Trinh Lords
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Trịnh Lords (1553-1789) A series of rulers of Vietnam who controlled the powers of government while leaving a figurehead as king.
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The Trinh (Viet: Trịnh) Lords traced their decent from Trinh Kha, a friend and advisor to Le Loi and for nearly a decade, the real power behind the throne of the boy-king Le Nhan Tong. During the reign of the great Vietnamese king Le Thanh Tong, one of his top generals was the possibly related - Trinh Van Sai.
The Trinh-Nguyen Alliance
The Le kings following Le Thanh Tong were weak and the years following the death Le Tuong Duc (in 1516 saw the rise to power of the strong, cunning, and ambitious man Mac Dang Dung. In 1520, fearing the ambition of Mac Dang Dung, the Nguyen (Viet: Nguyễn) and the Trinh left the capital Hanoi (then called Dong Quan) and fled south, taking the young new king Le Chieu Tong "under their protection".
This was the start of a civil war with Mac Dang Dung and his supporters on one side and the Trinh and the Nguyen on the other side. Thanh Hoa province, the ancestral home to the Trinh and the Nguyen, was the battle ground between the two sides. After several years of warfare, the young king, Le Chieu Tong, was assassinated in 1524 by Mac Dang Dung's supporters. A short time later the resistance collapsed and both the Trinh and the Nguyen leaders were executed.
However, this was just the end of the first phase of the civil war because in 1527 Mac Dang Dung usurped the throne. He killed his own puppet king Le Cung Hoang and started a new dynasty, the Mac Dynasty. Within months the civil war broke out anew. Both the Trịnh and Nguyen clans again took up arms in Thanh Hoa province and revolted against the Mac (Viet: Mạc). The leader of this second revolt was Nguyen Kim. His daughter then married the new young leader of the Trinh clan Trinh Khiem. Within five years all of the region south of the Red River was under the control of the Nguyen-Trinh army but the two families were unable to conquer Hanoi.
The armies of Nguyen Kim and Trinh Khiem captured the summer palace and crowned their own puppet Le King - Lê Trang Tông - in 1533 (in Vietnamese histories this date marks the beginning of the 2nd half of the Le Dynasty). The war raged back and forth with the Nguyen-Trinh army on one side and the Mac on the other until an official Chinese delegation determined that Mac Dang Dung's usurpation of power was not justified. In 1537 a very large Chinese army was sent to restore the Le family. Although Mac Dang Dung managed to negotiate his way out of defeat by the Chinese, he had to officially recognize the Le King and the Nguyen-Trinh rule over the southern part of Vietnam. But the Nguyen-Trinh alliance did not accept the Mac rule over the northern half of the country and so the war continued.
In 1541 Mac Dang Dung died, and this weakened the Mac side.
The Trinh Take Power
In 1545 Nguyen Kim was assassinated by an agent of the Mac. Trinh Khiem took this opportunity to assert control over the Nguyen-Trinh army. The Trinh captured more and more of Vietnam from 1545 onwards (nominally fighting on behalf of a new Lê King).
Nguyen Kim had two young sons, the younger, named Nguyen Hoang, was put in charge of new southern provinces of Vietnam in the year 1558. He was to rule the southern lands for the next 55 years and his descendants ruled them for the next 150 years.
In 1570 Trinh Khiem died and was succeeded by his second son Trinh Tung. Tung was a very vigorous leader and he captured Hanoi from the Mac king in 1572. However, the Mac King (Mac Mau Hiep) recaptured the city the next year. The war continued at a low level for two decades, the Trinh gradually gaining strength, the Mac gradually weakening. Then, in 1592 Trinh Tung launched a major invasion and again captured Hanoi. This time the Royal (Trinh) army captured the Mac king executed him. Over the next few years the remaining Mac armies were defeated in battles. In this mopping up campaign, the Trinh were helped by the Nguyen army.
