Birth and background

Gwanghaegun was the second son of King Seonjo; born to Royal Noble Consort Gong, a concubine, who later died a year after his birth. He had one older brother.

When Japan invaded Joseon to attack the Ming Empire, he was installed as Crown Prince. When the king fled north to the border of Ming, he set up a branch court and fought defensive battles. During and after the Imjin Wars (1592–1598), despite being Crown Prince, he acted as the de facto ruler of the Joseon Dynasty in 1592, commanding battles and taking care of the reconstruction of the nation after the devastating wars, in the place of old and weak King Seonjo.^[1]

Although it brought prestige to him, his position was still unstable. He had an elder but incompetent full-brother Prince Imhae (임해군; 臨海君) and a younger but legitimate half-brother Grand Prince Yeongchang (영창대군; 永昌大君), who was supported by the Lesser Northerners faction. Fortunately for Gwanghae, King Seonjo's abrupt death made it impossible for his favorite son Yeongchang to succeed to the throne.^{[citation needed]}

Violence of Greater Northerner faction

Before King Seonjo died in 1608, he named Prince Gwanghae as his official successor to the throne and ordered his advisers to make a royal document. However, Lyu Young-gyong of the Lesser Northerners faction hid the document and plotted to install Grand Prince Yeongchang as king, only to be found out by the head of the Great Northerners faction (대북; 大北), Jeong In-hong. Lyu was executed immediately.

After the incident, Gwanghae tried to bring officials from various political and regional background to his court, but his plan was interrupted by Greater Northerners including Yi I-cheom and Jeong In-hong. Then, Greater Northerners began to take members of other political factions out of the government, especially Lesser Northerners. In 1613, the Greater Northerners moved against Grand Prince Yeongchang; his maternal grandfather, Kim Je-nam, along with his maternal uncles, was found guilty of treason and executed, while Yeongchang was sent into exile, where he too was executed in 1614. At the same time, Greater Northerners suppressed the Lesser Northerners. In 1618, with the help of Court Lady Kim, Grand Prince Yeongchang's mother, Queen Inmok, was stripped of her title and imprisoned along with his younger half-sister, Princess Jeongmyeong. Gwanghae had no power to stop this even though he was the official head of the government.^{[citation needed]}

Achievements

Despite his poor reputation after his death, he was a talented and pragmatic politician. He endeavored to restore the country and sponsored the restoration of documents. As a part of reconstruction, he revised land ordinance and redistributed land to the people; he also ordered the rebuilding of Changdeokgung along with several other palaces. Additionally, he was responsible for the reintroduction of the hopae identification system after a long period of disuse.^[2]

In foreign affairs he sought a balance between the Ming Empire and the Manchus. Since he realized Joseon was unable to compete with Manchu military power, he tried to maintain friendly relationship with the Manchus while the kingdom was still under the suzerainty of Ming, which angered the Ming and dogmatic Confucian Koreans. The critically worsened Manchu-Ming relationship forced him to send ten thousand soldiers to aid Ming in 1619.^[3] However, the Battle of Sarhū ended in Manchu's overwhelming victory. The Korean General Gang Hong-rip lost two-thirds of his troops and surrendered to Nurhaci. Gwanghaegun negotiated independently for peace with the Manchus and managed to avoid another war. He also restored diplomatic relationship with Japan in 1609 when he reopened trade with Japan through Treaty of Giyu, and sent his ambassadors to Japan in 1617.

In the domestic sphere, Gwanghaegun implemented the Daedong law, which let his subjects pay their taxes more easily. However, this law was activated only in Gyeonggi Province, which was the largest granary zone at that time, and it took a century for the law to be extended across the whole kingdom. He encouraged publishing in order to accelerate reconstruction and to restore the kingdom's former prosperity. Many books were written during his reign, including the medical book Dongui Bogam, and several historical records were rewritten in this period. In 1616, tobacco was first introduced to Korea and it soon became popular amongst the Korean aristocracy.

Dethronement and later life

On April 11, 1623, Gwanghaegun was deposed in a coup by the Westerners faction. The coup directed by Kim Yu took place at night, Gwanghaegun fled but was captured later.^[4] He was confined first on Ganghwa Island and then on Jeju Island, where he died in 1641.^[5] He does not have a royal mausoleum like the other Joseon rulers. His and Lady Ryu's remains were buried at a comparatively humble site in Namyangju in Gyeonggi Province. The Westerners faction installed Neungyanggun as the sixteenth king Injo who promulgated pro-Ming and anti-Manchu policies, which resulted in two subsequent Manchu invasions.

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