Lê Thế Tông
King of Vietnam
Lê Thế Tông (chữ Hán: 黎世宗, November 1567 – 24 August 1599, reigned January 1573 – 24 August 1599), real name Lê Duy Đàm (黎維潭) was the 15th emperor of the later Lê dynasty of Vietnam.
He was the fifth son of Lê Anh Tông, born during the Trịnh–Nguyễn war. In 1573, Anh Tông saw that Trịnh Tùng was autocratic, so he and four great princes left the palace of Vạn Lại and fled to Nghệ An. On the first day of the new year 1573, Trịnh Tùng established a 5-year-old Lê Duy Đàm to become emperor; three weeks later Trịnh Tùng sent Tống Đức Vị to secretly kill Anh Tông. During the reign of Thế Tông, Trịnh Tùng took full control of the military and continued to wage war with the Mạc in Đông Kinh. After many great campaigns, in 1592 Trịnh Tùng defeated the Mạc army, regained Đông Kinh and brought Thế Tông back to the old capital. Therefore, the national history of Đại Việt was compiled by Trịnh lords and considered Lê Thế Tông to be the king who was instrumental in restoring the inheritance of the Later Le dynasty.
In fact, although the Lê dynasty was re-established, the real power fell into Trịnh Tùng's hands, leaving the king with only vanity. In 1599, Thế Tông appointed Trịnh Tùng as King of Bình An (Bình An Vương), beginning a period known as the reign of Lê kings - Trịnh lords (Vua Lê - Chúa Trịnh). In 1599, Thế Tông died, reigned for 26 years, aged 33 years, and was buried at Hua Yueling (華岳陵).
“Lê Thế Tông” enters the record as king of Vietnam. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Tông, King and Vietnam can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Lê Thế Tông” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Tông, King and Vietnam provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q6650298. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1567, 1599, 1573 and 1592.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Lê Thế Tông” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.