Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh
| Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh 阮福景 | |
|---|---|
| Crown Prince of Vietnam | |
Thừa Thiên |
Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh (1780–1801), also known as Prince Cảnh, was the eldest son of the Vietnamese Prince
Life
Born April 6, 1780, Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh was the second son of Nguyễn Phúc Ánh and his first wife, Empress Tống Thị Lan (his older brother died soon after birth).
Embassy to France
In 1785, at the age of five, Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh accompanied the French
The party met with King
Prince Canh became highly favourable to Christianity.[11] He strongly desired to be baptized,[12] but Pigneau de Behaine refrained doing so in order to avoid a negative reaction at the Vietnamese court.[13]
Return to Vietnam
The party would leave France in December 1787 on board the Dryade,[14] again staying in Pondicherry from May 1788 to July 1789.[15] After his return from France, he refused to kneel in front of the altar of his ancestors, and painted crosses on Buddhist statues.[16] He would regularly attend Catholic mass, but was not formally baptized although he wished to.[17]
In 1793, Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh became "Crown Prince of the Eastern Palace" (
After Pigneau de Behaine died at the Siege of Quy Nhon in 1799, Prince Cảnh made a funerary oration to his former master:
"Alas! We had been so close for so many years, and we lived continuously amid war and troubles (...) You devoted yourself to recover the fortunes of Annam, and, as a consummate strategist, elaborated plans for the defeat of the enemy. The usages of our countries may be different, but our hearts weren't, united as they were in the strongest of friendships."
— Funerary oration of Prince Cảnh to Pigneau de Behaine, December 1799.[20]
Prince Canh seems to have been baptized secretly towards the end of his life.[21] According to Vietnamese annals:
"When he lived with Master Vero (
Pigneau), he was good, pious and religious. After the passing away of Master Vero, the Prince changed his character, involving himself more in sexual activities with women and drinking. He totally forsake religion. Only when he was near his death, he turned his thoughts to Jesus. He felt repentant and secretly asked a minor Mandarin to baptise him so as no one would ever know.— Vietnamese annals.[22]
He died in 1801 of smallpox.
As Nguyễn Phúc Cảnh was the presumptive heir to Gia Long, Canh's eldest son Mỹ Đường was next in line for the succession. Gia Long however changed the primogeniture rule of succession to include "testamental measures" (gia thien ha), and ultimately changed his successor to his fourth son, who became emperor Minh Mạng.[23]
Descendants
In 1824, My Duong, the eldest son of Prince Canh, was apparently accused of incest with his mother (Prince Canh's widow) by mandarin Lê Văn Duyệt, with the result that he was banished from the royal court, while his mother died in prison. My Duong was only rehabilitated in 1848 during the reign of Tự Đức, one year before his death.[26]
The 1833-1835
My Duong's eldest son was Le Trung, who received the title of Marquis Ứng Hòa Hầu in 1826.[26] Le Trung's eldest son was Anh Nhu (also known as Tang Nhu), who was considered as a candidate to the throne under French rule, following the establishment of the protectorate on Annam in 1884, and once again after the death of Đồng Khánh in 1889.
Anh Nhu, grand-grandson of Prince Canh, was the father of
See also
- Empress Thừa Thiên
- France-Vietnam relations
Notes
- ^ A History of Vietnam by Oscar Chapuis, p.175
- ^ Dragon Ascending by Henry Kamm p.86
- ^ a b Mantienne, p.84, p.200
- ^ Mantienne, p.92
- ^ Mantienne, p.93
- ^ Mantienne, p.97
- ^ Viet Nam by Nhung Tuyet Tran, Anthony Reid, p.293
- ^ "He dazzled the Louis XVI court at Versailles with Nguyen Canh, ... dressed in red and gold brocade, to play with the Dauphin, the heir apparent." in The Asian Mystique: Dragon Ladies, Geisha Girls, and Our Fantasies by Sheridan Prasso, p.40
- ^ "The Dauphin, about his age, played with him." French Policy and Developments in Indochina - Page 27 by Thomas Edson Ennis
- ^ Mantienne, p.18
- ^ "He had not converted Gia Long to Christianity, but had succeeded in making Prince Canh a Catholic zealot, universally condemned for having told his mother to throw feces on Buddhist images" A History of Vietnam by Oscar Chapuis, p.179 [1]
- ^ Mantienne, p.200
- ^ Mantienne, p.122
- ^ Mantienne, p.109-110
- ^ Mantienne, p.110
- ^ A Vietnamese Royal Exile in Japan by My-Van Tran, Tran My-Van, p.15 [2]
- ^ A Vietnamese Royal Exile in Japan by My-Van Tran, Tran My-Van, p.15-16 [3]
- ^ A Vietnamese Royal Exile in Japan by My-Van Tran, Tran My-Van
- ^ a b Mantienne, p.135
- ^ Mantienne, p.222-223. Original French translation: "Hélas! Nous étions liés depuis de nombreuses années, et continuellement nous vivions au milieu de la guerre et des troubles (...) Vous consacrant dès lors à redresser la fortune de l'Annam, vous élaborâtes en stratège consommé votre plan de défaite de l'énemi. Les usages de nos deux pays ont beau être différents, nos coeurs ne l'étaient pas, unis qu'ils étaient par la plus solide amitié."
- ^ A Vietnamese Royal Exile in Japan by My-Van Tran, Tran My-Van, p.16
- ^ A Vietnamese Royal Exile in Japan by My-Van Tran, Tran My-Van, p.16 [4]
- ^ a b Viêt Nam Exposé By Gisèle Luce Bousquet, Pierre Brocheux, p.204
- ^ "Prince Canh is said to have died from the measles at the age of twenty-one. However, French missionaries reported that he had been poisoned." Colonialism by Philip Wolny, p.45 [5]
- ^ Đại Nam chính biên liệt truyện (Sơ tập, Quyển 2)
- ^ a b c A Vietnamese Royal Exile in Japan by My-Van Tran, Tran My-Van My Duong p.22 [6]
- ^ McLeod, p.30
References
- Mantienne, Frédéric 1999 Monseigneur Pigneau de Béhaine Eglises d'Asie, Série Histoire, ISBN 2-914402-20-1
- McLeod, Mark W. The Vietnamese response to French Intervention, 1862-1874 Greenwood Publishing Group, 1990 ISBN 0-275-93562-0