As the years passed, Nguyen Hoang became increasingly secure in his rule over the southern province and increasingly independent. While he cooperated with the Trinh against the Mac, he ruled the frontier lands as a king. With the final conquest of the north, the independence of the Nguyen was less and less tolerable to the Trịnh.
In 1600, with the ascension of a new king, Lê Kinh Tông, Nguyen Hoang broke relations with the Trinh dominated court, although he still acknowledged the Le king. Matters continued like this till Nguyen Hoang finally died in 1613.
The Trinh-Nguyen War
In 1620 after the enthronement of another figurehead Le king (Lê Than Tông), the new Nguyen leader, Nguyen Phuc Nguyen, refused to send tax money to the Court in Hanoi. In 1623, Trinh Tung died, he was succeed by his oldest son Trinh Trang. After five years of increasingly hostile talk, fighting broke out between the Trinh and the Nguyen in 1627.
While the Trinh ruled over much more populous territory, the Nguyen had several advantages. First, they initially were only defending, they rarely launched operations into the north. Second, the Nguyen were able to take advantage of their contacts with the Europeans, specifically the Portuguese, to purchase advanced European cannons. Third, the geography was favorable to them, as the flat land suitable for large organized armies is very narrow at this point, the mountains nearly reach to the sea.
After the first offensive was beaten off after four months of battle, the Nguyen built two massive fortified lines which stretched a few miles from the sea to the hills. These walls were built north of Hue (between the Nhat Le River and the Song Gianh river). The walls were about 20 feet tall and seven miles long. The Nguyen defended these lines against numerous Trinh offensives which lasted from till 1673.
In 1673 the Trinh Lord, Trinh Tac concluded a peace treaty with the Nguyen Lord, Nguyen Phuc Tan, and so Vietnam was divided between the two ruling families. This division continued for the next 100 years.
The Long Peace
The Trinh Lords ruled reasonably well, always keeping up the fiction that the real king was the Le (Viet: Lê) monarch. However, they selected the king, they replaced the king when they felt like it and they had the hereditary right to appoint many of the top government officials. Unlike the Nguyen Lords, who engaged in frequent wars with the Khmer Empire and Siam, the Trinh Lords maintained fairly peaceful relations with neighboring states.The Trinh Lords did get involved in a war in Laos starting in 1694. This turned into a multi-sided war with several different Lao factions and also the army of Siam. By 1704 the situation in Laos had settled into an uneasy peace with three new Lao kingdoms paying tribute to both Vietnam and Siam.
Trinh Can and Trinh Cuong made many reforms of the government, trying to make it better, but these reforms made the government more powerful and more of a burden to the people which increased their dislike of the government. During the wasteful and inept rule of Trinh Giang, peasant revolts became more and more frequent. The key problem was a lack of land to farm, though Trinh Giang made the situation worse by his actions. The reign of his successor Trinh Doanh was completely filled with putting down peasant revolts and wiping out armed gangs that terrorized the countryside.
Tay Son Revolt
The long peace came to an end with the Tay Son revolt in the south against the Nguyen Lord, Nguyen Phuc Thuan. The Tay Son (Viet: Tây Sơn) rebellion was looked upon by the Trinh Lord, Trinh Sam, as a chance to finally put an end to the Nguyen rule over the south of Vietnam. As was usual, a dynastic struggle among the Nguyen had put a weak 12 year old boy in power. The real ruler was the corrupt regent named Truong Phuc Loan. Using the evil rule of the regent as an excuse for intervention, in 1774, the hundred year truce was ended and the Trịnh army attacked. Trinh Sam's army did what no previous Trinh army had done and conquered the Nguyen capital Phu Xuan (modern-day Huế) early in 1775. The Trinh army advanced south but after some fighting with the Tay Son, a truce was reached. This truce allowed the Tay Sơn army to conquere the rest of the Nguyen lands. The Nguyen Lords retreated to Saigon but even this city was captured in 1776 and the Nguyen clan was nearly all killed.However, the Tay Sơn were not willing to be servants of the Trịnh Lords and after a decade consolidating their power base in the south, the chief Tay Sơn brother Nguyen Hue marched into north Vietnam in 1786 at the head of a large army.
