Marquis Chương Thành Trần Tự Khánh (1175 – 3 January 1224) was a general of the

Lý dynasty The Lý dynasty (, , chữ Nôm: 茹李, chữ Hán: 朝李, Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: ''triều Lý''), officially Đại Cồ Việt (chữ Hán: 大瞿越) from 1009 to 1054 and Đại Việt (chữ Hán: 大越) from 1054 to 1225, was ...

during the reigns of

Lý Cao Tông Lý Cao Tông (6 July 1173 – 15 November 1210), born Lý Long Trát, courtesy name Long Cán, was the seventh emperor of the Lý dynasty, ruled Đại Việt for 35 years. He identified himself with Buddha, similar with Angkorian Khmer Empire co ...

and

Lý Huệ Tông Lý Huệ Tông (chữ Hán: 李惠宗; born Lý Sảm 李旵; July 1194 – 3 September 1226) was the emperor of Vietnam from 1211 to 1224, the penultimate leader of the Lý dynasty. During Lý Huệ Tông's rule, many members of the Trần fami ...

. He was son of Trần Lý, head of the Trần clan, and brother of

Trần Thừa Trần Thừa (chữ Hán: 陳承, 1184–1234) was the head of the Trần clan and a high-ranking mandarin during the reign of Lý Huệ Tông and Lý Chiêu Hoàng. After the overthrow of the Lý dynasty by Trần Thủ Độ, Trần Th� ...

and

Trần Thị Dung National Matriarch Linh Từ ( Vietnamese: Linh Từ Quốc mẫu, chữ Hán: 靈慈國母) Trần Thị Dung (1193 /sup>–1259) was the last empress and the last empress mother of the Lý dynasty. She was entitled by the Emperor Lý H ...

who married to Lý Huệ Tông. Renowned as a skilled general, Trần Tự Khánh was one of the most prominent figures during the turbulent time at the end of Cao Tông and the beginning of Huệ Tông's rule. He had many victories on the battlefield and was responsible for putting down several revolts against the Lý dynasty. Although He died before the coronation of his nephew

Trần Thái Tông Trần Thái Tông (17 July 1218 – 5 May 1277), Vietnamese name, personal name Trần Cảnh or Trần Nhật Cảnh, temple name Thái Tông, was the first emperor of the Trần dynasty, reigned Đại Việt for 33 years (1226–58), being R ...

, Trần Tự Khánh was considered one of the main factors that led to the rising position of the Trần clan in the royal court and ultimately the overthrowing of the Lý dynasty by

Trần Thủ Độ Prince Trung Vũ Trần Thủ Độ ( vi-hantu, 陳守度, 1194–1264) was a general and leader of the Trần clan during the reign of Lý Huệ Tông and Lý Chiêu Hoàng of Vietnam. He was the chief mastermind between the overthrowal the L� ...

to create the

Trần dynasty The Trần dynasty (Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: Nhà Trần, chữ Nôm: 茹陳; Vietnamese language, Vietnamese: triều Trần, chữ Hán: ikt:朝ikt:陳, 朝wikt:陳, 陳), officially Đại Việt (Chữ Hán: 大越), was a List ...

Background

Trần Tự Khánh was born as the second son of Trần Lý who made his great fortune by fishing in Lưu Gia village (now Hưng Hà,

Thái Bình Thái Bình City () is a city in the Red River Delta of Northern Vietnam. It is the capital of Thái Bình Province. The city is located 110 km from Hanoi. The city area is 67.7 square km, with a population of 210,000 people (2006). Histor ...

). He had an elder brother

, who fathered the future first emperor of

, and a younger sister

. During the troubled time under the reign of

, the Crown Prince

Lý Sảm LY or ly may refer to: Government and politics * Libya (ISO 3166-1 country code LY) * Lý dynasty, a Vietnamese dynasty * Labour Youth of Ireland * Legislative Yuan, the unicameral legislature of the Republic of China (Taiwan) Science and tech ...

sought refuge in Trần Lý's family and decided to marry his beautiful daughter Trần Thị Dung in 1209.

History

In March 1210 Trần Tự Khánh with his army of Trần's house servants helped the Crown Prince return to the capital,

Thăng Long Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the capital and second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red and Black Rivers). As a municipality, Hanoi consists of 12 urban districts, 17 rural d ...

; therefore he was awarded the title Count Thuận Lưu (

Vietnamese Vietnamese may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia * Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam ** Overseas Vietnamese, Vietnamese people living outside Vietna ...

