Emperor Le Than Tong

One throne, climbed twice by the same man in a single lifetime. On that same throne, a father and then four sons each took a turn as emperor. Across all the centuries of Vietnamese history, such a thing is said to belong to only one family, and to only one man. The father was Emperor Lê Thần Tông.

His birth name was Lê Duy Kỳ. He was born in 1607, though sources differ by a year. He belonged to the Restored Lê, a line of emperors that began in the land of Thanh Hóa. Yet what people remember most about him sits inside his own household: a father, and four sons who all took the throne.

The unusual part began when he was very small. In 1619, still a young boy, Lê Duy Kỳ was placed on the throne. The boy sat small in the palace hall, his robes and hat hanging loose and wide on him, while elderly officials bowed and spoke their business. He grew up alongside that throne, learning day by day how to be an emperor.

He stayed on the throne for a great many years. Then, in 1643, he did something few emperors would. He handed the throne to his son and stepped back as the retired emperor, a father-emperor, so that his son could rule. That son was Emperor Lê Chân Tông. It seemed that the story of his reign had ended there.

But life sometimes takes a sudden turn. The son had not reigned long when he died young. The throne stood empty again, and the court needed a steady emperor. And once again everyone thought of him, the father who had sat on that throne years before. So in 1649, Lê Thần Tông was invited back, and once more he climbed the old throne.

A man took the throne. Then he gave it up. Then he took it again. According to the VnExpress newspaper, no one else in Vietnamese history has done the same.

Yet the story does not stop there, and the strangest part is still to come. Lê Thần Tông had four sons, and all four later became emperor, one after another. The first was Lê Chân Tông, the son who took the throne in 1643. Then came Lê Huyền Tông. After him came Lê Gia Tông, and last of all Lê Hy Tông. One, two, three, four. Four sons, four emperors, all children of the same father.

It was a household in which the father twice became emperor and four sons followed him in turn. Across all the centuries of Vietnamese history, no other family like it is recorded.

The throne was so large that a boy once sat lost inside it. That same throne held one man twice in a single lifetime. Later it held four of his sons, each in his turn.

Think back to the throne as it first stood, so large that a boy once sat lost inside it. That same throne held one man twice in a single lifetime. Four of his sons sat on it too, each in his turn.