The Treaty of Huế (Patenôtre Treaty) confirmed French control by establishing protectorates over Annam and Tonkin under the Nguyễn court. This political shift weakened the court’s ability to resist and set the stage for armed loyalist resistance in the emperor’s name.
In early July 1885, French commander Henri Roussel de Courcy pressed the Huế court with demands that challenged imperial authority and security. These tensions helped push the court’s pro-war faction toward a last-ditch attempt to strike French forces in the capital.
On the night of July 4–5, 1885, regent Tôn Thất Thuyết led a surprise attack on French positions in Huế, including the Mang Cá fort area. The attack failed, and Thuyết fled the capital with the young emperor Hàm Nghi to continue resistance from the countryside.
From outside Huế, an edict issued in Hàm Nghi’s name called on officials and people to “aid the king” and resist French domination. This document became the founding text of the Cần Vương movement, linking many local uprisings to the goal of restoring imperial-led independence.
As resistance spread, the French removed key court figures they saw as obstacles. Regent Nguyễn Văn Tường was deported to the penal colony at Poulo Condore, weakening the anti-French faction at court and signaling that France would shape imperial politics by force.
To reduce Hàm Nghi’s legitimacy, the French backed the coronation of Đồng Khánh as emperor in Huế. The new emperor’s pro-French position deepened the split between the official court and the royalist insurgents fighting under the Cần Vương banner.
In one of the movement’s early successes, the Cần Vương leader Lê Ninh attacked and captured the Hà Tĩnh citadel. The victory boosted morale and helped connect local forces in the region with wider loyalist resistance linked to Hàm Nghi and to commanders like Phan Đình Phùng.
A key royalist fortified base at Ba Đình in Thanh Hóa was besieged by French and allied forces from December 1886 into January 1887. Its fall demonstrated France’s military advantage and marked a turning point: large, fixed defenses became harder to hold against modern artillery and siege tactics.
After continued fighting and growing pressure, Tôn Thất Thuyết left Vietnam for southern China, hoping to find support against France. His departure reduced centralized coordination, and the movement increasingly relied on regional leaders and guerrilla tactics rather than court-led strategy.
Phan Đình Phùng became the most prominent scholar-official leader to continue armed resistance after Hàm Nghi’s removal. From the mountainous borderlands of central Vietnam, his Hương Khê forces organized supply networks, local support, and guerrilla fighting to challenge French “pacification” campaigns.
In late September 1888, French-aligned collaborators helped locate and seize Hàm Nghi at a resistance base area in present-day Quảng Bình. His capture was a major psychological blow, because the movement’s central claim was loyalty to the “true” emperor fighting outside French control.
After his capture, Hàm Nghi was removed from Vietnam and sent into exile in French Algeria. With the emperor gone, Cần Vương resistance continued, but it increasingly became a set of regional uprisings carried out “in his name” rather than under his direct leadership.
Cao Thắng was Phan Đình Phùng’s key military commander, known for improving training and weapons for the insurgents. His death removed an important battlefield organizer and reduced the uprising’s ability to sustain larger operations against French troops.
By 1895, French forces expanded operations to isolate remaining bases of the Hương Khê uprising. With troops and local collaborators cutting supply lines, Cần Vương units faced shortages of food, medicine, and ammunition, making continued resistance far more difficult.
Phan Đình Phùng died during the final phase of French suppression in late 1895 or early 1896 (sources differ on the exact day). After his death, remaining fighters were hunted down or dispersed, and Cần Vương ceased to function as a major nationwide loyalist insurgency—leaving French-backed rule more firmly in place.
Can Vuong (Save the King) movement (1885–1896)