Monique Vinh Thuy

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Empress Monique Vĩnh Thụy

Empress Monique Vĩnh Thụy (born Monique Baudot), is the French widow of the last Emperor of Vietnam, Bảo Đại.

[edit] Biography

In 1969, she worked for the Press Service at the former Embassy of Zaire and met Emperor Bảo Đại in Paris, France. Bảo Đại had been exiled there from Vietnam in 1954 due to trouble in his country, and had been forced to abdicate in 1955.

In 1972, they were married in Paris. She became Bảo Đại's fourth wife, and was granted the title Princess. In 1972 to 1974, she and Emperor Bảo Đại traveled to Hong Kong, to perform religious ceremonies on the festival of Tết and the Emperor's birthday.

In 1982, she traveled to the United States with Emperor Bảo Đại to meet with Vietnamese supporters and also perform ceremonies.

On 31 July 1997, Emperor Bảo Đại died, and according to the ancestral rule, she assumed the title of Empress. Traditionally, the wife of an Emperor of Vietnam is addressed as Imperial Princess during his lifetime, and becomes Empress only on the death of the Emperor.

In 1999, she was invited by the Vietnamese community and regional authorities of Languedoc-Roussillon.

In 2002, she was invited by the Muong community (a people related to the Vietnamese from the mountain/hills dwellers of northern Vietnam) and the French civil and military authorities in the Principality of Andorra.

In 2003, she met with religious and political authorities for ten days in Beirut, Lebanon.

She continues to travel and speak at conferences on the life and the work of Emperor Bảo Đại.