Emperor Tự Đức's will called his heir unfit, and his regents crowned four emperors in just over a year and poisoned two

Tự Đức ruled Vietnam from 1848. He had no children and adopted three nephews. Trần Trọng Kim's 1920 history says his will judged the eldest, Dục Đức, unfit to rule, but named him because the youngest was too small and the country needed an adult. It named three regents: Trần Tiễn Thành, Nguyễn Văn Tường and Tôn Thất Thuyết. Tự Đức died in July 1883. After three days Tường and Thuyết altered the will, deposed Dục Đức and crowned Tự Đức's brother as Hiệp Hòa. The censor Phan Đình Phùng objected in open court and was jailed and dismissed. A poem by Tự Đức's consort Nguyễn Nhược Thị says Dục Đức's rice and water were cut off, guards smuggled him food, and the regents then gave him poison. He died that October^†. When Hiệp Hòa's court moved the two regents to other ministries, they had him forced to drink poison after just over four months on the throne, and had the third regent killed. The second adopted son, aged 15, reigned as Kiến Phúc and died in 1884 after six months. Trần Trọng Kim records a story that he scolded Tường one night and was dead of medicine the next day. The regents then crowned a 12-year-old, Hàm Nghi, passing over his elder brother. France captured Hàm Nghi in 1888 and exiled him to Algeria, where he died in 1947. Dục Đức's son became emperor in 1889 and built his father's tomb, An Lăng, in Huế.