|
Emperor Dong Khanh (同慶帝) was the 9th Emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty. He was the son of Prince Nguyen PHuc Huong Hoiou Cai.
Probably the most despised emperor of an unpopular dynasty was Nguyen Canh Tong. Little is known of him, presumably because most Vietnamese historians were too ashamed to write down the details of his reign. He was the son of Prince Nguyen Phuc Huong Hoiou Cai. Because he had no children his uncle, the Tu Duc Emperor, adopted him as one of his heirs and made him the Duke of Kien-Giang. However, he did not take the throne until four others, Duc Duc, Hiep Hoa, Kien Phuc and Ham Nghi, were all enthroned and removed in the year after the death of Tu Duc.
He came to the throne because of the events of July 4, 1885 when the regent Ton That Thuyet kidnapped the young Ham Nghi Emperor from the Forbidden City and took him to the mountains as the figurehead of a revolutionary movement against the French. To take away the legitimacy of Ham Nghi, the French enthroned Nguyen Canh Tong, who took the era name of Dong Khanh. From the first he was completely under the control of the French and dependent on their good will. This was displayed in his first action, which was to go in person to the French Resident Superior to thank him for raising him to the throne. This was a very unpopular action with huge symbolic outrages. First, the "exalted Yellow Emperor" never went himself to see someone, people always had to come with him, otherwise it seemed that their was someone greater than the Emperor. Second, as the "Son of Heaven" it was outrageous to thank someone else (especially a foreigner) for making him Emperor as his only source of authority was supposed to be the 'Mantle of Heaven' and Heaven was the only one he was answerable to.
Overall, his reign was one praised by the French for "cooperation" and cursed by the Vietnamese for "collaboration". His troops brutally helped suppress the independence movement of Ham Nghi and gave legitimation to the formation of the French "Union of Indochina", taking firmer control over Vietnam. When the French commanded Dong Khanh to make a tour of the country to tell the people to cooperate and be submissive, the people were so outraged that they attacked his procession and forced the Emperor to flee back to Hue on an armed fleet of junks to protect him from his own people. He was kept isolated by the French, concered with personal comfort rather than the welfare of the people and he became very sick, addicted to medicine and was having visions until he died in 1889.
Because of this, the French did not allow any of his children to succeed him, reverting instead back to the line of Nguyen Duc Duc. However, after both successive monarchs proved uncooperative the French turned back to the line of their most submissive collaborator so far and enthroned his son as Emperor Khai Dinh who was succeeded by his son Bao Dai the last Emperor, both of whom willingly cooperated with the French as well. Dong Khanh was also the grandfather of the "first lady" of South Vietnam, Madame Nhu
|