The Trinh themselves were fatally divided at this time by a struggle for power following the death of Trinh Sam in 1782. The Trinh army refused to even fight the powerful army of Nguyen Hue. The new Trinh Lord, Trinh Khai fled from his rebellious army and then committed suicide after being captured by a small band of rebellious peasants. The last Le king, Le Chieu Tong fled to China and formally petitioned the Manchu Emperor Qianlong for aid against the peasant userpers. The Manchu responded by sending a large army into Vietnam to restore the Le king. The Manchu army captured Hanoi in 1788. The last Trinh Lord, Trinh Bong, took the position as defacto ruler but this was short-lived. Nguyen Hue was able to rally his forces and, like Le Loi before him, he inflicted a crushing defeat on the Chinese army. The Chinese retreated leaving Nguyen Hue (Viet: Nguyễn Huế) (now calling himself Quang Trung) in control of a united Vietnam.
The Le family fled north to China along with the Trinh family. About 100 years later (after the French took Vietnam as a colony), the last of the Trịnh returned to Vietnam as ordinary citizens.
Relations with Europe and China
In 1620, the French Jesuit scholar Alexander de Rhodes arrived in Trinh-controlled Vietnam. He arrived at a mission which had been established at the court in Hanoi around 1615 (Tigers in the Rice W. Sheldon p.26 1969). De Rhodes is a significant person in the relation between the European countries and Vietnam. He gained thousands of converts, created a script for writing Vietnamese using a modified version of the European alphabet, and created several churches. However, by 1630 the new Trinh Lord, Trinh Trang, decided that de Rhodes, and his religion, represented a threat to Vietnamese society and forced him to leave the country. Periodically from this point on, the Trinh Lords tried to suppress Christianity in Vietnam, though with only moderate success.When the Nguyen successfully used Portuguese cannon to defend their walls, the Trinh made contact with the Dutch. Being protestants, the Dutch were quite willing to sell advanced cannons to the Trinh. Both the Dutch, and later the English, set up trading posts in Hanoi. For a time, the Dutch trade was profitable but after the war with the Nguyen ended in 1673, the demand for European weapons rapidly declined. By 1700, both the Dutch and the English trading posts closed, never to re-open.
The Trinh were very careful in their dealings with China. Unlike the Nguyen Lords who were happy to accept large numbers of Ming Chinese refugees into their lands, the Trinh did not. When the Manchu Dynasty took over China, the Trinh treated them just like they had treated the Ming Dynasty Emperors, sending tribute and formal acknowledgements of Chinese authority. The Chinese intervened twice during the rule of the Trinh Lords, once in 1537, and again in 1788. Both times the Chinese sent an army south because of a formal request for help from the Le King - and both times the intervention was unsuccessful.
Assessment
The Trinh Lords avoided some of the problems of governing by creating a form of constitutional monarchy. While the Le king had the ceremonial title and the official respect of the people, the Trinh Lords ran the country. They passed the laws, they controlled the army, they were the executive branch. Birth order did not matter much to the Trịnh, often the next Trinh Lord was not the eldest son and it became a saying that second sons made the best leaders. Like the Nguyen, the Trinh had problems with peasant revolts and landlessness was a constant source of trouble for the government.The Trinh relationship to the Le kings was complex. The Le king officially approved the Trinh Lords and so gaining the King's official recognition was important in succession battles (such as occurred the war between Trinh Man and Trinh Khai). Also, each Trinh Lord swore a blood oath to each Le king (Encyclopedia of Asian History, "Trinh Lords"). As time passed, the Trinh Lordship took on more and more of an official nature. Starting with Trinh Tac, the Trinh Lord was allowed to write and talk to the Le King as an equal. Also the Trinh Lord could sit on his left side at official functions. Starting with Trinh Can, each Trinh Lord took the title Vuong (Prince) (though Trinh Tung was first given the title Vuong one hundred years earlier).
