Queen Ansun


Queen Ansun also known as Queen Dowager Inhye was the second wife and Queen Consort of King Yejong of Joseon, the 8th monarch of the Joseon Dynasty.

Life

After Princess Jangsun died, Lady Han, who was born in the same year as the crown princess, was chosen to become the crown prince’s concubine of fifth junior rank sohun. Although she was not an official consort of the crown prince, she received treatment just like one. She gave birth to two daughter and two sons, but only one prince and one princess survived through childhood, one of them being royal grandson Grand Prince Jean. The crown prince took over the throne as Yejong after Sejo’s abdication due to his illness, but Lady Han was the one nominated by the former king to become the queen consort. Since she was almost due at that time, guards were sent to her maternal home to guide the future queen.
Her years as the queen was short as Yejong died 13 months after his ascension to the throne and to make the situation worse, Grand Prince Jean was deemed too young to be invested as the next king. Hence, Queen Jeonghui and Han Myeong-Hoe, the Prime Minister at that time, chose Prince Jasan, Han Myeong-Hoe’s son-in-law and her nephew, to become her husband’s successor. Since she was the former king’s wife, she was legally the mother of the new king, Seongjong, and received the title Royal Queen Dowager Inhye. Conflicts happened when Seongjong’s birth parents were posthumously declared as king and queen as there was a need to determine the rank between Queen Dowager Inhye and Queen Dowager Insu. They both became Great Royal Queens Dowager when Yeonsangun became the nation’s ruler. She died when she was 53 years old and posthumously known as Queen Ansun.
In response to the early death of Queen Gonghye, age 19, the Ksitigarbha Pranidahana Sutra was commissioned by the three queen dowagers, Jeonhui, Insu, and Ansun through the Royal Treasury Agency. This Sutra is now considered an important artifact for the study of printing and Buddhism during the Joseon Dynasty.

Family