The Trịnh lords (; Chữ Hán: 主鄭; 1545–1787), formally titled as Viceroy of Trịnh (; ), also known as the House of Trịnh or the Trịnh clan (Trịnh thị; 鄭氏), were a feudal noble clan that ruled Đàng Ngoài (known by the exonym Tonkin) during the Revival Lê dynasty. The Trịnh lords were de jure subordinates of the Lê dynasty emperors but were in actuality the de facto rulers of northern Vietnam.
The Trịnh clan and their rivals, the Nguyễn clan, were called "Chúa" (主, Lord) by their subjects and controlled northern and southern Vietnam respectively, leaving the Later Lê emperors as rulers in name only.Chapuis, Oscar. A History of Vietnam: From Hong Bang to Tự Đức. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1995. p119ff. The Trịnh clan produced 12 lords who dominated the royal court of the Later Lê dynasty and ruled northern Vietnam for more than two centuries.
Background Origin The founder of the clan was Trịnh Kiểm, who was born in what is now Vĩnh Lộc commune, Thanh Hóa province. Trịnh Kiểm came from a poor background and often stole chickens from his neighbors because chicken was his mother's favorite food. When his neighbors found out, they became angry. One day, when Trịnh Kiểm left home, his neighbors abducted his mother and threw her down an abyss. Trịnh Kiểm returned home and panicked due to her disappearance. When he found his mother's body, it was infested with maggots. After her death, he joined the Lê loyalist army led by Nguyễn Kim. Because of Trịnh Kiểm's talent, he was married to Nguyễn Kim's daughter Ngọc Bảo. In 1539, Trịnh Kiểm was promoted to general and received the title of Duke of Dực (Dực quận công). In 1545, after the assassination of Nguyễn Kim, Trịnh Kiểm replaced his father-in-law as leader of the Lê dynasty's military and royal court.
Government exiled to Lan Xang
After the death of emperor Lê Hiến Tông in 1504, Lê dynasty began to decline followed by some peasant rebellions due to adversities and corruption in central and regional government that led to rising social unrest and grievances of civilians. In 1527, Mạc Đăng Dung, a courtier of government began to seize control of imperial court and emperor gradually and overthrew emperor Lê Cung Hoàng, and established the Mạc dynasty. In 1533, the general and Lê royalist Nguyễn Kim revolted against the Mạc dynasty in Thanh Hóa and restored the Lê dynasty back after searching the Lê dynasty's surviving descendant called prince '"Lê Ninh"', who was a son of emperor Lê Chiêu Tông and enthroned him as emperor Lê Trang Tông during exile at Xam Neua, a territory of Kingdom of Lan Xang. After several years of civil war, most of the southern provinces of Đại Việt was recaptured by restored Lê dynasty, but not until 1592, the imperial capital city Đông Kinh was recaptured and an imperial court moved back to there. Tây Đô was founded as the temporary capital and it marked the beginning of Northern and Southern dynasties from 1533 last until 1677 when Mạc dynasty was defeated by alliance of Southern dynasty.
Lê emperor as a figurehead In 1539 the armies of Nguyễn Kim and Trịnh Kiểm returned to Đại Việt, captured Thanh Hóa province, followed by more southern province in later years and installed prince Lê Ninh as the emperor Lê Trang Tông. War raged with the Nguyễn–Trịnh army on one side and the Mạc on the other, until an official Ming delegation determined that Mạc Đăng Dung's usurpation of power was not legitimate. In 1537, a large Ming army was sent to the border to threaten Mạc emperor to return the authority back to Lê emperor . Although Mạc Đăng Dung managed to negotiate this issue with the Ming to control northern part of Đại Việt, he was forced to recognize the Lê emperor's legitimacy over the southern part of realm. However, the war was continued because the Nguyễn–Trịnh alliance refused to recognize Mạc's authority over the northern region. Mạc Đăng Dung died in 1541 and was succeeded by his son.
Pan Dinggui, a Chinese man shipwrecked in Vietnam in 1688, said in his book Annan Ji You that the Trịnh clan restored the Lê dynasty to power after Vietnam was struck by disease, thunder and winds when the Lê ruler was dethroned, and they initially could not find Lê and Trần dynasty royals to restore to the throne. Pan also said that only the Lê ruler was met by official diplomats from the Qing, not the Trịnh lord.
Trịnh military government Death of Nguyễn Kim
Despite the fact that the Mạc dynasty remained at large in the north, Trịnh Kiểm turned to eliminating the Nguyễn lords' power. Although the Lê dynasty was restored in 1533 with Lê Trang Tông as emperor, Nguyễn Kim was head of government and wielded real authority in the nation. , the Mạc-appointed mandarin governing Tây Đô fortress in Thanh Hoa province, decided to surrender to Lê authorities when Nguyễn Kim recaptured the province in 1543.
After seizing Tây Đô citadel and attacking Ninh Bình, on 20/5/1545, Dương Chấp Nhất invited Kim to visit his military camp. Dương Chấp Nhất treated Kim to watermelon. After returning for from the party, Kim felt ill and died the same day. Dương Chấp Nhất later again pledged allegiance to the Mạc dynasty.
The government fell into chaos after Kim's death. The successor as the head of government was Kim's eldest son, . However, Uông was secretly assassinated by his brother-in-law Trịnh Kiểm, who later took control of the imperial government.
Usurpation conspiracy In 1556, Emperor Lê Trung Tông died without an heir. Trịnh Kiểm wanted to seize the throne, but worried about public opinion. He sought advice from the former mandarin Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm, who was living in seclusion. Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm advised Trịnh Kiểm not to take the Lê dynasty's throne, although the Lê dynasty was just a puppet. Trịnh Kiểm decided to put Lê Duy Bang on the throne, who was a 6th-generation descendant of Lê Trừ, the older brother of emperor Lê Thái Tổ. Lê Duy Bang took the throne with the title Lê Anh Tông while the Trịnh lords continued to control the government with the emperor as figurehead.