- The Trinh Lords were, for the most part, intelligent, able, industrious, and long-lived rulers. The unusual dual form of government they developed over two centuries was a creative response to the internal and external obstacles to their rule. They lacked, however, both the power and the moral authority to resolve the contradictions inhernent in their system of ruling without reigning. (Encyclopedia of Asian History, "The Trinh Lords").
It does seem the case that the Trinh had lost nearly all popularity in the last half of the 1700s. While the Nguyen Lords, or at least Nguyen Anh, enjoyed a great deal of support - as his repeated attempts to regain power in the south show - there was no equivolent support for the Trinh in the north after the Tay Son took power (Vietnam, Trials and Tribulations of a Nation D. R. SarDesai, pg.39, 1988). During the 80 years when the revived Nguyen Dynasty ruled over all of Vietnam the Trinh Lords were villified in the official histories but this seems more a matter of ancient enmity than accurate history.
Chronological List of Trịnh Lords
Trinh Khiem - Ruled 1545 - 1570. He was the first Trinh Lord. He ruled across the reigns of three figurehead kings: Lê Trang Tông (1533-1548), Lê Trung Tông (1548-1556), and Lê Anh Tông (1556-1573). Died 1570.Trinh Coi Ruled 1569 - 1570. The eldest son of Trinh Khiem, ineffective, lost to the Mac, deposed shortly thereafter by his younger brother Trinh Tung.
Trinh Tung - Ruled 1570 - 1623. A most active and successful leader. He ruled across the reigns of several nominal kings: Lê The Tông (1573-1599), Lê Kinh Tông (1600-1619), and Lê Than Tông (1619-1643).
Trinh Trang - Ruled 1623 - 1657. He ruled across the reigns of several nominal kings: Lê Chan Tông (1643-1649), Lê Than Tông (again: 1649-1662).
Trinh Tac - Ruled 1657 - 1682. He ruled over the reign of figureheads Lê Huyen Tông (1663-1671), Lê Gia Tông (1672-1675) and Lê Hy Tông (1676-1704).
Trinh Can - Ruled 1682 - 1709 with the name/title "Dinh Vuong".
Trinh Cuong - Ruled 1709 - 1729 with the name/title "An Do Vuong". Ruled across the reign of Lê Du Tông (1705-1728) and Hon Duc Cong (1729-1732).
Trinh Giang - Ruled 1729 - 1740 with the name/title "Uy Nam Vuong". He ruled over the reign of Lê Thun Tông (1732-1735) and Lê Y Tông (1735-1740). He was deposed due to poor leadership.
Trinh Doanh - Ruled 1740 - 1767 with the name/title "Minh Do Vuong". He ruled across part of the reign of Lê Hien Tông (1740-1786).
Trinh Sam - Ruled 1767 - 1782 with the name/title "Tinh Do Vuong". He ruled across part of the reign of Lê Hien Tông (1740-1786).
Trinh Man - Ruled briefly in 1782, defeated by his half-brother Trinh Khai.
Trinh Khai - Ruled 1782 - 1786 with the name/title "Doan Nam Vuong".
Trinh Bong - Ruled 1786 - 1787 with the name/title "An Do Vuong". In power only briefly due to the Chinese intervention in Vietnam. Fled to China never to return.
Sources
[List of the Trinh lords and the nominal Le Kings]Encyclopedia of Asian History, Volumns 1-4. 1988. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York. - "Trinh Lords" Article by James M. Coyle, based on the work of Thomas Hodgkin.
The Encyclopedia of Military History by R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor N. Dupuy. Harper & Row (New York).
[Coins of Vietnam] - with short historical notes
[Southeast Asia to 1875] - by Sanderson Beck
[World Statesmen.org - Vietnam]
[Tay Son Web Site] by George Dutton (has a great bibleography)
[A glimpse of Vietnamese history] - contains some errors
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