on December 4, 2024. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%E1%BA%A1c_Th%E1%BB%8B_Giai

Between the 16th and 18th century, tradings with foreign countries were encouraged but they were limited to two locations: Phố Hiến, present day Hưng Yên, in the north, and Hội An, in the south. In the 18th century, Hội An, also known as Faifo in Europe, was considered to be the best trading location in Southeast Asia. The Nguyễn Lords allowed the Chinese and Japanese merchants to establish settlements here. In the north, Phố Hiến had settlements by merchants from China, India, Japan, Portugal, and other countries, at its height in the 17th century. There was a saying at that time that Phố Hiến was second only to Đông Kinh (Thăng Long) in terms of wealth. During this period, the Portuguese and Spanish missionaries also started to arrive in Việt Nam, to spread Catholicism.

Source: Trà Vân. "Phục dựng Phố Hiến xưa trở thành điểm du lịch mang tính lịch sử, văn hóa." Thanh tra. February 19. 2022. https://thanhtra.com.vn/xa-hoi/doi-song/phuc-dung-pho-hien-xua-tro-thanh-diem-du-lich-mang-tinh-lich-su-van-hoa-194239.html

Multiple authors. "Hội An." vi.wikipedia.org. Updated on January 12, 2025. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%E1%BB%99i_An

The Nguyễn Lords continued to pursue the policy of southward expansion of previous dynasties at the expense of Champa and present day Cambodia. In 1611 CE, Lord Nguyễn Hoàng attacked Champa and took present day Phú Yên province. In 1653 CE, present day Khánh Hòa province was annexed. By 1692 CE, Champa ceased to exist as an independent nation. Its small remaining territory became a protectorate of the Nguyễn Lords. In 1620 CE, Lord Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên arranged a marriage between his daughter, Nguyễn Ngọc Vạn, and King Chey Chettha II of the Kingdom of Chenla, present day Cambodia. The Vietnamese were allowed to settle in present day Hồ Chí Minh City because of this marriage. Between 1658 and 1757 CE, the Nguyễn Lords assisted various Chenla princes in their fights for the throne. Each time, they ceded a portion of present day southern Việt Nam in return. By 1757 CE, the Nguyễn Lords had expanded their territory to the Gulf of Thailand.

Source: GS. TS. Song Jung Nam. "Lịch sử mở rộng lãnh thổ về phía nam của Việt Nam (1009-1847)." Đại Học Thái Nguyen. March 8, 2017. https://lichsu.tnus.edu.vn/chi-tiet/712-Lich-su-mo-rong-lanh-tho-ve-phia-Nam-cua-Viet-Nam--1009-1847

Multiple authors. "Quá trình mở rộng lãnh thổ của Việt Nam."vi.wikipedia.org. Updated on January 24, 2025. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qu%C3%A1_tr%C3%ACnh_m%E1%BB%9F_r%E1%BB%99ng_l%C3%A3nh_th%E1%BB%95_c%E1%BB%A7a_Vi%E1%BB%87t_Nam

Relationship with the Trinh's was marked by wars then finally truce. Between 1627 and 1672 CE, there were seven major wars for political supremacy. Neither army could defeat the other's so truce prevailed and lasted for one hundred years.

Source: Multiple authors. "Trịnh - Nguyễn phân tranh." vi.wikipedia.org. Updated on December 22, 2024. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tr%E1%BB%8Bnh_%E2%80%93_Nguy%E1%BB%85n_ph%C3%A2n_tranh

Image source: Unknown creator. "Southern expansion of Imperial Vietnam." GlobalSecurity.org. Year unknown. https://www.globalsecurity.org/jhtml/jframe.html#https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/vietnam/images/indochina-map-history-1.gif||| Altered from source photo.