Zhu Youlang, Chinese emperor (b. 1623)
The Yongli Emperor (simplified Chinese: 永历帝; traditional Chinese: 永曆帝; pinyin: Yǒnglì Dì; 1623–1662; reigned 18 November 1646 – 1 June 1662), personal name Zhu Youlang, was the fourth and last emperor of the Southern Ming. His era name means "perpetual calendar".
Zhu Youlang was the son of Zhu Changying (朱常瀛), the seventh son of the Wanli Emperor, and Empress Dowager Ma. He inherited the title Prince of Gui (桂王) from his brother and lived an obscure life as a minor member of the extremely large imperial family until the fall of Beijing and the suicide of Chongzhen, the last Ming emperor, in 1644 due to the rebellion of Li Zicheng's Shun dynasty and Zhang Xianzhong after Li Zicheng took Beijing. The true beneficiaries of the collapse of the Ming were the Qing dynasty which was founded by the northeastern Manchu Aisin Gioro family that rapidly conquered northern China, the Lower Yangtze valley, and Central China after mass defection from Ming remnants including Wu Sangui who let the Qing through the Great Wall to fight Li Zicheng. Descendants of the Ming continued to hang on in the south, and Youlang ascended the throne as the fourth Southern Ming emperor, with the reign-title Yongli in November 1646. By 1661, pressed back into Yunnan province, he fled to Burma. A Qing Han Banner army led by Wu Sangui followed and captured him there, and he was executed in June 1662.
1662Jun, 1
Zhu Youlang
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Events on 1662
- 1Feb
Siege of Fort Zeelandia
The Chinese general Koxinga seizes the island of Taiwan after a nine-month siege.