Legitimacy struggle In 1570, Trịnh Kiểm died and a power struggle erupted between his sons Trịnh Cối and Trịnh Tùng. Simultaneously, the Mạc dynasty army attacked the Lê dynasty from the north and Trịnh Cối surrendered to the Mạc dynasty. The emperor Lê Anh Tông supported Trịnh Cối as the next Trịnh lord and co-operated with him to defeat Trịnh Tùng. Trịnh Tùng found out about this conspiracy, forcing Emperor Lê Anh Tông and his four sons to flee. Later, Trịnh Tùng enthroned Emperor Lê Anh Tông's youngest son, prince Đàm, with title Lê Thế Tông. After that, Trịnh Tùng searched for, captured, and murdered Emperor Lê Anh Tông.
Trịnh–Nguyễn alliance against the Mạc dynasty Both Trịnh and Nguyễn declared that the Lê dynasty was the legitimate government of Đại Việt. Nguyễn Hoàng became increasingly secure in his rule over the southern province and increasingly independent. While he cooperated with the Trịnh against the Mạc, he ruled the frontier lands. With the conquest of the north, the independence of the Nguyễn was less and less tolerable to the Trịnh. In 1600, with the ascension of emperor Lê Kính Tông, Hoàng broke relations with the Trịnh-dominated court, although he continued to acknowledge the Lê emperor. Matters continued like this until Hoàng's death in 1613. The historical victory of the Trịnh over the Mạc was a common theme in public Vietnamese theaters.
The Trịnh–Nguyễn War
In 1620, after the enthronement of another figurehead Lê emperor (Lê Thần Tông), the new Nguyễn leader, Nguyễn Phúc Nguyên, refused to send tax money to the court in Đông Đô to protest the tyranny of the Trịnh lords. In 1623, Trịnh Tung died and was succeeded by oldest son Trịnh Tráng. After five years of increasingly hostile talks, fighting broke out between the Trịnh and the Nguyễn in 1627. While the Trịnh ruled over much more populous territory, the Nguyễn had several advantages.
First, they initially were on the defensive and rarely launched operations into the north. Second, the Nguyễn were able to take advantage of their contacts with Europeans, specifically the Portuguese, to produce advanced cannons with the help of European engineers. Third, the geography favored them, as the flat land suitable for large, organized armies was narrow at the border between the Nguyễn lands and the Trinh territories – mountains reach nearly to the sea. After the first offensive was beaten off after four months, the Nguyễn built two massive, fortified lines that stretched a few miles from the sea to the hills. These walls were built north of Huế (between the Nhật Lệ River and the Sông Hương River). The walls were about 20 feet tall and seven miles long. The Nguyễn defended these lines against numerous Trịnh offensives that lasted (off and on) from 1631 till 1673, when Trịnh Tạc concluded a peace treaty with Nguyễn Phúc Tần, dividing Vietnam between the two families. This division continued for the next 100 years.
Peace
The Trịnh lords ruled reasonably well, maintaining the fiction that the Lê monarch was the emperor. However, they selected and replaced the emperor as they saw fit, having the hereditary right to appoint many top government officials. Unlike the Nguyễn lords, who engaged in frequent wars with the Khmer Empire and Siam, the Trịnh lords maintained relatively peaceable relations with neighboring states. In 1694, they got involved in a war in Laos, which turned into a multi-sided war with Laotian factions as well as the Siamese army. A decade later, Laos had settled into an uneasy peace with three new Lao kingdoms paying tribute to both Vietnam and Siam. Trịnh Căn and Trịnh Cương made many reforms, 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 Trịnh Giang, peasant revolts became more frequent. The key problem was a lack of land to farm, though Giang made the situation worse by his actions. The reign of successor Trịnh Doanh was preoccupied with putting down peasant revolts and wiping out armed gangs that terrorized the countryside.
The Dutch East India Company ceased doing business with the Trịnh lords in 1700.Hoang Anh Tuan, "Letter from the King of Tonkin concerning the termination of the trading relation with the VOC, 10 February 1700". In: Harta Karun: Hidden Treasures on Indonesian and Asian-European History from the VOC Archives in Jakarta, document 3. Jakarta: Arsip Nasional Republik Indonesia, 2013.
The Trịnh lords started employing eunuchs extensively in the Đàng Ngoài region of the northern Red River delta area of Vietnam as military leaders. Trịnh-ruled northern Vietnam used its eunuchs in the military and civilian bureaucracy. Many Buddhist temples had money and land donated by eunuchs who had gained wealth and influence. Field army units, secret police, customs duty taxes, finance, land deeds and military registers and tax harvesting in son Nam province (Binh phien) as well as the position of Thanh Hóa military governor were delegated to eunuchs. The supervisor services, military, civil service and court all had eunuchs appointed to work in them and they were faithful followers of the Trịnh lords and a check on the power of civil and military officials. Eunuchs were employed as building project supervisors and provincial governors by Trịnh Cương. Alt URL
Tây Sơn Revolt and Southern Conquest
The long peace came to an end with the Tây Sơn revolt in the south against Trương Phúc Loan, the regent of the Nguyễn lord Nguyễn Phúc Thuần (1765–1777). Trịnh lord Trịnh Sâm saw the Tây Sơn rebellion as a chance to end Nguyễn rule over the south. Inner struggle among the Nguyễn had put a 12-year-old boy in power. The real ruler was corrupt regent Trương Phúc Loan. Using the popular rule of the regent as an excuse for intervention, in 1774, the hundred-year truce was ended and the Trịnh army led by Hoàng Ngũ Phúc attacked.