Re-considering the Coup d’État of 1370

Abstract

In Vietnams history virtually every new dynasty existed or emerged as the transition of power through the female line. Tran Thu Do, de-facto the founder of the Tran dynasty, attempted to construct such a system of power succession in the scope of a ruling family (intra-kin marriages, new emperors appointments long before their fathers deaths, widowed empresses being sent to nunneries) which could have excluded such an opportunity. The system peacefully existed longer than a century, and crashed. The analysis of the Complete Annals of Dai Viet and Chinese chronicles shows that the Coup of 1370 was the crucial event in that process. All the chronicles consider it to be supposedly a successful repulse of the attempt to seize power by the Duong House, strange to the Tran dynasty. However, that was the starting point of the final crash of Tran Thu Dos system and the result was the fall of the dynasty.