Emperor Ly Chieu Hoang

The dragon hall was vast. Its wooden pillars were thicker than several grown men could reach around, the roof soared high, and brocade curtains hung long beside the glow of candles. At the center stood a golden throne. On that throne, before a whole court of senior officials with long beards, sat a tiny girl, about the age of a child in first grade. Her name was Lý Chiêu Hoàng.

She was born in the palace in 1218. Her father was Emperor Lý Huệ Tông of the Lý dynasty, which ruled Vietnam from 1009 to 1225. From the day she arrived she was a young princess, growing up inside the old walls of the capital.

Then came the most remarkable thing of all. In 1224, when the girl was only six years old, she was made emperor. She was not a princess or an empress. She was emperor, a ruler in her own right, the head of a whole country.

Six years old. That is the age of learning to sound out letters, of loving games, of napping with a stuffed bear. Yet people dressed her in a robe embroidered with dragons and set a crown on her head. She climbed the high steps one small step at a time and sat down on the wide throne. And the whole court still bowed their heads very low, in deep respect, and addressed her as "Your Majesty."

This is what sets her apart. Over the long history of Vietnam there were many rulers, young ones, old ones, and gifted ones too. But only one woman ever sat on the throne as emperor. Lý Chiêu Hoàng was the first woman emperor in the history of the dynasties of Vietnam, and the only one.

When a ruler took the throne, he chose a fine name for the years of his reign. It is called a reign name. The reign name of this girl emperor was Thiên Chương Hữu Đạo. It was a solemn name, and it rang out like the sound of a bronze bell.

She belonged to the Lý, a very great dynasty. Eight emperors had ruled before her, one after another, passing the throne down through the family, one generation after another. She was the ninth. At six years old she became the one who closed a dynasty as long as the lives of a grandfather, a great-grandfather and the one before him put together.

Her small feet did not yet reach the floor of the hall, and still a whole country was bowing its head, waiting to hear her voice.

Even today, when someone asks whether Vietnam ever had a woman on the throne, the answer is yes. A little girl once sat on a golden throne in a dragon hall as emperor of a whole country. She was Lý Chiêu Hoàng, the only woman who ever wore the golden crown in the long history of the dynasties.