---
node: le_dynasty
type: period
slug: later_le_dynasty
title: "Later Le dynasty"
lead: "The Later Le dynasty (1428–1789), founded by Le Loi after the Lam Son uprising expelled the Ming, peaked under Le Thanh Tong before centuries of rule in name only."
published: 2026-07-09
updated: 2026-07-09
---

## Overview

Le Loi founded the dynasty in 1428 after the Lam Son uprising drove out the Ming. Its zenith came under Le Thanh Tong (1460–1497): the Hong Duc legal code, a full Confucian examination state, and southward expansion — the 1471 campaign broke Champa's power.

## Key developments

From the sixteenth century the dynasty ruled in name only. The Mac usurped the throne in 1527; the country then divided between the Trinh lords in the north and the Nguyen lords in the south through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, with Le kings as figureheads.

## End and transition

The Tay Son brothers' rebellion, from the 1770s, swept away both sets of lords. The Tay Son emperor Quang Trung crushed a Qing intervention at Ngoc Hoi–Dong Da at Tet 1789, and that year the last Le king fled to China.