Hàm Nghi

Emperor Hàm Nghi (Vietnamese: [hâːm ŋi], chữ Hán: 咸宜 lit. "entirely right", 3 August 1871 – 14 January 1944), personal name Nguyễn Phúc Ưng Lịch (阮福膺簡), also Nguyễn Phúc Minh, was the eighth emperor of the Vietnamese Nguyễn dynasty. He reigned for only one year (1884–85).

He was the younger brother of Emperor Kiến Phúc. In 1884, Hàm Nghi was enthroned at the age of 13 by the regents Nguyễn Văn Tường and Tôn Thất Thuyết. After the failed counterattack at the imperial capital Huế in 1885, Tôn Thất Thuyết took him out of the capital where he issued the Cần Vương edict to resist French colonial rule.

In Hàm Nghi’s name, Tôn Thất Thuyết launched the Cần Vương movement, calling upon scholars and patriots to assist the Emperor by rising up to fight and save the nation, to regain independence. This movement lasted until 1888, when Hàm Nghi was captured. Afterward, he was exiled to Algiers the capital of Algeria, where he later died in 1944 from stomach cancer. Due to pressure from the French, the Nguyễn dynasty did not confer a temple name (miếu hiệu) upon him.

Today, Vietnamese history regards him, along with Emperors Thành Thái and Duy Tân, as three patriotic monarchs during the French colonial period.