Đinh Phế Đế

Đinh Phế Đế (Hán tự: ; 974–1001) was the second and also the last king of Đinh dynasty. His born name is Đinh Toàn () or Đinh Tuệ (). He is the offspring of Đinh Tiên Hoàng and his famous empress Dương Vân Nga (Đinh Bộ Linh conferred the title of Empress on five consorts).

Early years

He was the second son of Đinh Bộ Lĩnh, after Đinh Liễn and before Đinh Hạng Lang. After Đinh Bộ Lĩnh confers Crown prince on Đinh Hạng Lang, Đinh Liễn angrily killed his younger brother. However, he was not able to access the throne because of a weird reason that a small official named Đỗ Thích dreamed about his accession to the Throne and then he assassinated both Đinh Bộ Lĩnh and Đinh Liễn. Đinh Toàn obviously became the last heir of Đinh Bộ Lĩnh and throning him is an inevitable action. [ Some modern historians hypothesize that Dương Vân Nga intrigued with Lê Hoàn to assassinate Đinh Bộ Lĩnh and Đinh Liễn to enthrone her son, but this is not popularly confirmed]

hort reign

His accession taked place during his childhood made him is only a nonminal king without any power. All power was wielded by the Regent Lê Hoàn, who some months later became the founder of Lê Dynasty. During this short reign, there were some events happening in his court. Two officials, Đinh Điền and Nguyễn Bặc, feared most power concentrated in Lê Hoàn hands could soon replace the Đinh dynasty with one of Lê Hoàn. And also they suspected that he and Dowager Empress Dương Vân Nga had a liaison that was intolerable.

They maneuvered a mutiny opposed Lê Hoàn but it was rapidly suppressed. The prince consort Ngô Nhật Khánh fled to Champa, provoked the Champa monarch to despatch naval army including more than 1000 vessals to defeat Hoa Lư capital but this campaign was not successful because of an unpredictable storm.

In 980, after hearing about the demise of Đinh Bộ Lĩnh, the Song emperor despatch his army to defeat Đại Cồ Việt( one of preceding names of Vietnam ) . In that circumstance, Dowager Empress Dương Vân Nga and the court unanimously enthroned Lê Hoàn. With two battle with Song army, Lê Hoàn ( now King Lê Đại Hành ) exclude the invader out of his realm.To this time, the reign of Đinh Toàn de facto went to the end.

Later years

After being dethroned, Đinh Toàn became “Vệ Vương” , a noble title similar to that of landlord or some kin of the king which have delighted him and was dubbed. By the year 1001, when repressing the rebellion Cửu Long in Thanh Hoa province, he was shooted by the archery and died soon after at the age of 27.Nowadays, historical book have named his title "Đinh Phế Đế," which means "the deposed King of the Đinh Dynasty."

Notes

References

*"Đại việt sử kí toàn thư".