Hiệp Hòa

Hiệp Hòa (, , lit. "harmonization", 1 November 1847 – 29 November 1883), born Nguyễn Phúc Hồng Dật, and later known as Nguyễn Phúc Thăng upon ascending the throne was the sixth Emperor of the Vietnamese Nguyễn dynasty and reigned for 3 months and 10 days, 130 days in total. During his brief reign, he used the era name Hiệp Hòa, and is commonly referred to by this name. He was not granted a temple name and was posthumously conferred the title Prince of Văn Lãng (文朗郡王), with the Posthumous name Trang Cung (莊恭).

Background and Accession to the Throne

Hiệp Hòa’s birth name was Hồng Dật (洪佚). He was the 29th and youngest son of Emperor Thiệu Trị, and his mother a Third-rank imperial concubine, Trương Thị Thận. In the 18th year of Emperor Tự Đức’s reign (1865), Hồng Dật was granted the title Duke of Lãng (Lãng Quốc công, 朗國公) by his elder brother, the emperor. In 1883, Emperor Tự Đức died without a biological heir. According to his will, his adopted son Nguyễn Phúc Ưng Chân (later known as Emperor Dục Đức) was to ascend the throne. However, after just three days of his reign—before he even declared a reign title—the new emperor was accused by two powerful regents of the court, Tôn Thất Thuyết and Nguyễn Văn Tường and was deposed of and sentenced to death. The reasons are officially unclear. Historian, Pham Van Son wrote that Dục Đức embarrassed the court with his debauchery at the coronation that Tôn Thất Thuyết revealed the incriminating sections of Tự Đức's will. The court quickly ruled to execute him with poison for violating the mourning rules and buried him in an unmarked grave, a notably disproportionate sentence. Other contemporary historians make no mention of this episode and say that Dục Đức was not executed but rather was left to die in captivity of starvation, a likelier sequence of events considering that he lived for another three months. With Dục Đức in captivity, the regents named his 34-year-old uncle Hiệp Hòa, as emperor. However, he presided over his nation's defeat by the French Navy at the Battle of Thuận An in August 1883, and on 25 August 1883 he signed the Treaty of Huế which made Vietnam a protectorate of France, ending Vietnam's independence. For this, he was deposed and forced by officials to commit suicide.

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