Nam Phương

Marie-Thérèse Nguyễn Hữu Thị Lan was born in Gò Công, a Mekong Delta town in what was then the French colony of Cochinchina, one of the five areas (the others being the protectorates of Annam, Tonkin, Cambodia and Laos) that composed the Union of French Indochina.[1][2]

Her father, Pierre Nguyễn Hữu-Hào, described as a wealthy merchant,[3] had been born into a poor Catholic family in Gò Công.[4] Through an introduction from the Bishop of Saigon, he became secretary to the billionaire Lê Phát Đạt, Duke of Long-My, and eventually married his employer's daughter, Marie Lê Thị Bình,[5] and inherited his title.[4][6]

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  Jeanne Marie-Thérèse Nguyễn-hữu-thị-Lan at age 2.
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  Family of Nguyễn Hữu Hào, Nam Phuong in the middle.
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  Young Nam Phương
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  Young empress Nam Phương in Da Lat

A naturalized French citizen, Nguyễn Hữu Thị Lan, who was known as Mariette, studied at the Couvent des Oiseaux, an aristocratic Catholic school located in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, where she was sent at the age of 12.

She was a distant cousin of her future husband, the emperor.[7]

On 9 March 1934, the public announcement of the engagement of Nguyễn Hữu Thị Lan and Bảo Đại, Emperor of Đại Nam, was released. In it, Bảo Đại stated, "The future Queen, reared like us in France, combines in her person the graces of the West and the charms of the East. We who have had the occasion to meet her believe that she is worthy to be our companion and our equal. We are certain by her conduct and example that she fully merits the title of First Woman of the Empire."[3] After a formal betrothal ceremony in the imperial summer palace in Da Lat,[8] the emperor married Nguyễn Hữu Thị Lan on 20 March 1934, in Huế. The ceremony was Buddhist, though the ruler's Catholic fiancée caused some controversy; the country's population was not entirely in favor of the bride's religious affiliation.[9] Others suspected that the marriage "smelled high of French chicanery."[10] The New York Times reported that "discontent was general" in the country, given that Nguyễn Hữu Thị Lan had declined to renounce Catholicism and was appealing to Pope Pius XI for a dispensation.[11] Another article noted that there was much discussion over a report that the pope might allow the bride to "remain a Catholic if she gave the Church her girl children."[10] Further complicating the wedding plans was the apparent disapproval of the young monarch's mother, Doan Huy, and his late father's secondary wives, all of whom had other bridal candidates that Bảo Đại apparently did not consider.[12]

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  Bảo Đại & Nam Phương
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  Bảo Đại & Nam Phương at the party

At the state ceremony that marked the end of the four-day wedding festivities, Nguyễn Hữu Thị Lan was given the title 'Empress Consort' and the name Nam Phương, which can be roughly translated as 'Fragrance of the South', in acknowledgment of her place of birth.

Time on 2 April 1934 closely followed the traditional royal nuptials:

"Little Mariette Nguyen Huu Hao was beautifully married. It took four days. On her way up Annam's great mandarin road along the coast she stopped off to climb a mountain and drink of the "frozen spring." Outside Huê, a cavalcade of palace mandarins on short native Phu-Yen horses met her in the Valley of Clouds and escorted her through the three walls of the Red City into the Palace of Passengers. Next day, dressed in a great brocaded Annamite gown, she stepped into an automobile and was driven to the Emperor's Palace, followed by the Imperial princesses and the blue-turbaned wives of the mandarins. Two scrolls, on which were written a prayer to Bảo Đại's ancestors and the name and age (18) of Nguyen Huu Hao, were burnt on the altars. Finally the two young people were brought face to face and married. It took three more days of Buddhist rites behind the locked gates of the Red City to complete the ceremony. On the fourth day a battalion of mandarins led in musicians and the bearers of the royal insignia. The new Queen, her hair elaborately wound about a tiara encrusted with precious stones, received the Imperial seal and the golden book. Finally she arose and bowed her forehead to the floor three times, in the traditional Chinese kowtow (pronounced ker-toe) of thanks."[10]

At the time of her marriage, a song was written in her honor:[10] "In the firmament of the Son of Heaven a brilliant new star has risen!/Supple as the neck of the swan is the charm of her graceful form./Her black and sparkling eyes, in hours of ease, envelop and thrill that happy mortal allowed to see./O, Nguyễn Hữu-Hào! Beautiful are all thy ways."

