Queen Ansun

Queen Ansun (12 March 1445 – 3 February 1499) also known as Queen Dowager Inhye (인혜왕대비) was the second wife and Queen Consort of King Yejong of Joseon, the 8th monarch of the Joseon Dynasty.

After Princess Jangsun died, Lady Han, who was born in the same year as the crown princess, was chosen to become the crown prince’s concubine of fifth junior rank sohun. Although she was not an official consort of the crown prince, she received treatment just like one. She gave birth to two daughter and two sons, but only one prince and one princess survived through childhood, one of them being royal grandson Grand Prince Jean. The crown prince took over the throne as Yejong after Sejo’s abdication due to his illness, but Lady Han was the one nominated by the former king to become the queen consort. Since she was almost due at that time, guards were sent to her maternal home to guide the future queen.

Her years as the queen was short as Yejong died 13 months after his ascension to the throne and to make the situation worse, Grand Prince Jean was deemed too young to be invested as the next king. Hence, Queen Jeonghui and Han Myeong-Hoe, the Prime Minister at that time, chose Prince Jasan, Han Myeong-Hoe’s son-in-law and her nephew, to become her husband’s successor. Since she was the former king’s wife, she was legally the new king, Seongjong’s mother and received the title Royal Queen Dowager Inhye (인혜 왕대비). Conflicts happened when Seongjong’s birth parents were posthumously declared as king and queen as there was a need to determine the rank between Queen Dowager Inhye and Queen Dowager Insu. They both became Great Royal Queens Dowager when Yeonsangun became the nation’s ruler. She died when she was 53 years old and posthumously known as Queen Ansun (안순왕후).

In response to the early death of Queen Gonghye, age 19, the Ksitigarbha Pranidahana Sutra (The Great Vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva) was commissioned by the three queen dowagers, Jeonhui (wife of Sejo), Insu (wife of Crown Prince Uigyeong), and Ansun through the Royal Treasury Agency. This Sutra is now considered an important artifact for the study of printing and Buddhism during the Joseon Dynasty.

• Father: Han Baek-Ryun (1427 – 1474) (한백륜)
  • Grandfather: Han Chang (1411 – 1451) (한창)
  • Grandmother: Lady Lee of the Jeonui Lee clan (전의 이씨)
• Mother: Lady Im of the Pungcheon Im (? – 1472) (풍천 임씨)
  • Grandfather: Im Yu (임유)
• Husband: King Yejong of Joseon (14 January 1450 – 31 December 1469) (조선 예종)
  • Son: Yi Hyeon, Grand Prince Jean (13 February 1466 – 14 December 1525) (이현 제안대군)
    • Daughter-in-law: Princess Consort Sangsan of the Sangju Kim clan (상산부부인 상주 김씨)
    • Daughter-in-law: Princess Consort Seungpyeong of the Suncheon Park clan (승평부부인 순천 박씨)
  • Daughter: Princess Hyeonsuk (1464 – May 1502) (현숙공주)
    • Son-in-law: Im Gwang-Jae (? – 1495)(임광재)
  • Daughter: Princess Hyesun (September 1468 – 5 August 1469) (혜순공주)

• Portrayed by Choi Eun Sook in the 1995 KBS TV series Jang Nok Soo.
• Portrayed by Kim Ji Ae in the 1998-2000 KBS TV series King and Queen.
• Portrayed by Lee Yeon-doo in the 2011 JTBC TV series Insu, The Queen Mother.