Emperor Đồng Khánh was the ninth Emperor

Emperor

An emperor is a monarch, usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife or a woman who rules in her own right...

 of the Nguyễn Dynasty of Vietnam

Vietnam

Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...

. He reigned three years between 1885 and 1889, and was considered one of the most despised emperors of his era.

Đồng Khánh's birthname was Nguyễn Cảnh Tông. He was the son of Prince Nguyễn Phúc Hồng Cai, but because his uncle, Emperor Tự Đức, had no children, he was adopted and made the Duke of Kiên Giang

Kien Giang Province

Kiên Giang is a province of Vietnam, located in the Mekong Delta region of southern Vietnam. It is known for fishing and rice farming. The provincial capital is Rạch Giá, 250 km from the Ho Chi Minh City...

. Đồng Khánh, however, did not succeed to the throne until four others, Dục Đức, Hiệp Hoà

Hiep Hoa

Emperor Hiệp Hòa was the sixth emperor of the Vietnamese Nguyễn Dynasty and reigned for four months...

, Kiến Phúc and Hàm Nghi

Ham Nghi

Emperor Hàm Nghi ; , was the eighth Emperor of the Vietnamese Nguyễn Dynasty. He reigned for only one year ....

 were all enthroned, and removed in the year after the death of Tự Đức.

Đồng Khánh came to the throne because of the events of July 4, 1885, when the regent

Regent

A regent, from the Latin regens "one who reigns", is a person selected to act as head of state because the ruler is a minor, not present, or debilitated. Currently there are only two ruling Regencies in the world, sovereign Liechtenstein and the Malaysian constitutive state of Terengganu...

, Tôn Thất Thuyết

Ton That Thuyet

Tôn Thất Thuyết was the leading mandarin of Emperor Tự Đức of Vietnam's Nguyễn Dynasty. Thuyết later led the Can Vuong movement which aimed to restore Vietnamese independence under Emperor Hàm Nghi. He was born on May 12, 1839 in Huế....

, kidnapped the young Emperor Hàm Nghi

Ham Nghi

Emperor Hàm Nghi ; , was the eighth Emperor of the Vietnamese Nguyễn Dynasty. He reigned for only one year ....

 from the "Purple Forbidden City" of Huế

Hue

Hue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically , as "the degree to which a stimulus can be describedas similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow,"...

, and took him to the mountains as the figurehead of a revolutionary movement against the French. To take away the legitimacy of Hàm Nghi, the French enthroned Nguyễn Cảnh Tông, who took the era name of "Đồng Khánh".

Madame Nhu

Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu

Trần Lệ Xuân , popularly known as Madame Nhu, was considered the first lady of South Vietnam from 1955 to 1963. She was the wife of Ngo Dinh Nhu who was the brother and chief adviser to President Ngo Dinh Diem...

, the First Lady

First Lady

First Lady or First Gentlemanis the unofficial title used in some countries for the spouse of an elected head of state.It is not normally used to refer to the spouse or partner of a prime minister; the husband or wife of the British Prime Minister is usually informally referred to as prime...

 of South Vietnam

South Vietnam

South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...

from 1955-63, was a great-granddaughter of Đồng Khánh.