"Le Thanh Hoa" (1929) — an account by Charles Robequin of Thanh Hóa Province's history, geography, and customs — and Histoire du royaume de Tonkin (History of the Royalty of Tonkin) by the missionary and linguist Alexandre de Rhodes both note that the first Vietnamese to marry a European was Lê Duy Kỳ, who was born in 1607. He was the eldest son of King Lê Kính Tông, who ruled from 1599-1619. His mother was Trịnh Thị Ngọc Trinh, the second daughter of Lord Trinh Tùng.
Lê Duy Kỳ's six wives came from six different backgrounds. His first wife, Trịnh Thị Ngọc Trúc, was a Kinh (ethnic Vietnamese); the second was Thai ethnic minority; the third, Wang ethnic minority; the fourth, Chinese; the fifth, Lao; and the sixth, Dutch.
The Netherlands had commercial and military relations with Viet Nam beginning with the first half of the seventeenth century. The Dutch East India Company ran trading posts in Phố Hiến and Kẻ Chợ and worked in partnership with the Lê kings and the northern Trịnh lords, who were fighting the Nguyễn in the South.
A pagoda at the foot of Mật Mountain south of Thanh Hóa City displays wooden statues of Lê Duy Kì's six wives in their distinctive ethnic costumes. The Dutch wife wears a dress with a low-cut, revealing bodice. Local people believe the six wives donated the money to build the pagoda. In 1959, provincial leaders moved the statues to a nearby temple in Thanh Hoa City's Wing Ve Ward. This temple dedicated to the Lê Dynasty is on the list of Viet Nam's national historical buildings.
Lê Duy Kỳ unusual marriages are not his only claim to fame. Of the 108 Vietnamese kings, he was the only one to be crowned twice. In 1619, Lord Trịnh Tùng Kỳ executed Lê Duy Kỳ's father, King Lê Kính Tông, age thirty-one. Trịnh Tùng chose Lê Duy Kỳ, then age twelve, as the next king. Handsome and intelligent, Lê Duy Kỳ had a broad knowledge, especially of literature. After ruling for twenty-four years as King Thần Tông, he passed the crown to his thirteen-year-old son, Lê Duy Hựu. Six years later, Hựu died without producing any children. Lê Duy Kỳ was crowned for the second time. He died thirteen years later, in 1662. In all, Lê Duy Kỳ wore the crown for thirty-seven years, from 1619 to 1643 and from 1649 to 1662.