Trần Thiếu Đế given name

Vietnamese name

Vietnamese names generally consist of three parts: a family name, a middle name, and a given name, used in that order. The "family name first" order follows the system of Chinese names and is common throughout the Sinosphere , but is different from Chinese, Korean, and Japanese names in having a...

 Trần An (陳𤇼), was the twelfth and the last emperor of the Trần Dynasty who reigned over Đại Việt from 1398 to 1400. At the age of only three, he was chosen to succeed his father Trần Thuận Tông

Trần Thuận Tông

Trần Thuận Tông , given name Trần Ngung , was the eleventh emperor of the Trần Dynasty who reigned Đại Việt from 1378 to 1398. He was chosen to succeed to this position by his father, the Retired Emperor Trần Nghệ Tông, after Nghệ Tông decided to dethrone and force Trần Phế Đế to commit suicide...

 who was forced by Hồ Quý Ly to resign and hold the title Retired Emperor. Only two years after Thiếu Đế's coronation, Hồ Quý Ly overthrew the Emperor to establish his own dynasty, the Hồ Dynasty.

Background

Thiếu Đế (Young Emperor) was born in 1396 as Trần An, first child of the Emperor Trần Thuận Tông, and his wife, the Queen Thánh Ngâu who was daughter of Hồ Quý Ly. On March 15 of the Lunar calendar

Lunar calendar

A lunar calendar is a calendar that is based on cycles of the lunar phase. A common purely lunar calendar is the Islamic calendar or Hijri calendar. A feature of the Islamic calendar is that a year is always 12 months, so the months are not linked with the seasons and drift each solar year by 11 to...

, 1398, under pressure of Hồ Quý Ly, Thuận Tông had to cede the throne to his three-year-old son, now Trần Thiếu Đế, and held the position of retired emperor. According to Đại Việt sử kí toàn thư, actually Hồ Quý Ly wanted to overthrow Thuận Tông but before his death, the Retired Emperor Trần Nghệ Tông

Trần Nghệ Tông

Trần Nghệ Tông , given name Trần Phủ , was the eighth emperor of the Trần Dynasty who reigned Đại Việt from 1370 to 1372. Nghệ Tông was credited with the re-establishment of Trần clan's ruling in Đại Việt from Hôn Đức Công who kept the throne in nearly two years after the decease of Trần Dụ Tông...

 made Quý Ly promise him supporting the Emperor therefore Hồ Quý Ly decided to force Thuận Tông to resign before taking over the throne from the new emperor. After the coronation, Thiếu Đế changed the era name to Kiến Tân (建新, 1398–1400).

As emperor

Only one year after his resignation, Thuận Tông was killed after the order of Hồ Quý Ly. Hồ Quý Ly also issued the execution of over 370 persons who opposed his dominance in royal court including several prominent mandarins or the Emperor's relatives with their families, such as Trần Khát Chân, Trần Hãng, Phạm Khả Vĩnh or Lương Nguyên Bưu. In June 1399, Hồ Quý Ly took another step when he self-entitled Quốc Tổ Chương Hoàng (King Chương Father of the Nation) and began to use ceremonials which were reserved exclusively for the Emperor. Profiting the chaotic situation in royal court, Nguyễn Nhữ Cái gathered thousands of people to rise a revolt against Trần's rulers in the northwestern region. This revolt was put down in December by the troops of general Nguyễn Bằng Cử.

Ultimately, the end of the Trần Dynasty was tolled on February 28 of the Lunar calendar, 1400 when Hồ Quý Ly decided to overthrow Thiếu Đế and established a new dynasty, the Hồ Dynasty. Being Hồ Quý Ly's own grandson, Thiếu Đế was only downgraded to Prince Bảo Ninh instead of being killed like his father.