: Thuận Lưu bá). One year after, the Crown Prince Lý Sảm was enthroned as

after the death of

, by then the Trần clan's position began to rise in the royal court. After his coronation, Huệ Tông ordered Trần Tự Khánh to bring his sister to royal palace, the mission was successfully conducted by Trần Tự Khánh's subordinate

Phùng Tá Chu Phung is a Vietnamese surname. The name is transliterated as Feng in Chinese and Pung in Korean. The word Phung without the accent is also a Chinese surname Péng (彭), usually found in Southeast Asia. Phung is the anglicized variation of the sur ...

who also helped general

Tô Trung Từ Tô Trung Từ (chữ Hán: 蘇忠詞, ?–1211) was a high ranking general near the end of the Lý dynasty in the History of Vietnam, and attempted to usurp the Lý dynasty during his reign of the dynasty's royal court. He was born in Lưu Gia vi ...

pacify the revolt of Đỗ Quảng near Thăng Long. As a result, Tô Trung Từ was promoted to Regent of the Emperor while Trần Tự Khánh was also granted the title Marquis Chương Thành (Chương Thành hầu). Besides the revolt of Đỗ Quảng, there were many warlords who rose up their troops against the rule of the Lý dynasty. One of them,

Đoàn Thượng Duan () is an East Asian surname of Chinese origin that can be found in China, Vietnam and Korea. Notable people Mainland China * Duan Sui (died 386), a ruler of the Xianbei state Western Yan * Duan Ye (died 401), the first king of the North ...

, even self-entitled as Prince (Vương) and was so powerful that no generals of the Emperor could put down his revolt. These revolts with the incapability of the royal court made the ruling Lý dynasty gradually weaken. In February 1213, afraid that his sister was ill-treated by the Empress Mother Đàm, Trần Tự Khánh led his army to the royal palace with the petition of receiving the Emperor, Trần Tự Khánh's action made Lý Huệ Tông suspected that he in fact wanted to overpower the Emperor, Huệ Tông thus ordered an issue of imprisoning Trần Tự Khánh and downgrading his sister Trần Thị Dung from Royal Consort (''nguyên phi'') to palace maid (''ngự nữ''). The imprisonment of Trần Tự Khánh was not carried out and he again brought troops near Thăng Long in January 1214 with the same petition. Afraid that Trần Tự Khánh had a conspiracy against the royal family, Lý Huệ Tông decided to escape from Thăng Long to

Lạng Sơn Lạng Sơn () is a city in far Northern Vietnam, and the capital of Lạng Sơn Province. It is accessible by road and rail from Hanoi, the Vietnamese capital, and it is the northernmost point on National Route 1. History Due to its geograph ...

, always with the pursuit of Trần Tự Khánh. Only after Trần Tự Khánh put down the revolt of Đinh Khả and Bùi Đô in May 1214, the Emperor restored his sister as Lady Thuận Trinh (Thuận Trinh phu nhân). However, she was still distrusted by the Empress Mother Đàm who tried to force Trần Thị Dung commit suicide several times and finally Lý Huệ Tông had to escape with Lady Thuận Trinh to the garrison of Trần Tự Khánh in Cửu Liên Marsh (now Yên Mỹ,

Hưng Yên Hưng Yên () is a city in the Red River Delta of the Northern Vietnam. It is the old capital of Hưng Yên Province and is a third-graded city according to Vietnam's urban classification table. History Hưng Yên city was originally the expansion ...

). The first child of Huệ Tông and Lady Thuận Trinh, Princess Thuận Thiên was born here in June 1216. In December 1216 Lady Thuận Trinh was entitled as empress of the Lý dynasty, hence Trần Tự Khánh was appointed for the position of Regent of the Emperor and commander in charge of military training and preparing. Being a skilled general, Trần Tự Khánh was able to improve the military situation of the Lý dynasty's army. During that time, Huệ Tông's health declined rapidly and so the power in the royal court was gradually fallen into the hand of the Trần clan led by Trần Tự Khánh. Outside the royal palace, Đại Việt was still in a chaotic situation by the revolts

Nguyễn Nộn Nguyễn (阮) (sometimes abbreviated as Ng̃) is the most common surname of the Vietnamese people. Outside of Vietnam, the surname is commonly rendered without diacritics as ''Nguyen''. By some estimates 30 to 39 percent of Vietnamese peopl ...

, Đoàn Thượng, and mountainous people in

Chương Mỹ Chương Mỹ �ɨəŋ˧˧:miʔi˧˥is a ward of Hà Nội, the capital city, in the Red River Delta region of Vietnam. History On April 19, 2025, to response the ''Plan to arrange and merge administrative units in Vietnam 2024–2025'' by the Gove ...

. After his failure of pacifying the revolt in Chương Mỹ, Trần Tự Khánh advised the Emperor to pardon Nguyễn Nộn and appoint him to take charge of putting down the Chương Mỹ's revolt. Trần Tự Khánh died in December 1223 and was posthumously entitled as Prince Kiến Quốc (Kiến Quốc đại vương). Although unable to witness the successful plot to overthrow the Lý dynasty and found

by his cousin

in 1225, Trần Tự Khánh was still considered as one of the main figures that led to the collapse of the Lý dynasty and the creation of the Trần dynasty.

References

Notes

Bibliography

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tran, Khanh Tu Lý dynasty generals Lý dynasty officials Lý dynasty marquises 1223 deaths Year of birth unknown Thái úy People from Thái Bình province