Cheoljong of Joseon

Yi Won-beom was a great-great-grandson of King Yeongjo who had grown up poor, far from any expectation of power. When the childless King Heonjong died, Queen Sunwon adopted him and he became Cheoljong, the 25th monarch of Joseon, on 25 July 1831. But the throne came hollow: the Andong Kim clan — Queen Sunwon's paternal family — held the real power to govern, and Cheoljong remained a figurehead even after his coronation. Their monopoly fed nationwide corruption and sparked a series of peasant revolts across the kingdom. All of Cheoljong's sons died in infancy, and when he died on 16 January 186…