Trịnh lords
Trịnh lords (1545–1787) Chúa Trịnh (主鄭) Trịnh Vương (鄭王) (1545–1787) | |||||||||||
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| 1545–1787 | |||||||||||
The seal "Tĩnh Đô vương tỷ" (靖都王璽) of lord Trịnh Sâm.
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Map of Vietnam circa 1650 . | |||||||||||
| Status | Lordship and de jure fief within Lê dynasty of Đại Việt | ||||||||||
| Capital | Đông Kinh | ||||||||||
| Common languages | Vietnamese | ||||||||||
| Religion | Neo-Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism, Vietnamese folk religion | ||||||||||
| Government | Feudal dynastic hereditary military dictatorship | ||||||||||
| Emperor (Hoàng đế) | |||||||||||
• 1533–1548 | Lê Trang Tông (first) | ||||||||||
• 1786–1788 | Lê Chiêu Thống (last) | ||||||||||
| Duke/King | |||||||||||
• 1545–1570 | Trịnh Kiểm (first) | ||||||||||
• 1572–1623 | Trịnh Tùng (as king) | ||||||||||
• 1786–1787 | Trịnh Bồng (last) | ||||||||||
| History | |||||||||||
• Established | 1545 | ||||||||||
• Disestablished | 1787 | ||||||||||
| Currency | Copper-alloy and zinc cash coins | ||||||||||
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The Trịnh lords (Vietnamese: Chúa Trịnh; Chữ Hán: 主鄭; 1545–1787), formally titled as "Viceroy" of Trịnh (Vietnamese: Trịnh vương ; chữ Hán: 鄭王) also known as the House of Trịnh or the Trịnh clan (Trịnh thị; 鄭氏), were a feudal noble clan that ruled Northern Vietnam—then called Tonkin—during the Later Lê dynasty. The Trịnh lords were de jure subordinates of the Lê dynasty emperors but were in actuality the de facto rulers of northern Vietnam.
The Trịnh clan and their rivals, the Nguyễn clan, were called "Chúa" (Lord) by their subjects and controlled northern and southern Vietnam respectively, leaving the Later Lê emperors as rulers in name only. The title of “Chúa” (chữ Hán: 主) in this context was comparable to the office of Shogun in Japan. The Trịnh clan produced 12 lords who dominated the royal court of the Later Lê dynasty and ruled northern Vietnam for more than two centuries.