The last dynasty of Vietnam is Nguyen Dynasty , which passed down thirteen generations of emperors. The thirteenth emperor Nguyen Phuc Ho, known in history as "Emperor Bao Dai", was the last emperor of Vietnam.
In 1945, the "August Revolution" occurred in Vietnam. Emperor Bao Dai held an abdication ceremony outside the Meridian Gate of the Imperial City of Hue, announcing that he would return power to the Vietnamese people.
However, he was later used by the French colony and tried to regain his position in power until he was expelled.
Emperor Bao Dai had two queens before and after him. The first queen, Nguyen Huy Lan, was called the "Queen of Nanfang" by him. She was also the last queen of Vietnam and was established in 1934.
Emperor Bao Dai and Queen Nam Fong
In 1955, she and Emperor Bao Dai were expelled to France by the South Vietnamese regime. The couple lived apart for a long time in France until Queen Nam Fong died of illness in Corrèze Province in 1963. She never forgave her husband. .
The second queen, Monique Baudot, was an authentic French woman. Emperor Bao Dali registered their marriage in France in 1972. They also held a canonization ceremony and gave her the title "Princess Yongrui".
Emperor Bao Dai was just an ordinary apartment in France at that time, so the title of the princess was purely empty. After Emperor Bao Dai passed away in 1997, Princess Vinh Thuy called herself "Queen Tay Phuong" in accordance with the Vietnamese royal tradition.
Emperor Bao Dai and Queen Taifang
Empress Nanfang, the first wife of Emperor Bao Dai, was proficient in Chinese and Western culture. She was beautiful in appearance and elegant in manners. She was known as "the most beautiful queen in East Asia" and "the most beautiful woman in Vietnam".
Queen Nanfang
She fell in love with Emperor Bao Dai at first sight and gave birth to two sons and three daughters after their marriage. However, because Emperor Bao Dai’s mother, Empress Dowager Duanhui, was very repulsive to Queen Nanfang, under the mercy of the Queen Mother, the couple, the last Vietnamese empress, finally They became enemies and separated, and Queen Nanfang died in depression before she was 50 years old.
1. One dance sealed the deal for life, breaking the bad dynasty rules and agreeing to one husband and one wife.
Vietnam is a vassal state of China. The monarch of the Nguyen Dynasty has always expressed his vassalage to the Qing Dynasty. Internally, he calls himself the Emperor of the Southern Dynasty, and is generally called the King of Vietnam.
In 1884, Vietnam became a French colony. Starting from the ninth emperor Dong Khang Emperor Nguyen Phuc Ho to the thirteenth emperor Bao Dai Emperor Nguyen Phuc Ho, these four Vietnamese emperors were all puppet emperors supported by the French colonies and were recognized by the French government. Ascend to the throne as emperor.
The eighth Emperor Xianyi, who was not recognized by the French government, was exiled by France to French Algeria in Africa just one year after he ascended the throne. The father and son of the tenth Emperor Chengtai and the eleventh Emperor Weixin who dared to resist were exiled to French Reunion in Africa. Wang Dao, the twelfth Emperor Kai Dinh was a drug addict. He did nothing during his reign and was not popular with the Vietnamese people.
Emperor Bao Dai Nguyen Phuc Ho was the only son of the twelfth emperor Kai Dinh Emperor Nguyen Phuc Ho. His mother was Nguyen Phuc Ho's concubine Hoang Thi Ju.
The marriage system of the Vietnamese royal family is different from that of China. Except for the emperor, other royal relatives and princes do not have a wife. The wives and concubines are collectively called "concubines". All the women of the princes are equal, and the children they have are not. Divided into concubines.
Due to Emperor Khai Dinh's long-term dependence on opium and poor health, there was only one prince in the harem, Nguyen Phuc Ho.
Child Emperor Bao Dai
Nguyen Phuc Ho was born in 1913. He was awarded the title of Crown Prince at the age of 9 and was sent to the Condorcet School and the Ecole Politique in Paris, France to study. The French supervisor Charlie took care of his life.
At the age of 12, Emperor Khai Dinh died, and Nguyen Phuc Ho returned to his country and ascended the throne as emperor. However, the French soon sent him to a French school to continue his studies, and appointed a Catholic, Nguyen Huu Pai, to temporarily rule.
Young Emperor Bao Dai
In 1932, at the urging of the Hue court in Vietnam, Nguyen Phuc Ho was sent back to Vietnam and began to rule personally, and was known as Emperor Bao Dai.
The next year, he met a naturally beautiful girl with charming eyebrows at a dance in Dalat, a summer resort in Vietnam. He went up to say hello and used French habitually. Unexpectedly, the girl also spoke fluent French. Start talking to him.
