| abstract | - Bảo Đại was born Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy in the Palace of Doan-Trang-Vien, part of the compound of the Purple Forbidden City in Huế, at that time the capital of Vietnam by tradition. He later was given the name Nguyễn Vĩnh Thụy. His father was King Khải Định of Annam. His mother was the king’s second wife, Tu Cung, who was renamed Doan Huy upon her 1913 marriage. She held various titles over the years that indicated her advancing rank as a favored consort until she eventually became Empress Dowager in 1933, with style of Her Imperial Majesty being added in 1945. [1] From 1802, the country—which was known variously as Vietnam and Annam, depending on who controlled it—had been a Chinese tributary state ruled by emperors. That title had been diminished to king, however, by the French government, which took control of the region in the late 19th century and split it into three areas: the protectorates of Annam and Tonkin and the colony of Cochinchina. The Nguyễn Dynasty was given nominal rule of Annam. At the age of nine, Prince Nguyễn Phúc Vĩnh Thụy was sent to France to be educated at the lycée Condorcet and, later, the Paris Institute of Political Studies. In 1926, at age 13, he became king following his father's death and took the name Bảo Đại. He did not ascend to the throne due to his age and returned to France to continue his studies. He was subject to control by the French of his government, Annam at that time being part of the Union of French Indochina. Throughout the 20th century, Bảo Đại was widely perceived to be a puppet ruler for French colonial interests.
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