How did Ho Quy Ly step by step corner the Tran dynasty to the brink of defeat?

While the Tran dynasty itself was going down day by day, a special character appeared. At that time, the rightful god Le Quy Ly had gradually gathered power into his hand, covering the sky with one hand. Le Quy Ly’s ancestor was Ho Hung Dat, who was the prefect of Dien Chau at the end of the Northern domination period. The fourth ancestor of Le Quy Ly is Ho Liem, adopted son of Chaplain Le Huan of Thanh Hoa, from which he changed his surname to Le. Quy Ly has two aunts who are the wife of King Tran Minh Tong, including one who is the mother of all three kings Tran Hien Tong, Tran Nghe Tong, and Tran Due Tong. Therefore, Le Quy Ly was considered a close relative of the royal family, very trusted by Nghe Tong, so that she had the opportunity to advance and gradually rose to the position of Thai monk, military officer, and important official (first official of the dynasty. under the Tran dynasty), forming factions to manipulate politics.

Since Tran Due Tong died in battle in a foreign country, Nghe Tong established Tran Hien on the throne. Seeing that Le Quy Ly’s power was too great, the new king conspired with Thai Lieutenant Tran Ngac: “The Emperor believes that his grandmother’s favorite is Quy Ly, let him do whatever he wants. If you don’t worry about it first, it will be very difficult to control it later.” Someone heard about it and revealed it to Quy Ly, so Quy Ly took action first. Listening to Pham Cu Luan’s scheme, Le Quy Ly asked the Supreme Emperor Tran Nghe Tong for protection and detracted that: “No one has sold children to raise grandchildren, only sold grandchildren to raise children”. Nghe Tong listened to Le Quy Ly’s detractors, deposed the king, became King Linh Duc, and then killed him. History called King Tran Hien Tran Pho De. Tran Nghe Tong’s son ascended the throne, ie Tran Thuan Tong. Power at that time was in fact both in the hands of Emperor Tran Nghe Tong and Le Quy Ly.

Emperor Tran Nghe Tong did not realize Quy Ly’s ambition and was very protective. General Nguyen Da Phuong Aristocrat Tran Nhat Chuong plotted to kill Quy Ly, the emperor found out and sentenced Nhat Chuong to death because he thought Nhat Chuong “had a different heart”. During the court, Bui Mong Hoa offered a letter “I heard children have a song that says: ‘Desperate instead of Thai monk ho Le’. Seeing that, Quy Ly definitely intends to look at the throne.”. Nghe Tong brought the whole letter for Le Quy Ly to read, Mong Hoa therefore had to hide from the official.

When Tran Nghe Tong was about to die, he summoned Le Quy Ly in particular: “The average is that they are relatives of the king, and all the affairs of the country are given to you. Now the country is weak, I am old. After I die, if you can help, the Quan family will help, if you are weak and stupid, you can take the throne yourself!”

Quy Ly replied:“When Linh Duc Vuong [tức vua Trần Phế đế] If it weren’t for the majesty of your majesty, I would have laughed on the ground, where would I be today. Even if the gods are broken into pieces, they have never returned one of those many blessings, how dare they have another heart!”

Quy Ly again swore in front of Nghe Tong saying:“If I do not know how to devote allegiance and do my best to help the Quan family to pass it on to future descendants, then heaven will hate me.”

Although the words of Supreme Emperor Tran Nghe Tong and Le Quy Ly’s words are beautiful and urgent, considering the background and later actions, it is clear that these are just words that are not sincere. Emperor Tran Nghe Tong wanted to borrow words to probe Le Quy Ly’s ideas, Quy Ly used words to hide his malice.

After Nghe Tong’s death, most of the power was in the hands of Le Quy Ly, who claimed to be the Father of the Emperor (the one who helped and taught the king). King Tran Thuan Tong was only a puppet. The things that Le Quy Ly did after Nghe Tong’s death were completely contrary to the oath. The Tran family members and mandarins who resisted were killed by Quy Ly.

In 1397, Le Quy Ly built An Ton citadel (in Vinh Loc, Thanh Hoa), forced King Tran Thuan Tong to move the capital there, and changed Thanh Hoa town to Thanh Do. Quy Ly again forced Thuan Tong to cede the throne to his 3-year-old son, Tran An, ie Tran Thieu De. Thuan Tong was forced to become a monk and was eventually killed by Le Quy Ly. Tran Thieu De is the grandson of Le Quy Ly. In fact, this ceding of the throne was just a step for Quy Ly to usurp the throne of the Tran family.

In 1399, Senior Lieutenant General Tran Khat Chan and aristocrats Tran Firm, Tran Nhat Don, mandarins Pham Kha Vinh, Ha Duc Lan, Luong Nguyen Buu, Pham Ong Thien, Pham Nguu Tat… collaborated to assassinate Le Quy Ly at the guild. Don Son oath (in Vinh Loc, Thanh Hoa). The incident failed, Le Quy Ly escaped death. Those who conspired and were involved in all 370 people were killed, their properties confiscated. The hunts and persecutions lasted for several years. This can be considered as the last great purge of Le Quy Ly against the opposing forces.

In 1400, the change of throne was finally completed. Dai Viet Su Ky Toan Thu recorded:

“February 28th” [Âm lịch], Quy Ly forced the king to abdicate the throne and forced the venerable family and mandarins three times to offer advice to the throne. Quy Ly pretended to deliberately refuse to say: “I’m about to go down the hole, what face can I see the first emperor on the ground?”.

Then he established himself as king, set the era name as Thanh Nguyen, the country name as Dai Ngu, changed to the surname Ho.

From here, history books called Ho Quy Ly. The Ho Dynasty replaced the Tran Dynasty. Emperor Tran Thieu was demoted to Bao Ninh Dai Vuong, because he was Ho Quy Ly’s grandson, so he could avoid murder.

Regarding Ho Quy Ly’s usurpation of the Tran house, most of the feudal histories are considered to be illegitimate. The Ho dynasty is known as the “run Ho”, which is the father dynasty, unofficially. Modern historians have a more open view, saying that it was natural for the Ho Dynasty to replace the Tran Dynasty when the last kings of the Tran Dynasty became powerless to the country’s fortunes. Ho Quy Ly held power in his hand, actually was also in a position to climb on the back of a tiger.

In general, class conflicts, social and economic disturbances at the end of the Tran dynasty existed, but were not the main reasons for the Tran family to lose the throne. The change of throne is ultimately still the result of infighting within the country’s rulers. Ho Quy Ly won the war in the imperial court, but in front of him were countless difficulties waiting. The Tran family has been around for hundreds of years and has a great reputation among the people. When the Ho Dynasty ascended the throne, it was not legitimate, and it was temporarily difficult to win the hearts of the people. At that time Dai Viet was on the decline, the whole administrative apparatus was rotten from root to tip because of loose human resource management. Meanwhile, in the south, Champa was about to be harassed, and in the north, the newly established Ming dynasty was in full strength and intent on watching Dai Viet. That said, usurping the throne is difficult, worrying about how to keep the throne for a long time, keeping the country safe is not easy.