Emperor of Đại Nam under French protectorate of Annam and TonkinHouseNguyễn PhúcFatherThành TháiMotherConcubine Nguyễn Thị ĐịnhReligionBuddhismStandard

Emperor Duy Tân (Hanoi::, Hán tự: 維新, lit. "renovation"; 19 September 1900 – 26 December 1945), born Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh San, was an emperor of the Nguyễn Dynasty who reigned for 9 years between 1907 and 1916.

Contents

• 1 Early childhood
• 2 Reign, 1906–1916
• 3 Life in exile
  • 3.1 World War II service and death
• 4 Reburial in Vietnam
• 5 Family
• 6 Images
• 7 References

Early childhood

Duy Tân (at the time, known by his birth name, Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh San) was son of the Thành Thái emperor. Because of his opposition to French rule and his erratic, depraved actions (which some speculate were feigned to shield his opposition from the French) Thành Thái was declared insane and exiled to Vũng Tàu in 1907. The French decided to p* the throne to his son Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh San, despite the fact that he was only seven years old. The French hoped that someone so young would be easily influenced and controlled, and thus raised to be pro-French.

• Young prince Vinh San (right)

Reign, 1906–1916

The efforts on the part of the French to raise the prince to support them largely failed. Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh San was enthroned with the reign name of Duy Tân, meaning "friend of reform", but in time he proved incapable of living up to this name. As he became older he noticed that, even though he was treated as the emperor, it was the colonial authorities who were actually obeyed. As he became a teenager, Emperor Duy Tân came under the influence of the mandarin Trần Cao Vân, who was very much opposed to the colonial administration. Emperor Duy Tân began to plan a secret rebellion with Trần Cao Vân and others to overthrow the French.

• Young emperor

• Young emperor (middle) and French colonial officers

• Young emperor at 8, 1907

• Emperor at 16 (1916)

In 1916, while France was preoccupied with fighting World War I, Emperor Duy Tân was smuggled out of the Forbidden City with Trần Cao Vân to call upon the people to rise up against the French. However, the secret was revealed and France immediately sent troops there, and after only a few days, they were betrayed and captured by the French authorities. Because of his age and to avoid a worse situation, Emperor Duy Tân was deposed and exiled instead of being killed. Trần Cao Vân and the rest of the revolutionaries were all beheaded.

Life in exile

Duy-Tan in 1930

The former emperor was exiled with his father (Thành Thái) to Réunion Island in the Indian Ocean. Prince Vĩnh San continued to favor national liberation for Vietnam in exile.

• The former Emperor Duy Tân, pictured with a race horse in Réunion

• The former Emperor Duy Tân, pictured at his house in St-Denis, La Réunion.

• Former emperor in La Réunion

• Former emperor in exile (La Réunion)

World War II service and death

During World War II he resisted the Vichy Regime until the Liberation of La Réunion, after which he joined the Free French Forces and became a low-ranking naval officer on the French destroyer:Léopard, serving as radio officer. He then joined the Free French army as a second lieutenant in December 1942, receiving successive promotions to lieutenant (1943), captain (1944), major (July 1945) and lieutenant-colonel (September 1945).

When France was facing defeat by the Viet Minh, and the regime of Emperor Bảo Đại proved incapable of gaining any public support, French leader Charles de Gaulle talked to Prince Vĩnh San, who was still very popular in the Vietnamese public memory for his patriotism, about returning to Vietnam as emperor. However, he died in a plane crash in Central Africa on his way home to Vietnam in 1945 and the great hopes of many died with him – as a patriotic challenge to Hồ Chí Minh. For his wartime service, the French posthumously awarded him the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour and the Officer's Médaille de la Résistance, also appointing him a Companion of the Ordre de la Libération.

Reburial in Vietnam

In 1987, his son, Prince Bảo Vàng, and the royal family of Vietnam accompanied his father's remains, which were removed from Africa and brought home to Vietnam in a traditional ceremony to rest in the tomb of his grandfather, Emperor Dục Đức.In 2001, Prince Bảo Vang wrote a book *led Duy Tân, Empereur d'Annam 1900–1945 about his father's life.Most cities in Vietnam have named major streets after him.

• Return of emperor Duy tan's tomb back to Vietnam in 1987.

Family

• 1st Wife: Mai Thị Vàng (1899–1980)
• 2nd Wife: Marie Anne Viale (b.1890)
  • Armand Viale (b.1919)
• 3rd Wife: Fermande Antier (b.1913)
  • Thérèse (1928–1928)
  • Rita Suzy Georgette Vinh-San (b.1929)
  • Solange (1930–1930)
  • Guy Georges Vinh-San (b.1933)
  • Yves Claude Vinh-San (b.1934)
  • Joseph Roger Vinh-San (b.1938)
  • Ginette (1940–1940)
• 4th Wife: Ernestine Yvette Maillot (b.1924)
  • Andrée Maillot Vinh-San (1945–2011)

Images

• Nguyễn Hữu Bài, Minister of personnel of Duy Tân court.

• The Emperor Duy Tân on a litter, probably on the occasion of the coronation celebrations, 1907

• Emperor Duy Tan in 1907.

• Royal guards in Imperial palace, Duy Tan era

• Cabinet ministry of emperor Duy Tan, (From left to right), Minister of laws (Tôn Thất Hân), Minister of administration (Nguyễn Hữu Bài), Minister of rites (Huỳnh Côn), prince Nguyễn Phúc Miên Lịch, Minister of Public Works (Lê Trinh), Minister of Education (Cao Xuân Dục) .

References

GovernmentMilitarySpecial administrative regions

• Champa
• Principality of Hà Tiên
• Sip Song Chau Tai
• Thủy Xá and Hỏa Xá
• Trấn Ninh
• Trấn Tây Thành

Palaces &mausoleumsSociety &culture

• Áo dài
• Đại Nam nhất thống chí
• Đại Nam thực lục
• Hoàng Lê nhất thống chí
• Khâm định Việt sử Thông giám cương mục
• Khăn vấn
• Woodblocks of the Nguyễn Dynasty

Education

• Imperial Academy, Huế
• Imperial examination
  • Confucian court examination system in Vietnam
• Quốc Học – Huế High School for the Gifted
• Société d’Enseignement Mutuel du Tonkin
• Tonkin Free School

CurrencyLaws

• Hương ước

Treaties

• Saigon (1862)
• Huế (1863)
• Saigon (1874)
• Huế (1883)
• Huế (1884)

Orders, decorations, and medals

• Bai
• Order of the Dragon of Annam
• Kim Khánh

Other topics

• Domain of the Crown
• Economy of the Nguyễn dynasty until 1884
• Esplanade of Sacrifice to the Heaven and Earth
• House of Nguyễn Phúc
• Long Wall of Quảng Ngãi
• Postage stamps and postal history of Annam and Tongking
• Thoại Hà C*
• Vĩnh Tế C*
• Tôn Thất
• Việt gian
• Vietnamese nationalism