Yi Hwan was born to Crown Princess Jo and Crown Prince Hyomyeong on 8 September 1827 in Gyeongchunjeon () within Changdeok Palace. It was said that when the day before he was born, she dreamt of giving her son a box containing a tree carved with
jade, and on the day of his birth, a group of
cranes flew from the front room and went around for a long time. She and the others considered it to be strange. The young Heonjong ascended to the throne in 1834 at the age of 7 after his grandfather, King Sunjo, died. Heonjong was the youngest monarch to ascend the throne in Joseon's history. Like King Sunjo, Heonjong took the throne at a young age and his grandmother,
Queen Sunwon served as queen regent. Although King Heonjong ascended to the throne, he had no political control over Joseon. When Heonjong reached adulthood, Queen Sunwon refused to give up control. In 1840, the control over the kingdom was then handed down to the
Andong Kim clan, the family of his grandmother
Queen Sunwon, following the anti-Catholic
Gihae persecution of 1839. During Heonjong's reign, he built the Nakseonjae complex and insisted that his beloved concubine, Kim Gyeong-bin, be given sole use of the complex which was an unprecedented move in Joseon's history. King Heonjong died after reigning for 15 years in 1849 at the age of 21. He was buried at the Gyeongneung tomb within the Donggureung Tomb Cluster in Seoul, where several kings and queens of the Joseon Dynasty were buried, with Queen Hyohyeon and Queen Hyojeong. As King Heonjong died without an heir, the throne passed to a distant descendant of
King Yeongjo,
King Cheoljong. As was customary with the
Annals of the Joseon Dynasty, the chronicle of Heonjong's reign was compiled after his death, in 1851. The compilation of the 16-volume chronicle was supervised by
Jo In-yeong, her mother's uncle. ==Family==