Ruan Youlan
It turns out that this girl is the granddaughter of Le Phat, the richest man in Vietnam. Her father, Ruan Youhao, is of Chinese descent. He was born into a poor boy. He once served as Le Phat’s secretary. Later, he married Le Thi Binh, the daughter of Le Phat, and became the son-in-law of the Li family. He also became one of the four richest men in South Vietnam. In 1926, Nguyen Huu Lan was sent to a Catholic school in Paris by his father, and soon became a French citizen.
Because of her elegant temperament and clothing that have been influenced by the romantic atmosphere of France for a long time, Nguyen Huu Lan stands out among the crowd. After returning to the country, she was called "the most beautiful woman in Vietnam".
Ruan Youlan
Emperor Bao fell in love with Ruan Youlan at first sight with a light smile on his face. After dancing under the dim light, he swore not to marry anyone other than Ruan Youlan.
His mother, Empress Dowager Tuan Hui, and the conservative Hue dynasty were firmly opposed to this. Nguyen Ting ministers claimed that the Nguyen Dynasty had a Confucian culture. Nguyen Hui Lan had become a French citizen and believed in Catholicism, which did not meet the conditions of a queen. Empress Dowager Tuan Hui He had already chosen his niece Hu for his son, but Emperor Bao Dai, who had been educated in France for many years, looked down upon native-born women.
Ruan Youlan is a Catholic, so he does not accept the polygamy system of the Vietnamese royal family. In order to successfully propose, Emperor Bao Dai specially issued a decree declaring the abolition of the exclusive rights of the Vietnamese emperor's "seven concubines" and promised to resolutely abide by the monogamy system. He also used Only through the relationship with the French Governor in Vietnam did the royal family agree to accept Nguyen Huu Lan.
Ruan Youlan
He said affectionately in the wedding announcement: " The future queen combines Western elegance and Eastern charm in her body. I met her on an occasion and believe that she is the same as our companions and peers. Commensurate. We are convinced that her behavior and example are fully worthy of the title of the first woman in the empire."
Emperor Bao Dai, who was deeply in love, also broke the Vietnamese royal system and named Nguyen Huu Lan as Queen of Nam Fong on the fourth day after the wedding. The emblem of "Nam Phuong" means fragrant flowers in Vietnam. At the same time, he designated November 14, the birthday of Queen Nam Fong, as the "Chang Hui Festival" in Vietnam.
2. The conservative Empress Dowager Duanhui intervened in her son's marriage, making Emperor Bao Dai the "Flower Emperor"
The tradition of Vietnam's Nguyen Dinh is that the emperor has "concubines" before he ascends the throne. After he becomes the emperor, he has third-level concubines, second-level concubines, and first-level concubines. Concubine instead of setting up a queen.
Vietnamese queens were given the title posthumously by the emperor, or they received their titles after becoming the emperor's mother. Nguyen Huu Lan was the only woman to receive a title by the side of the Vietnamese Emperor.
Queen Nam Fong
Emperor Bao Dai’s various special favors for Ruan Youlan, Ruan Youlan’s trendy fashion and Catholic identity, all made the conservative Ruan Ting regard it as a scourge. In order to consolidate the already shaky imperial power, Empress Dowager Duanhui began to intervene in her son’s affairs. marriage.
Empress Nanfang married Emperor Bao Dai in a Buddhist wedding on March 20, 1934. There are rumors that she made a special application to Pope Pius XI, and the Pope promised that she could hold a Buddhist wedding, but the condition was that she All children born to Emperor Bao Dai must become Catholics.
Empress Dowager Duanhui was worried about this. In 1935, she brought her niece Hu into the palace, forcing Emperor Baoda to canonize Hu as "Concubine Ying".
Yingfei
Queen Nan Fang believed that Emperor Bao Dai's behavior betrayed the "monogamy" system, while Queen Mother Duan Hui claimed that this was the tradition of the Vietnamese royal family.
Under the protest of Queen Nanfang, no other women could enter the palace in the next ten years.
Queen Nam Fong gave birth to two sons and three daughters for Emperor Bao Dai. Once these children reached the age of studying, they were all sent to the boarding school where Queen Nam Fong studied in France and became Catholics. Her eldest son Nguyen Phuc Bao Long was named Crown Prince.
Queen Namfang and her children
In the summer of 1939, Queen Namfang followed Emperor Bao Dai on her first official visit to Europe, which caused a frenzy. A reporter wrote: Queen Namfang "wears trousers and an embroidered coat at night; lapels and sleeves" When she visited Pope Pius XII, she "did not wear the traditional black long-sleeved robe and veil, but wore a gold coat embroidered with dragons, a red scarf, a gold hat and silver trousers.""She wore Vietnamese national costumes with a modern sense of fashion.
