THE NGUYEN LORDS (1558 – 1775)
The Nguyen Lords were a series of rulers of Southern Vietnam. While they claimed to be the loyal followers of the Le Dynasty, in reality they were independent rulers in the south of the country. Their descendants later ruled the whole of Vietnam as the Nguyen Dynasty and posthumously elevated their titles to emperors.
THE TRINH – NGUYEN ALLIANCE
The Nguyen Lords traced their descent from a powerful clan originally based in Thanh Hoa province. The clan supported Le Loi in his successful war of independence against the Ming Dynasty. From that point on, the Nguyen were one of the major noble families in Vietnam. Perhaps the most famous Nguyen from this time was Nguyen-thi-Anh, the queen-consort for nearly 20 years (1442 till 1459).
In 1527 Mac Dang Dung replaced the last Le king Le Cung Hoang and started a new dynasty. The Trinh and Nguyen clans returned to Thanh Hoa province and refused to accept the rule of the Mac. All of the region south of the Red River was under their control but they were unable to conquer Hanoi for many years. During this time, the Nguyen-Tr?nh alliance was lead by Nguyen Kim, his daughter was married to the Trinh clan leader, Trinh Kiem.
In 1545 Nguyen Kim was assassinated. One logical successor to the leadership of the Nguyen-Trinh alliance was his eldest son, Nguyen Uông but instead, Uông was killed and Trinh Kiem took control. The younger son Nguyen Hoang was sent to the far south to administer the newer province of O-Chau modern Quang Binh to Quang Nam, in what used to be Champa lands. Governing from the new city of Phu Xuan modern Hue, the Nguyen clan, under Nguyen Hoang, slowly expanded their control to the south while the Trinh clan waged their war for control over the north of Vietnam.
In 1592 Hanoi was captured the last time by the Trinh army under Trinh Tung and the Mac king was executed. The next year, Nguyen Hoang came north with an army and money to help defeat the remainder of the Mac forces, but soon afterwards Nguyen Hoang refused to obey the orders coming from the new court at Hanoi.
THE RISING TENSIONS
In 1600, a new Le king took the throne, Le Kinh Tong. The new king, like the previous Le kings, was a powerless figurehead under the control of Trinh Tung. Also, a revolt broke out in Ninh Bình province, possibly instigated by the Trinh. As a consequence of these events, Nguyen Hoang formally broke off relations with the Court, rightly arguing that it was the Trinh who ruled, not the Le King. This uneasy state of affairs continued for the next 13 years till Nguyen Hoang finally died in 1613. He had ruled the southern provinces for 55 years.
His successor, Nguyen Phuc Nguyen, continued Nguyen Hoang’s policy of essential independence from the Court in Hanoi. He initiated friendly relations with the Europeans who were now sailing into the area. A Portuguese trading post was set up in Hoi An. By 1615 the Nguyen were producing their own bronze cannons with the aid of Portuguese engineers. In 1620 the king was removed from power and executed by Trinh Tùng. Nguyen Phuc Nguyen formally announced that he would not be sending any money to the Court nor did he acknowledge the new king as the king. Tensions rose over the next seven years till open warfare broke out in 1627 with the new leader of the Trinh, Trinh Tùng.
The war lasted until 1673 when peace was declared. The Nguyen not only fought off the Trinh attacks but also continued their expansion southwards along the coast, though the war slowed this expansion. Around 1620, Nguyen Phuc Nguyen’s daughter married Chey Chettha II, a Khmer king. Three years later, 1623, the Nguyen formally gained permission for Vietnamese to settle in Prei Nokor which was later reborn as the city of Saigon. When the war with the Trinh ended, the Nguyen were able to put more resources into pushing supression of the Champa kingdoms and conquest of lands which used to belong to the Khmer Empire.
THE WAR WITH THE KHMER
The Nguyen sent an army into Cambodia in 1714, to support Keo Fa’s claim the throne against Prea Srey Thomea . The Siam joined in siding with the Prea Srey Thomea against the Vietnamese claimant. At Bantea Meas the Vietnamese routed the Siamese armies but by 1717 the Siamese had gained the upper hand. The war ended with the negotiated enthronement of the Siamese candidate but the Nguyen Lords wrested more territory from the weakened Cambodian kingdom.
Two decades later (1739), the Cambodians attempted to reclaim to the lost coastal land. The fighting lasted some ten years, but by end, the Vietnamese fended off the Cambodian raids and secured their hold on the rich Mekong Delta.
The Nguyen mounted another campaign against Cambodia in 1755 and conquered additional territory from the ineffective Cambodian court. At the end of the war, the Nguyen had secured a port on the Gulf of Siam (Hà Tien) and were threatening Phnom Penh itself.
Under a new king Phraya Taksin, the Siamese reasserted its protection of its eastern neighbor by coming to the aid of the Cambodian court. War was launched against the Nguyen in 1769. After some early success, the Nguyen forces by 1773 were facing internal revolts and had to abandon Cambodia to deal with the civil war in Vietnam itself. The turmoil gave rise to the Tay Son.
THE FALL OF NGUYEN LORDS
As a result of heavy taxes and defeats in the war with Cambodia, three brothers from Tay Son sparked a peasant uprising that quickly engulfed much of southern Vietnam in 1771. Within two years the Tay Son brothers captured the provincial capital Qui Nhon. In 1774, the Trinh in Ha Noi seeing their rival gravely weakened, ended the hundred year truce and launched an attack of the Nguyen from the north. The Trinh forces quickly overran the Nguyen capital in 1774 while the Nguyen lords fled south to Saigon. The Nguyen fought on against both the Trinh army and the Tay Son but their effort was in vain; by 1776 Saigon was captured and nearly the entire Nguyen family was killed, all except one nephew, Nguyen Anh who managed to flee to Siam.
In meantime, Nguyen Anh did not give up. He attacked the Tay Son army with a new army from Siam in 1780 However. However, Taksin went insane and was killed in a coup. The new king of Siam, Chulaloke had more urgent affairs than helping Nguyen Anh retake Vietnam and so this campaign faltered. The Siamese army retreated, and Nguyen Anh went into exile, but would later return.