Bao Dai was the 13th, and coincidentally, the last emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty.  Bao Dai was born in Hue on October 22, 1913 under the name Nguyen Phuoc Vinh Thuy. He was educated in France and lived there until his father, King Khai Dinh, died. Upon his return in 1925, he succeeded to the throne. On January 8, 1926 he was crowned emperor and took the imperial name Bao Dai before heading back to France. But the French government did not permit him to return to Vietnam until September 10, 1932. 

During his rule, Bao Dai hoped to erect a modern imperial government and to convince France to allow limited independence for Vietnam. He established a Commission of Reform, abolished the requirement that people prostrate themselves in his presence, and dissolved his official harem. In 1933 he promulgated his Labor Charter, prohibiting requisitioned labor except in time of public emergency. But the French stymied his zeal at every turn.  Bao Dai married a Catholic Vietnamese girl named Jeanette Nguyen (daughter of Nguyen Huu Hao) on March 24, 1934.  She was later named Hoang Hau Nam-Phuong, or Queen of the South, as she was from South Vietnam. 

Bao Dai cooperated with the Japanese during their World War II occupation and in March 1945,  declared independence from France. In the few months following, Bao Dai tried to deal with northern famine while nurturing press freedoms. When the Viet Minh defeated the Japanese in August of that year, Bao Dai was forced to abdicate. The abdication in favor of the Viet Minh helped establish legitimacy of their leader, Ho Chi Minh, to the Vietnamese.  When Bao Dai later went to Hanoi,  Ho Chi Minh declared him "supreme advisor" to the government.  He was elected to a seat in the new Viet Minh legislature, located in the Nguyen Dynasty's ancestral home in Thanh Hoa Province. However, dissatisfied, Bao Dai left his country as part of an official diplomatic delegation to China. He remained in Chungking until September 1946 and then moved to Hong Kong.  He lived there in exile through late 1947, before returning to Europe.

With the support of the French, Bao Dai returned to Vienam as Chief of State in 1949. He took up residence in Saigon and remained head of its government through the division of Vietnam by the Geneva Conference in 1954. Bao Dai then named Ngo Dinh Diem as his premier. Later regretting this move, he tried to regain control by authorizing one of his generals to lead a coup against Diem. This failed and Diem called for an election to determine the country's governing system--monarchy or republic. The election was October 23, 1955 and supervised by Diem's henchmen.  Consequently, Ngo Dinh Diem won, and became the first President of Vietnam. October 26, 1955, Ngo Dinh Diem declared South Vietnam a Republic.