Lê Hoàn

Lê Hoàn (黎桓 941–1005), posthumous name Lê Đại Hành (黎大行), was an emperor of Đại Cồ Việt (an ethnic Vietnamese polity located in what is now northern Vietnam and limited by the Chinese empire of Song to the North and the Indic kingdom of Champa to the South) and the founder of the Anterior Lê Dynasty.
He started his career as a commander in the army of the first Vietnamese emperor Đinh Bộ Lĩnh and rose to the position of commander-in-chief. Following the death of Đinh Bộ Lĩnh, Lê Hoàn became regent to Bộ Lĩnh's successor, the six-year-old Dinh Toan. Lê Hoàn deposed the boy, married his mother the Empress Dowager Duong Van Nga, and in 980 proclaimed himself emperor. He retained the imperial capital at Hoa Lư and succeeded in warding off several invasions by the Chinese Song Dynasty, but paid them regular tribute with the aim of securing peaceful relations. When he died in 1005, the Lê Dynasty went into decline; five years later, in 1010, Lý Công Uẩn declared the Lý...