Queen Inseon

The future queen was born on 9 February 1619 during the reign of King Gwanghae. Her father, Jang Yu, was member of the Deoksu Jang clan. Her mother was member of the Andong Kim clan. It's said that she was courteous and had gentle character and had adorable body form with chubby cheeks.

In 1630, when she was 12 years old, King Injo personally appointed the spouse of his second son, Yi Ho, Grand Prince Bongrim. Injo decided choose Jang Yu's daughter as his son's wife as he regarded her as wise and virtuous. The following year, she was bestowed with the title Princess Consort Pungan (풍안부부인, Pung-an Bubuin), after an auspicious ceremony with Grand Prince Boram. After entering the palace, Pung-an was careful with her conduct every time of the day, and as she served and respected elders in a consistent manner, she received special love from her mother-in-law, Queen Inryeol. Four years later, she left the palace with her husband and lived in a private residence. At this point, she displayed her prudence through wisely taking care of house chores and handling all sorts of matters at home.

When the Qing invasion of Joseon had occured in 1636, Pungan fled to Gwanghado Island along with Bongrim, her husband's sister-in-law the Crown Princess Consort Kang, and her maternal grandfather Kim Sang-yong, the Third State Councillor. Afterward, when the Qing dynasty's troops hand landed directly on Gwanghado Island, endangering the lives of many people, while everyone cried out with confusion, Pung-an showed calmness and handled the crisis composedly as usual.

When the enemy had landed at Gwanghado Island and captured the castle, Kim Sang-yong set fire to gunpowder and self-destructed with his enemies. After his death, he was promoted as Yeonguijeong. However, Joseon suffered the defeat known as the "Humiliation at Samjeondo" during the Qing invasion in the end. As a result, Bongrim and his older brother, Crown Prince Sohyeon, were taken to Shenyang of the Qing dynasty as hostages. At this moment, Pung-an also followed Bongrim to the Qing dynasty. She supported her husband by doing all sorts of difficult tasks for eight years and she gave birth to a son, Yi Yeon, there.

Years later, although the Crown Prince was released and returned home, he died a mysterious death suspected of poisoning. When Bongrim returned from the Qing in 1645, he was appointed as the crown prince, making Pung-an automatically the crown princess consort. Because of Crown Princess Kang, widow of the late Crown Prince Sohyeon, who was the most enlightened royal woman in Joseon history, was sentenced to death by King Injo. As the next crown princess, she had no choice but to use the former crown princess' death as a lesson to be learned.

After Injo died in 1649, Crown Prince Bongrim ascended to the throne as 17th Joseon monarch (temple name: Hyojong), making the Crown Princess Consort automatically the queen consort. As the head of royal consorts, she wisely led court ladies and treated her subordinates with kindness while being stern yet merciful.

For example, one of the King's concubine, Royal Noble Consort An of the Gyeongju Yi clan, caused a great stir after calling her daughter, Princess Suknyeong, "you". At that time, it was customary for royal concubine to avoid using informal speech to the king's children, even if she was their biological mother since princes and princesses of the blood were in higher rank than royal concubine. When this became known, the King tried to punish Yi An-bin, but the Queen adamantly persuaded the King to let it pass. In this manner, she truly cared for her subordinates.

However in the Queen's epitaph, written in the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, it's recorded that she said, "If a wife regards highly of herself, since such an attitude rarely doesn't cause harm to one's home or country, hens should not cry at dawn." It also says one should take strict precautions about it. But as a witness to Crown Princess Kang's tragic death, such a way of thinking may have been the best strategy for her to rely on during the complicated political situation of the time.

The Queen exchanged written letters with her daughters who were married and among them, 70 copies of letters in Korean sent to Princess Sukshin and Princess Sukmyeong are available currently. The Queen also cherished Princess Suknyeong, Yi An-bin's daughter and the only child of Hyojong from his royal concubine, without discrimination. For instance, there was occasion in which the King and the Queen were giving gifts to their children, and when the King gave gifts only to the princesses while being conscious of how the Queen would react without giving any present to the concubine's daughter, the Queen, who was worried about this, called Princess Suknyeong personally with a gift.

Furthermore, as the Queen also advocated the expedition to conquer the north as much as Hyojong, during her tenure as queen consort, she eradicated exorcism (known as Gutpan) and prohibited drinking. By unifying the color of blankets into two colors, red and blue, she also prepared them to be used as military uniform in case of a war and all of these prepared finances were used for conquering the north.

In 1659, as the King was receiving acupuncture to treat a boil on his head, he ended up losing too much blood during the process, making his condition critical, and eventually died in vain due to medical accident. On this, even though the Queen expressed her sorrow through severe wailing, she gave her best to make the funeral process meaningful, and it's told that she personally trimmed his fingernails as well as toenails and washed his body. After that, she only ate a thin rice gruel for 3 months.

Yi Yeon succeded his father as 18th Joseon monarch (temple name: Hyeonjong) and she was honoured as Queen Dowager Hyosuk (효숙왕대비). However, she became ill because she failed to take care of her health after her husband's death. Afterwards, Hyosuk frequently went to Onyang and took a bath in a hot spring, showing a slight improvement in her health condition, but when she reached 56 years old in 1674, her illness suddenly aggravated and she passed away in Gyeongdeok Palace’s (known at the time as Gyeonghui Palace), Hoesang Hall. Her tomb is in Yeongneung, located in Wangdae-ri, Neungseo-myeon, Yeoju-si, Gyeonggi-do, and was buried together with her huband in the Dongwonsanghareung cluster (the king's tomb lies in line with that of his wife). Later, she posthumously honoured as Queen Inseon.

When Queen Inseon passed away, because Injo's second consort, who was also her six years younger mother-in-law, Queen Dowager Jaui was present, the problem known as "Yesong Dispute"[1] which had became an issue after Hyojong's death, cropped up again. This triggered the second Yesong Dispute in Joseon.