Emperor Pring (Themiclesia)
Emperor Pring (Shinasthana: 孟玶皇啻, mrangh-pring-hwang-tai; 560 – 4 May 638) was the third member of the Restored Mrangh Dynasty and reigned over Themiclesia from 582 – 583 before abdicating in favour of his cousin, Emperor Hwen (孟恆皇啻) for the uxoricide of Empress Alang (瑭皇后).
Life
Emperor Pring was born Imperial Prince Tung (皇子苳) to the Imperial Crown Prince in 560, about twelve years after the Meng house had fled Menghe and was invited to the take the throne in Themiclesia to complete the ouster of the unpopular Rang ruler. Owing to their exile, the Meng house was characterized by a paranoid sense of insecurity in a foreign land and before a court of nobles who did not necessarily support their taking the throne. While the Imperial Crown Prince had come to Themiclesia along with his deposed father, Tung was born in Themiclesia to parents who evidently went to extreme lengths to protect their progeny.
As a result, Prince Tung's birth was not announced to the dukes and barons until he was 13 years old, and rather than summoning a retinue to form his future household, his father Emperor Ruts placed him in the care Guard General Zap (衞將軍槢), the loyal general who escorted the family wherever they went and foraged for their sustainment. When the deposed emperor was invited to take the throne in 543, he had the royal guard that followed him over the Hemithean desert establish garrisons around the palace for his safety; he decreed that his loyal followers should receive a pension and land to use in their old age, while the royal guard was replenished from their children. Prince Tung was then raised within the confines of these palace garrisons, his parents never feeling quite safe about letting him come out or so much as speak with anyone but tried-and-true loyalists.
Whether by birth or by poor rearing, Prince Tun earned a reputation for needless cruelty in his childhood. The specifics of his actions are challenging to verify, as indeed he did not maintain a formal household that could have left records of his private actions. But according to the biographies written in the 700s, Tun had enjoyed slaughtering the animals used for garrison food and enjoyed butchering other aniamls alive that were not fit for eating, afterwards sending the butchered carcasses to the kitchen as extra foodstuffs. When he became a teenager, his habits extended from animals to mankind, regularly killing the petty thieves at the palace jail before judges heard them and becoming irritable when there were none caught. He demanded the guardsmen go out and catch more evildoers he was sure were around. He was only told to stop when he one day left the garrison for further murder sprees; notably, at this point, he did not seem overtly interested in the world outside.
At the age of 15, he was engaged to the daughter of the Chief Baron of Sem, later known as the Empress Alang. At the same time, Alang's younger sister was also engaged to Tun's younger brother Prince Ko, according to the custom of royal marriage by the Rite of Congression. Six years later, when Ko reached the marriagible age of 20, their brides underwent the Rite of Congression and became their state-sanctioned spouses. Alang disliked her husband, telling her uncles and cousins that Prince Tun "had no appearance of lordship" (亡君子象). Tun appears to ahve concealed his nature from Alang initially but stopped doing so a year later, blandly telling her he liked to torture and mutilate in a letter. Alang then resolved to shun her husband and spent most of her time with her courtiers instead.
In 575, Emperor Tyung abdicated in favour of his son and promptly died in 578. The new emperor entered a state of almost constant illness after taking the throne and so considered abdicating in favour of Prince Tun; informed of his son's perversion, he said that God's hand will guide his son once he takes the crown and supernaturally instruct him in morality. In reality, the emperor had no intention of relinquishing power and instead wanted his son to discharge the ardour of ceremonies that need to be performed by someone. Tun was moved out of the royal guard garrison in 581 and into the Pan Palace. In 582, Emperor Kam abdicated in favour of Prince Tun, who immediately faced hundreds of individuals who came and went from his court, even in a ceremonial capacity (he was not required to answer their petitions).
Once his personal cruelty inevitably became public, his father's courtiers became horrified and foreswore his court; however, this was not an immediate problem because they did not forswear his father's court, where actual politics occurred. Tun's behaviour was perhaps "more embarrassing than dangerous" according to historians.
Tun also behaved erroneously in other ways. He refused to wear the robes that was worn by everyone at court; instead, he continued to wear a set of soldier's clothes that his guardian General Zap had him wear since childhood to make him inconspicuous. While contemporary writers considered this a symptom of immorality and perversion (unfit to his station as monarch), this is perhaps better attributed to his headstrong character, mistrust of outsiders, and perhaps general laziness to change into the cumbersome robes and have someone hold his train for him.