Rebellion in the Trinh Realm
After a roughly half-century hiatus in violence dating to the end of the Nguyen-Trinh wars, the 1730s saw a new phase in the military violence rocking Vietnamese lands. The violence began in the north with a series of anti-Trinh rebellions sparked by corruption, aggressive taxation schemes and natural disasters.[688] While most of these uprisings were modest in size, and quite localised, several grew to significant proportions and periodically threatened to topple the regime in Thang Long.
Looking for legitimacy and popular support, rebel leaders took advantage of the peculiar division of political authority in the capital between the Trinh and the nominally ruling Le emperor. The uprising of Hoang Cong Chat (1706-69) was the first and ultimately the longest-lasting resistance movement. It began in 1739 in the coastal region south of Thang Long and for the next three decades destabilised the Trinh state, using its forces to maintain a measure of autonomy in its territory. The movement also connected with that of Le Duy Mat (? -1769), a prince of the Le family, who declared his intention to topple the oppressive Trinh family and restore power to his own clan and the legitimate emperor. In a widely distributed declaration written in the vernacular but laced with classical allusions, Le Duy Mat denounced the Trinh for their crimes and rallied support to the difficult task at hand. The rebel leader's claims to legitimacy and promises of better times had a powerful resonance among the northern populace, who flocked to his side. For a number of years his armies seriously threatened the capital while controlling large swaths of territory. By the early 1770s, however, the Trinh armies had finally gained the upper hand against their numerous rivals. The death by suicide of Le Duy Mat in 1769 was a particularly crucial turning point, but also important was the ascent to power of a dynamic younger lord, Trinh Sam, in 1767, who launched an energetic series of campaigns to quell resistance.
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