House of Yi

Portrait for Taejo of Joseon, a 1872 copy painted by Cho Chungmuk

When Taejo of Joseon ascended to the throne in 1392, he remained adopting the laws of Goryeo, the noble titles he gave to his sons, nephews, son-in-laws were all "prince" (군).[7] After the coup d'état in 1398, the system of noble titles changed: "duke" for king's sons, "marquis" for royal descendants, and "earl" for officers of senior first rank;[8] only to be abolished in 1401 to not to "usurp" the existing laws in the Ming dynasty.[9] As of 1412, Taejong of Joseon approved a new system for giving titles to the royalty:[10] among the sons of a king, those who were born by the queen can acquire the title "grand prince" (대군), and the rest can be the "prince" (군); both princes have are of senior first rank and their male descendants as far as their great-grandsons can retrieve official positions as well. According to the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, the title "prince" (군) was at first restricted to be given to sons or grandsons of kings, but the standards of which became looser over time.[11][12] Generally, a royalty eligible to be a prince couldn't receive the title automatically even one's rank raises to the junior second rank;[13] and such a hereditary title could be passed down to generations until it exceeds over four generations (from the king).[14]

Similar to male royalties, female royalties received titles according to their kinship to the kings. Despite all called "princess" in English, daughters of king and queen were called 공주 (gongju) and those were born by other consorts were called 옹주 (ongju) to differentiate; some further distant female royalties also had different titles.[15][16] If the above mentioned females were stripped of titles due to various reasons, they would be referred as wife of "their spouses"; for instance, the eldest daughter of deposed Yeonsangun of Joseon were called "Ku Mun-gyeong's wife" after 1506.[17] Later, there were also so-called "Kim Se-ryung's wife" (former Princess Hyomyeong) and "Jeong's wife" (former Princess Hwawan).[18][19]

In 1469, Seongjong of Joseon ascended to the throne as the adopted heir to his uncle, Yejong of Joseon. As of 1475, Seongjong asked the Ming dynasty government to ratify his biological father, Crown Prince Uigyeong, to have a posthumous status as a king,[20] and a posthumous name "Deokjong" was made for the late crown prince.[21] Similar thing happened in 1568, when Seonjo of Joseon succeeded the throne as the adopted heir to his half-uncle, Myeongjong of Joseon; due to the advice from officials, instead of conferring his biological father (Prince Deokheung) a title of "king" posthumously, Seonjo created him a new title, Deokheung Daewongun (덕흥대원군), as an honor to the late prince in 1569. This was referenced from an precedent in 1066, about Emperor Yingzong of Song, who promoted his biological father (Zhao Yunrang) without posthumously elevating him to the status of emperor.[22][23] Following the precedent from Seonjo, there are three more royalties becoming Daewongun throughout the Joseon history: Prince Jeongwon (1623, but later promoted to "King Wonjong" as of 1634"),[24][25] Yi Kwang (Jeongye Daewongun, 1849),[26] and Prince Heungseon (1863).[27]

In 1650, Hyojong of Joseon, requested by the prince regent Dorgon of the Qing dynasty, adopted a fifth cousin once removed as his daughter and exceptionally made her Princess Uisun, and she became the new bride of Dorgon.[28]

Emperor Gojong in 1898, painted by Hubert Vos

Japan, after the Meiji Restoration, acquired Western military technology, and forced Joseon to sign the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876 after the Ganghwa Island incident. It established a strong economic presence on the peninsula, heralding the beginning of Japanese imperial expansion in East Asia. In the 19th century tensions mounted between China and Japan, culminating in the First Sino-Japanese War, much of this war was fought on the Korean Peninsula. The Chinese defeat in the 1894 war led to the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which officially guaranteed Korea's independence from China. The treaty effectively granted Japan direct control over Korean politics.

The Joseon court, pressured by encroachment from larger powers, felt the need to reinforce national integrity and declared the Korean Empire in 1897. King Gojong of Korea assumed the title of Emperor in order to assert Korea's independence by putting himself on the same level as the Chinese and Japanese Emperors. In addition, other foreign powers were approached for military technology, especially Russia, in order to fend off the Japanese. Technically, 1895 marks the end of the Joseon period, as the official name of the state was changed; however, the dynasty continued, albeit perturbed by Japanese interventions. For example, the 1895 assassination of the emperor's consort, Queen Min,[29] apparently orchestrated by Japanese general Miura Gorō because the Korean empress was effective in keeping Japan at bay.

As an emperor, Gojong granted higher titles to some of his close relatives, and so did his successor Sunjong of Korea. In 1900, Gojong's younger sons, Yi Kang, became Prince Imperial Ui (의친왕) while Yi Un became Prince Imperial Yeong (영친왕),[30] and Yi Seon, their older half brother who died young in 1880, posthumously became Prince Imperial Wan (완친왕) in 1907.[31] And finally, Yi Jae-myeon, Gojong's (biological) elder brother became Prince Imperial Heung (흥친왕) in 1910.[32]

After a long-term process of controlling the puppet state, on 22 August 1910, the Japanese annexation of the Korean peninsula effectively ended rule by the House of Yi as the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 was made. According to the treaty, some of the members of Yi family were mediatised into the royal family (王公族, Ōkōzoku) or made Korean nobles (朝鮮貴族, Chōsen-kizoku).[33][34][35]

The Korean nobility titles granted by Japan in 1910, if only listing those who came from Jeonju Yi clan, are as follows:

Korean Imperial family. This circa 1915 image is a compilation of individual photographs taken since the Japanese did not allow them to all be in the same room at the same time, and some were forced to leave Korea. It shows the following royal family members, from left: Yi Kang, the sixth son of Gojong; Sunjong, the second son and the last monarch of the Korean Empire; Yi Un, the seventh son; Gojong, the former King; Empress Sunjeong, queen consort of Sunjong; Deogindang Gimbi, wife of Prince Ui; and Yi Geon, the eldest son of Prince Ui. The seated child in the front row is Princess Deokhye, Gojong's last child.