Queen Nanfang
Perhaps it was Emperor Bao Dai who was naturally romantic, or perhaps it was Empress Dowager Duanhui who encouraged her son to enjoy the emperor's privileges, and Emperor Bao Dai began to get tired of it. The wife known as the "most beautiful queen".
Emperor Bao Dai and Queen Nanfang
Although the photos of his wife during her visit to Europe caused waves of exclamations and she was called the "most beautiful queen in East Asia", Emperor Bao Dai continued to pursue beauty. , His famous list includes Vietnamese women, Chinese women, and French girls.
After being deposed from the throne, Emperor Bao Dai became less scrupulous.
In 1946, he made Huang Xiaolan, a dancer he met in Hong Kong, a concubine.
黄小兰
In 1955, he married a divorced Vietnamese woman, Pei Mengdie. Pei Mengdie was very good at pleasing the Empress Dowager Duanhui. The Empress Dowager was much kinder to her than to Empress Nanfang. Soon after, Pei Mengdie. After giving birth to two sons and one daughter.
Pei Mengdie
After abdicating the throne, Emperor Bao Dad no longer had the ambition to reform and forge ahead. He spent his days drinking and licentious. He once flirted with a French woman at a ball and was shot in the leg by her husband. , fled in embarrassment, and thus received the title of "Flower Emperor"
3. After being deported to France, Queen Nam Fong separated from her husband angrily and was not buried with her husband after her death.
In 1955, Americans supported Ngo Dinh Diem to establish the Republic of Vietnam. That is, the South Vietnamese regime.
President Ngo Dinh Diem deported Emperor Bao Dai and his wife, who had a French influence. Emperor Bao Dai had to take his concubines and concubines to settle in France.
Emperor Bao Dai and Queen Nanfang
At that time, the South Vietnamese regime had ordered the confiscation of the royal family. The personal property of the members does not include the real estate owned by Queen Namfang before 1949.
Queen Namfang’s maternal grandfather and father both had large properties in France. Therefore, Queen Namfang was no longer willing to endure the humiliation of sharing her husband with other women. Due to her status, she chose to live alone in a small village in the Corrèze province far away from Paris.
This small village is surrounded by forests. Queen Nanfang's residence is a castle manor with more than 40 large rooms. She rarely goes out to socialize. Living in loneliness day after day, Emperor Bao Dai came all the way to visit her several times, but Queen Nanfang responded coldly and refused to go to Paris to live with her husband.
September 16, 1963. On the same day, Empress Nanfang died of a heart attack and died alone at the age of 49. Emperor Bao Dai did not attend her funeral, but Empress Nanfang was buried alone in the Corrèze Provincial Cemetery according to her wishes. The tombstone read "Chinese and French". kind of text.
In 1972, the 59-year-old Emperor Bao Dai married the 30-year-old French woman Monique in Paris and named her "Princess Yongrui".
"Queen Taifang" Monique
In 1987, the 74-year-old Emperor Bao Dad converted to Catholicism and kicked his still-living concubine Pei Mengdie out of the house, observing the monogamy system and staying alone with Monique.
In 1997, Emperor Bao Dai died of illness and was buried in the Passy Cemetery in the 16th arrondissement of Paris according to Catholic rites. The tombstone did not contain any temple, posthumous, or mausoleum names of the Vietnamese emperor, or even Chinese characters. There was only a golden chime badge of the Nguyen Dynasty on the top. The four Chinese characters "Baoda's Imperial Gift" appear in it.
The Tomb of Emperor Bao Dai
"Queen Tay Phuong" Monique, Queen Nam Fong's five children and some elders of the Nguyen Dynasty attended the funeral. In order to preserve the Eastern customs, Queen Nam Fong's five children wore sackcloth and mourned for their father to show their grief.
This pair of Vietnamese last emperors and empresses, who were deeply influenced by French culture, were completely separated in the collision of old and new cultures. They never lived apart during their lifetimes and never slept together after their deaths. Their former love has long since disappeared.
Until the 21st century, there were still some organizations in Vietnam advocating a constitutional monarchy trying to welcome back the descendants of Emperor Bao Dai and carry out restoration.
Therefore, the Nguyen Dinh royal family, who lives in exile in Paris, has always attracted the attention of Vietnamese politicians.
Empress Nam Fong’s eldest son Nguyen Phuc Bao Long
The leaders of each generation of the Nguyen Dynasty held a succession ceremony in front of Emperor Bao Dai’s tomb. From Queen Nam Fong’s eldest son Nguyen Phuc Bao Long and second son Nguyen Phuc Bao to the third son Nguyen Phuc Bao En who was born to Concubine Anh. , brother to brother, have changed three times, but in life, they are just ordinary Vietnamese Frenchmen, working an ordinary job in an office building to support their families, and they have never had the ambition of restoration.
