In 1469, roughly a year since
King Yejong had ascended the throne and shown signs of recovery, he died suddenly at the age of 20 without having named his successor and another fierce strife ensued within the court. Yejong's eldest son, the Grand Prince Jean with Queen Dowager Inhye, was only four years old and the Officials were strongly opposed to the idea of having a very young King because of two main reasons, the first being that political power would either solely slide into the Monopoly of either the royal clan through ambitious Royal relatives, or the King's maternal relatives, and secondly, because the tragic fate of
Danjong of Joseon was most likely to repeat itself. As the first occupant of the position of Grand Queen Dowager of the nation, the Grand Queen Dowager was the most senior surviving member of the Royal household. She reserved the right to solve the official dispute by choosing a successor that would be acceptable and, for her position, instrumental. The choice of the new King sufficed as Yejong was succeeded by his youngest nephew and Queen Jeonghui's grandson,
Grand Prince Jalsan, who was third in the line of succession to the throne, rather than his own son, Grand Prince Jean. The official reasons given were that Grand Prince Jean was deemed to young at 4 years old to become King and that
Grand Prince Wolsan was too sickly, but the more likely reason for this choice was Jalsan's marriage to the daughter,
Han Song-yi, of the powerful
Han Myŏnghoe who had initially helped Sejo take power and much allied himself with Queen Jeonghui during his lifetime. As Seongjong was only 13 at the time of his accession and still a minor, the Royal Court invited Queen Jeonghui to rule the nation as regent in his stead. Occupying the position officially this time round though still observing the initial prerogatives, she'd exercised during her first informal regency and equally forming a regency council with her as the head. This time round, her daughter-in-law and Seongjong's mother (whose husband had never actually been King) was to function as her political advisor, to pacify the Han clan which backed her into making a political comeback, that she equally reviewed petitions revised by the Royal Grand Queen Dowager. But her position was still strained as she was yet to receive a royal title and at times the Royal Grand Queen Dowager acted independently even without her knowledge on most affairs that
Queen Insu's political influence was still curtailed. With her seniority, she had a say in who could be the wife of her grandson, and personally selected the daughter (the future
Queen Jeonghyeon) of her first cousin twice removed to be the third Queen consort of her grandson after deposing Queen Yun. When political pressure increased, the Grand Queen Dowager named Insu as the Queen but with an unspecified status first because she was not the Queen Consort of her own son, Seongjeong. This was because
Queen Jangsun, a distant relative of Lady Han, and
King Yejong were made the king's adoptive parents. Secondly, because she was not the widow of the former King, her husband was posthumously made as King. Since Lady Han was still alive, the Queen Mother needed to determine her rank between King Yejong's second wife and widow,
Queen Dowager Inhye, and Queen Dowager Insu. This eventually induced her to designate insu as the senior between both Queen Dowager's. It was during her regency that the Joseon Dynasty enjoyed political stability. Diplomatic relations with the
Ming Dynasty peaked with trade flourishing between the two countries and furthermore, a significant move was made for the commoner farmers to receive the right to cultivate fields that had originally belonged to the military. In 1474, the code of law, first ordered by
King Sejo, was completed and put into effect and as a patron of the Arts and Buddhism, she commissioned Buddhist paintings and Sutras. The most famous perhaps being the Sutra that was Commissioned by the three queen dowagers, herself, Insu and lnhye. Queen Jeonghui's regency ultimately ended in 1476 when she stepped down as King Seongjeong had reached of age. She loosely held onto her political power as she was wary of her daughter-in-law's ambition and still consulted on some official matters but preferred to be reserved and active only with affairs within the palace. Her final vivid exercise of royal power was her conniving with officials and intense aggression towards Seongjeong's second Queen Consort forcing her to deposition, and was known afterwards as
Deposed Queen Yun, after her altercation with two of his concubines and her scratching the king's face, eventually ordering for her to commit suicide by poison in 1482. She died peacefully on 6 May 1483, in the fourteenth year of
King Seongjong's reign at the age of 65 having outlived her husband by 15 years. She was posthumously honored as Queen Jeonghui. After her death, all political power shifted into the hands of Queen Dowager Insu, and the Cheongju Han clan, who became the most influential elder in the palace. ==Legacy==