Thành Thái

Emperor Thành Thái (14 March 1879 – 24 March 1954) of the Vietnamese Nguyen dynasty was born Prince Nguyễn Phúc Bửu Lân, son of Emperor Duc Duc and Empress Dowager Tu Minh. He reigned for 18 years, from 1889 to 1907.

Biography

When Emperor Dong Khanh came to power, Prince Bửu Lân was put under house arrest with his mother for having connections with those who opposed him. When Đồng Khánh died however, the French colonial authorities and the high-ranking mandarins decided that Bửu Lân was the ideal successor. After the trauma of the murder of her husband, Emperor Dục Đức, Bửu Lân's mother cried when her son was taken away, fearing that he would meet the same fate. Instead, he was enthroned as the new Vietnamese emperor, Emperor Thành Thái.

Even at the age of 10, Thành Thái was recognized as being very intelligent and was already realizing that the French were keeping watch over him through palace spies. Also, whereas Đồng Khánh had tried to be friendly with the French, Emperor Thành Thái took a course of passive-resistance. Although he refrained from outright rebellion (which would have been political suicide), he made his feelings clear in other ways, symbolic gestures and biting remarks. He was also a man of the people, and a monarch who cared deeply for his country. The emperor would often slip out of the Forbidden Purple City (Huế) dressed in the clothes of a commoner to talk with his people directly and see how they were being affected by government policies.