Empress

Nam Phuong stamp, issued in 1952

She was titled as the Empress Consort soon after her marriage to Emperor Bảo Đại in 1934. Bảo Đại bestowed upon her the title of Nam Phương Hoàng hậu which went against the convention established by Gia Long.[13] From Gia Long until Khải Định all empresses consort were known as Hoàng phi and would only be known as a Hoàng hậu after their deaths.[13]

On 18 June 1945, Nam Phương was raised in rank from Her Majesty to Her Imperial Majesty. Bảo Đại continued to assume the title of emperor after proclaiming the country's independence from France on March 11, 1945, as he was urged to rule his empire as a member of Japan's Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. At this time, Tonkin, Annam, and Cochinchina, which came under the control of Imperial Japan after the coup d'état in French Indochina, were reunited to become the Empire of Vietnam. However, the emperor was later convinced to abdicate the throne by the revolutionary movement Việt Minh, at that time not widely known as being led by communists. He accepted Ho Chi Minh's invitation to become a supreme advisor to the Provisional Government of the Democratic Republic of Viet Nam later in 1945.

The emperor and empress had five children, most of whom were educated at the French boarding school their mother had attended, Convent des Oiseaux.

• Crown Prince Bảo Long (4 January 1936 – 28 July 2007).[14]
• Princess Phương Mai (1 August 1937 – 16 January 2021;[15] married Don Pietro Badoglio, 2nd Duke of Addis Abeba and Marquis of Sabotino).
• Princess Phương Liên born on 2 November 1938 (married Bernard Maurice Soulain).
• Princess Phương Dung born on 5 February 1942.
• Prince Bảo Thắng (30 September 1944 – 15 March 2017).

Nam Phương's first official visit to Europe, in the summer of 1939, launched a craze for what one reporter described as "trousers and embroidered tunics for evenings; pagoda silhouettes, [and] revers or sleeve forms."[16] To the surprise of fashion observers, when she met with Pope Pius XII during that trip, "the visitor from Indochina did not wear the traditional black, long-sleeved gown and veil. Instead, she appeared in a gold, dragon-embroidered tunic, red scarf, and gold hat. She wore silver trousers."[17]

Nam Phương served as a member of the Reconstruction Committee for Vietnam after the end of World War II and was the patron of the Vietnamese Red Cross. She raised funds and called for the recognition of the independence of Vietnam. After Bảo Đại left Huế for Hanoi in September 1945, he had other mistresses. The next year, the former emperor fled into exile in China. He returned to Vietnam in 1949 at the invitation of the nationalist government and was named Chief of the State of Vietnam, but he went into exile again in 1954.

In 1947, after the communist takeover of the country, the empress and her children moved to Château Thorenc, outside of Cannes, France, which had been in the family since its purchase by her maternal grandfather in the early 20th century.[4] She separated from her husband in 1955. Two years later, when the Vietnamese government announced its confiscation of the imperial family's personal property, the bill specifically excluded any real estate owned by the empress prior to 1949.[18] These properties included her father's villa at Da Lat, which is now Lam Dong Museum.[19][20]

Empress Nam Phương died on 16 September 1963 from a heart attack, at Domaine de La Perche, her home near the small rural village of Chabrignac, Corrèze, France.[21] She was buried in the local cemetery.[22]

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  Empress Nam Phương on her wedding day, 1934.
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  Nam Phương in Vatican.
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  The Empress (holding camera) at the Nam Giao Ceremony 1942
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  Nam Phuong visits Vatican City.
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  Nam Phuong with Crown Prince Bảo Long (left) and princess Phương Liên (right) in 1938
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  Nam Phuong in traditional Ao Dai

Nam Phương was portrayed by the actress Yến Chi in the 2004 Vietnamese miniseries Ngọn nến Hoàng cung ("The Imperial Palace's Candlelight").[23] The empress was also portrayed by the singer Hòa Minzy in her 2020 MV Không thể cùng nhau suốt kiếp.

• Joyaux, François (2019). Nam Phuong: La dernière impératrice du Vietnam (in French). Perrin. ISBN 978-2262082161.

Media related to Empress Nam Phương at Wikimedia Commons