Love at First Sight with a King
Queen Hến’s real name is Phạm Thị Hến, born in Tó Village, Tả Thanh Oai (Hanoi). She was known for her beauty and intelligence.
In 980, after King Lê Đại Hành ascended the throne, he led his army to the North to defeat the invading Song enemy. He traveled by boat along the Nhuệ River and passed through Tó Village. There, he stopped to provide provisions for his troops.
According to the book “Vietnamese History’s Surprising Tales”, at noon, the king saw a girl carrying rice among the female soldiers.
She wore a leaf hat, rough clothes, had bright eyes, thin eyebrows, a beautiful face like jade, and a smile as bright as a flower. She sang a charming folk song: “You go to court for gold and silver / I’ll cut off the path / With a crescent moon in hand / A hundred blades of grass sway in unison”.
The beautiful girl actively mobilized the villagers by the river to paddle boats and contribute rice to fill the army’s stockpile. Despite her rough clothes, she remained beautiful, with a smile as bright as a blooming flower.
During a rest, she went down to the river to wash her hands, her hair tied up. The king thought that this wasn’t an ordinary girl. He secretly admired her. However, at that time, he still had the mission to fight the enemy, so he left without making any promises.
After a while, peace was restored. The soldiers triumphantly escorted the king back to the capital, Hoa Lư. The king held a feast to reward those who had contributed. The royal court honored King Lê with the title: “Heroic Emperor with Eminent Martial Prowess, Intelligent and Filial”.
Later, he remembered the girl who carried the army’s provisions in Tó Village. King Lê Đại Hành chose the day of the North Star to visit the girl of the past.
The king found her and rewarded the surrounding villages. The people of Tó Village received 185 acres of fields and money from the sale of goods on the river.
King Lê Đại Hành officially invited her to the palace, giving her the title of Đô Hồ Quý phi and repairing the house where she lived in the neighborhood, turning it into “Đô Hồ phi cung”.
Her jade genealogy at the Hòa Xá temple was composed by Thanh Xuyên and praised her as “a virtuous and talented person, pure and kind-hearted, with extraordinary qualities derived from the teaching of Taoism. Therefore, her title was derived from the character “Đồ Hồ” and the character “Uyển Nhân”.
Three Times Refusing to Enter the Palace
Also according to the book “Vietnamese History’s Surprising Tales”, Đô Hồ Quý phi at that time did not want to become the king’s wife. However, she couldn’t refuse the king’s order, so she accepted.
After living in Hoa Lư for a while, her father passed away, and she requested to return home for mourning. After 3 years, King Lê Đại Hành sent someone to pick her up, but she refused to return to the palace as the king’s wife. Eventually, the king had to personally go to the village. Knowing it was difficult to refuse, she presented three new conditions before deciding to go back.
First, a grand ceremony to worship her deceased father three days before the wedding. Second, the wedding had to be held in Tó Village. Third, her status had to be on par with the four queens of the king. It must be said that at that time, the king’s words were absolute. Here, Phạm Thị Hến made the king come all the way to her hometown and dared to demand three conditions.
However, after hearing all the conditions, King Lê Đại Hành agreed to all of them. Immediately after that, she was crowned as the queen – Phạm Hoàng hậu, one of the five queens of the king.
After many years living by the king’s side, she couldn’t give birth to any children. Saddened, she asked to return to her hometown and passed away there at the age of only 37. To commemorate the talented queen, the villagers built a temple for her in her hometown. The temple still exists today, and it’s the Hòa Xá village temple.
Interestingly, the temple was built on the original foundation of the old flower house (Hoa Xá), where the heroic emperor and the village girl spent their wedding night; that’s why the village is still called Hoa Xá Village.
How Many Queens Did King Lê Đại Hành Have?
King Lê Đại Hành had 5 queens, including: Đại Thắng Minh Hoàng hậu (Dương thị), Phụng Càn Chí Lý Hoàng hậu, Thuận Thánh Minh Đạo Hoàng Hậu, Trịnh Quắc Hoàng hậu, and Phạm Hoàng hậu.
He had 11 sons, and among the queens, Đại Thắng Minh Hoàng hậu (Dương Vân Nga) was the most special. She was the only queen to serve in two reigns – Đinh dynasty and Tiền Lê dynasty. The records do not mention how many children they had, but they had one daughter, Princess Lê Thị Phất Ngân, an adopted daughter, and another daughter.
At What Age Did King Lê Đại Hành Ascend the Throne?
According to the book “Đại Việt Sử Ký Toàn Thư”, Lê Hoàn was an orphan, adopted by a person named Lê in Mía Village (now part of Xuân Tân Commune, Thọ Xuân). When he came of age, the country was in chaos with 12 warlords. Lê Hoàn, a talented general trusted by Đinh Bộ Lĩnh, was appointed as the Chief Ten Dao General.
After King Đinh Tiên Hoàng and Nam Việt Prince Đinh Liễn were assassinated, Đinh Toàn was only 6 years old when he ascended the throne. Faced with the danger of the country being invaded by the Tống dynasty, the soldiers and Queen Dương agreed to let Lê Hoàn become the king instead of the young king.
In July, during the year of Canh Thìn (980), the Chief Ten Dao General Lê Hoàn ascended the throne, officially starting the Tiền Lê dynasty and preparing to resist the Tống invasion. At that time, he was 39 years old.
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