Cheoljong of Joseon

Biography

Cheoljong, born Yi Won-beom in 1831, was a great-great-grandson of King Yeongjo. His family had been banished to Ganghwa Island after relatives were caught up in plots and in the persecution of Catholics, and he grew up poor and with little education.

When King Heonjong died childless in 1849, Queen Dowager Sunwon adopted him and placed him on the throne, acting as regent until 1851. Real power stayed with her family, the Andong Kim clan, whose grip on office bred corruption in taxation and the state examinations.

His reign saw a wave of peasant revolts that began in Jinju in 1862, growing numbers of Western ships off the coast, the spread of Catholicism and the founding of the Donghak religion by Choe Je-u. His attempt at financial reform had little effect. He died in 1864, aged 32, without a surviving son and was succeeded by a distant relative, Gojong.