Emperor Le Trang Tong

A small oil lamp burns quietly under a thatched roof in a foreign land. Outside are unfamiliar mountains and forests. There is the sound of a stream, and birdsong from a country that is not home. Inside, a Vietnamese boy is growing up, far from the royal capital and far from the house of his ancestors. That boy later became Emperor Lê Trang Tông. The histories remember him as the one who relit the lamp of a whole royal line.

The website of the Lam Kinh relic site gives his personal name as Lê Ninh. He was also called Lê Duy Ninh. He was the son of Emperor Lê Chiêu Tông, which made him a prince of the Lê dynasty. The roots of that royal line lay in Thanh Hóa, where Lam Kinh stands. Lam Kinh is the homeland of Lê Lợi, who founded the Lê dynasty. It is considered the place where the Lê family began. That was where the boy should have belonged, among the roots of his forebears. Instead he grew up in a completely different land of mountains and forests, very far from those roots.

The childhood of Prince Lê Ninh was not as peaceful as that of many other boys. By then, the throne of the Lê had passed into other hands. The old home was no longer safe. One night, people took the boy away. They went quietly, to keep him safe. Loyal followers led him away from the capital to shelter in the land of Ai Lao, in the mountain forests to the west, far from home.

Here was a young prince who should have lived in a palace, now depending on the kindness of a strange land. Around him were another language, other customs, and mountains he had never seen before. Even so, he kept growing up. He still carried in his heart the name of a royal line, like a small flame he would not let go out.

Meanwhile, back home, one man had not forgotten the old royal line. He was Nguyễn Kim, a loyal official. The Lam Kinh site says that he gathered talented men and went to the area of Sầm Châu. It lay on the border between Thanh Hóa and Ai Lao. The king of Ai Lao helped him build a base there, and gave him more men and horses. The website of the State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese adds that the king of Ai Lao at the time, Sạ Đẩu, made a pact with him to share the work of supplying the troops. Everyone stood together behind the Lê.

Then Nguyễn Kim began to search. He searched everywhere for the son of the old royal line. And he found Prince Lê Ninh in the land of Ai Lao. When he found the boy, the loyal official's heart must have grown warm again. He was like a man who has walked all night in the dark and suddenly sees the lamp he thought was lost.

In the first lunar month of 1533, the year Quý Tỵ, Nguyễn Kim placed the young prince on the throne. This happened right there in the land of Ai Lao, according to the Lam Kinh site. The young emperor took the reign name Nguyên Hòa. The boy who had sheltered in a foreign land had now become Emperor Lê Trang Tông.

That coronation was no grand ceremony in the middle of a capital. It was a simple rite far away, among people who believed with one heart in the old royal line. It was a very small ceremony, yet it changed a whole royal line. The State Committee for Overseas Vietnamese writes that the events of 1533 opened the period known as the Revival Lê. It was a time when the Lê dynasty rose again, and it lasted more than 200 years after that.

Once on the throne, Emperor Lê Trang Tông did not forget the man who had found him. He raised Nguyễn Kim to the rank of Thượng phụ Thái sư Hưng quốc công. He gave him the great task of restoring the Lê dynasty. Later, the emperor also moved his residence to the area of Yên Trường, in Thanh Hóa, to rebuild the house of his ancestors step by step.

Emperor Lê Trang Tông reigned for 16 years. He died in 1548, at the age of 34. It was not a long life, and it began with years of wandering in a foreign land. Yet he did something great. He rebuilt a whole royal line that had seemed broken, and tied the thread of his ancestors together again.

Today, old traces remain of Vạn Lại and Yên Trường, where the emperor once moved to rebuild the house of his ancestors. Both lie in Thanh Hóa. These places belong to the story of a boy who grew up in a foreign land, and of a loyal official who traveled far and hard to bring him home. Those two, one young and one old, together relit a lamp that had nearly gone out in a strange land. Then they carried it home to light the house of their ancestors once more.