Queen Noguk


Queen Noguk of the Borjigin clan, also known by her posthumous name Queen Indeok, was a Mongolian princess and queen of Korea by marriage to King Gongmin. Her Mongolian name was Budashiri.

Life

Queen Noguk was born Budashiri, a member of the Yuan dynasty's ruling Borjigin clan and a great-great-great granddaughter of Kublai Khan. Though her birth year is unknown, she is recorded as having married the reformist monarch Gongmin of Goryeo in the Yuan capital of Khanbaliq in 1349, after which she went to live in Goryeo.
Queen Noguk's marriage followed a practice established by Kublai Khan, where female members of the Yuan royal clan were married to Goryeo princes in order to maintain Yuan hegemony on the peninsula. By contrast with earlier marriages between the Yuan and Gogryeo, however, Budashiri's marriage to Gongmin was described as happy.
Despite the close relationship between King Gongmin and her, they were childless. Queen Noguk became pregnant fifteen years after marriage, but died in 1365 from complications related to the childbirth.
After her death, King Gongmin became indifferent to politics and entrusted a great task to the Buddhist monk, Pyeonjo, who was executed in 1371. King Gongmin was killed in his sleep by Hong Ryun, Choe Man-saeng, and others in 1374.

Legacy

King Gongmin began the construction of a tomb near Kaesong after Queen Noguk's death. The queen was interred under the mound Jongrung, and her husband was later buried under an accompanying mound known as Hyonrung.
According to the Veritable Records of the Joseon Dynasty, the tenth king Yeonsan believed that Queen Noguk had looked similar to his mother, the deposed Queen Yun, so he collected Queen Noguk's portraits at government offices.

Family