Lý Anh Tông

Early years

Anh Tông was born in the third month in Lunar calendar of 1136 as Lý Thiên Tộ, the first son of the emperor Lý Thần Tông and Empress Lê Thị. Initially Lý Thiên Tộ was not chosen as crown prince of the Lý Dynasty because his father preferred Lý Thiên Lộc who was the son of his favourite concubine and born four years earlier, in 1132. In the ninth month of 1138, the ill emperor decided to make Lý Thiên Tộ his successor and downgrade Lý Thiên Lộc to Prince Minh Đạo (Vietnamese: Minh Đạo vương) after a campaign launched by three other concubines of the Emperor, Ladies Cảm Thánh, Nhật Phụng and Phụng Thánh, who were afraid that the coronation of a concubine's son would threaten their position in the royal family.

Soon after naming his successor Lý Thần Tông died, on the 26th day of the same month. On the first day in the tenth lunar month (November 5) of 1138, Lý Anh Tông took the throne at the age of only two. He changed the era name to Thiệu Minh and elevated his mother, Lady Cảm Thánh, to the status of Empress Mother of the Lý Dynasty, the Empress Lê Thị. During his 37-year reign, Lý Anh Tông had three more era names: Đại Định (1140–1162), Chính Long Bảo Ứng (1163–1173) and Thiên Cảm Chí Bảo (1174–1175).

Early reign (1138–1157)

Succeeding the throne at the age of only two, the child emperor only ruled the country in name while the absolute power was placed in the hand of Empress Lê Thị who acted as regent for her son. As Empress Lê Thị favored an official named Đỗ Anh Vũ, the royal court witnessed the rising power of this official who decided almost every matters of the country and despised other officials. According to Ngô Sĩ Liên in Đại Việt sử ký toàn thư, the reason for the favouritism of Empress Lê Thị for Đỗ Anh Vũ was the secret personal relation between them, as a result, some mandarins such as Vũ Đái, Nguyễn Dương, Nguyễn Quốc and Dương Tự Minh tried to topple Đỗ Anh Vũ but failed and thus died under his order. After the death of the Empress in 1147, Đỗ Anh Vũ continued to hold strong position in the royal court until his own death in the eighth month of 1158. The rise of Đỗ Anh Vũ in the royal court was considered by Ngô Sĩ Liên one of the serious weaknesses of Lý Anh Tông's ruling which came from the wrong judgment of the Emperor.

In 1140, the priest Thân Lợi called himself the son of Lý Nhân Tông and raised a revolt against Lý Anh Tông in the northern region (now Thái Nguyên). The army of Thân Lợi successfully dominated the frontier region and defeated the army of the royal court led by the high-ranking official Lưu Vũ Nhĩ. After the victory, Thân Lợi, now self-appointed as King Bình (Bình Vương), took a further step by directly attacking the capital Thăng Long. It was the chancellor Đỗ Anh Vũ who assumed the task of suppressing the rebellion, a mission that he accomplished after five months. Afterwards Thân Lợi was captured by Tô Hiến Thành and beheaded by the order of Lý Anh Tông.

During the early reign of Lý Anh Tông, the Lý Dynasty had several edicts to relax the severe laws at that time. In 1142, in order to memorialize the rebellion of the Trưng sisters against the Chinese domination, Lý Anh Tông ordered to build a large temple in the southern suburbs of Thăng Long which was named the Temple of Trưng sisters (Đền Hai Bà) and still remains until now, Lý Anh Tông was also considered the first emperor of Đại Việt who promoted Buddhism as the state religion. Another important decision of the royal court was the military campaign against the King Jaya Harivarman I of Champa with the purpose of replacing the King by Vangsaraja who was supported by the Lý Dynasty. In 1152, the general Lý Mông was appointed by Lý Anh Tông to command over 5,000 soldiers of Thanh Hóa and Nghệ An begin the campaign which ultimately resulted in a defeat of the Lý Dynasty and the deaths of both Lý Mông and Vangsaraja. In 1154, to heal the broken relation with the Lý Dynasty, Jaya Harivarman I sent his daughter to Đại Việt who was accepted by Lý Anh Tông as his concubine. The decision of Lý Anh Tông was criticized by the historians Ngô Sĩ Liên and Lê Văn Hưu who argued that instead of accepting the offer, the Emperor should have opened another campaign to punish the kingdom of Champa.

Later reign (1158–1175)

After the death of Đỗ Anh Vũ, Lý Anh Tông ruled the country with the assistance of the prominent official Tô Hiến Thành. It was Tô Hiến Thành who successfully pacified the revolt of the Ngưu Hống and Ai Lao forces in the western border in 1159, he had another victory against the army of Champa in 1167 which marked the stability in the southern border of Đại Việt. Originally holding a military position in the royal court, Tô Hiến Thành not only helped the Emperor to improve the efficiency of the Lý army but he also paid attention to the development of Confucian learning in the country. After the advice of Tô Hiến Thành, Lý Anh Tông issued the establishment the first temple of Confucius in Thăng Long in 1156, formerly Confucius was jointly worshipped in the Temple of Literature, Hanoi.

In 1164, the relation between the Lý Dynasty and the Song Dynasty had a significant change when the Emperor Xiaozong of Song decided to acknowledge Đại Việt as a kingdom, the Kingdom of Annam (An Nam quốc), instead of only a district, the District of Giao Chỉ (Giao Chỉ quận) which was a designation made by his predecessors. Therefore, regard to the Song Dynasty, the ruler of Đại Việt was recognized from now on as king (Quốc vương) instead of district governor (Quận vương) as before. Vân Đồn, the principal port of trade between Đại Việt and China, was also opened in 1149 by the order of Lý Anh Tông.

Lý Anh Tông died in the seventh month of 1175 at the age of 39. Before his death, the emperor entrusted the regentship of his 3-year-old crown prince for Tô Hiến Thành despite the effort from his empress to make another prince for the throne. This final act by Lý Anh Tông was appreciated by the historian Ngô Sĩ Liên as a right decision to maintain the order of the royal family and royal court.

Family

The first son of Lý Anh Tông, the Prince Hiển Trung (Hiển Trung vương) Lý Long Xưởng, was born in the eleventh month of 1151. He was made crown prince of the Lý Dynasty but was deprived of all titles and imprisoned in the ninth month of 1174 after Lý Anh Tông discovered that his son committed adultery with a concubine in the royal palace. As a result, the position of successor was changed to the second son Lý Long Trát who was born on 25th in the fifth month of 1173.