Emperor Gojong had nine sons and four daughters, but only three princes, as well as one princess: the second son, Crown Prince Cheok; the sixth son, Yi Kang, and the seventh son, Yi Un. The second son, Cheok, became Emperor Sunjong, the last monarch of the Korean Empire. Since Emperor Sunjong died without issue, his younger brother, Yi Un, the Prince Imperial Yeong became the Imperial Crown Prince. His elder brother, Yi Kang (Prince Imperial Ui), should have taken the position, but was passed over - due to the low status of Yi Kang's biological mother, Lady Chang, as well as the notorious fame of Yi Kang himself known not only domestically but also internationally.[51]

After Emperor Sunjong died in 1926, Crown Prince Yi Un was called "King Yi", a nominal title because the country had already lost its sovereignty to Japan. Yi Un married a Japanese princess, Princess Masako of Nashimoto, who was later known as Yi Bangja, a member of the Miyake cadet family. After they married, Princess Masako gave birth to Yi Jin in 1921 (died young) and Yi Ku in 1931.

After Korea's liberation in 1945, President Syngman Rhee suppressed the imperial family, in order to prevent the restoration of the monarchy, as he feared that its return would challenge his emerging authority as the new republic's founding father. Rhee seized and nationalized most of the family's properties, and the imperial family also had to shoulder the psychological and historical burden of their ancestors' responsibility for the "collapse of the nation". Stripped of most of their wealth and authority, some fled to the United States and Latin America, known descendants reside in New Jersey and New York. Meanwhile, the Jeonju Lee Royal Family Association was founded in 1957 and the members consist of the descendants of the royal family.[52] It was only in 1963 that a new president, Park Chung-hee, allowed the imperial family, including Princess Deokhye, to return to Korea. However, they could only stay at Nakseon Hall, a small residence in a corner of Changdeokgung in Seoul. Yi Un died seven years later after a long illness resulting from strokes. Yi Ku was forced by other family members to divorce his American wife, Julia Mullock, in 1982 due to her sterility (the couple, however, had an adopted daughter). A series of business failures left Yi Ku out of support, and he died alone at the Grand Prince Hotel Akasaka in Tokyo on July 16, 2005. The site of the hotel had been his birthplace 74 years prior.

Emperor Gojong's sixth son, Yi Kang (Prince Imperial Ui), fathered 13 sons and 9 daughters by 14 mistresses. With an extremely wide range of historical evaluations over him —womanizer, as well as a behind-the-scene leader of the independence movement — the Japanese authorities limited the activities of the prince throughout the occupation. President Syngman Rhee's seizure of the imperial properties deprived the prince of most of his wealth. According to the prince's 11th son, Yi Seok, his mother, Hong Chongsun, was forced to sell noodles as a street vendor to make a living. In 1998, it was reported that Yi Kang's eighth son died alone in a social center in eastern Seoul. The eleventh son, Prince Seok, is a lecturer at the Jeonju University as of 2005. Among Prince Yi Kang's surviving four sons and seven daughters, four lost touch with the family after they left for the United States. The other family members hold an ancestral ritual two times a year for Prince Kang, but usually only two or three of the 11 surviving siblings attend the ceremonies. Amy Yi (Yi Haegyeong), the fifth daughter of Yi Kang, migrated to the United States in 1956 and worked for 27 years as a librarian at Columbia University in New York City.[53] In September, 2012, she was 82 years old and described as "one of the last survivors of the Korean royal court".[53]

Yi Won, the 4th director of the Jeonju Lee Royal Family Association[54]

After the death of Yi Ku on 16 July 2005, a dispute about the head of the royal family occurred.

According to the Jeonju Lee Royal Family Association,[55][56] the last meeting, on July 10, was made between the association and Yi Ku, who allowed Yi Won, his first cousin once removed (grandson of Prince Yi Kang and his father is Yi Gap, 9th son of Yi Kang), to be his heir, and he signed as the proof of his permission, through the process of traditional adoption to his line. Yi Ku had met Yi Won several times before the adoption, satisfied about his foreign language abilities, and Yi Won was therefore chosen to be his successor and the status was confirmed by the association as of 22 July 2005.[57][58] Although, the adoption would be invalid by present Korean Law because Yi Ku died before the adoption process could complete.[59]

Yi Hae-won, second daughter of Yi Kang and a half-aunt of Yi Won, made a counter-claim as the "Empress of Korea" in a private ceremony organized by her followers in a hotel room.[60] She was enthroned as symbolic monarch of Korea on 29 September 2006 by the "Korean Imperial Family Association", organized by several descendants of Joseon Dynasty. She laid claim to the title of Empress of Korea and declared the restoration of Imperial House in her own succession ceremony in a hotel room.[60] The private enthronement was not approved or supported by Korean politics.[59] Yi Hae-won eventually died in 8 February 2020, aged 100.[61]

American Internet entrepreneur Andrew Lee, accepted a nomination by Yi Seok, on 6 October 2018, to become a "Crown Prince".[62][63]