Empress Xiaogongzhang

Empress Sun was a Chinese Empress consort of the Ming Dynasty, married to the fifth Ming monarch, the Xuande Emperor. She was mother of Zhu Qizhen, the Yingzong Emperor. He became the sixth Ming emperor as a child, but then as a young man led a disastrous campaign against the Mongols during which hundreds of thousands of Ming warriors were killed, and he himself was captured during an event referred to as the Tumu Crisis. He was forced to abdicate in 1449, and his half-brother Zhu Qiyu was installed as the seventh Ming ruler, the Jingtai Emperor, for several years. After Qizhen's return from Mongol hands, he eventually led a coup against his half-brother and resumed his role as monarch in a newly named reign as Tianshun Emperor before passing away in 1464. Empress Sun remained known as "Empress Dowager" through the Yingzong, Jingtai, and Tianshun reigns, until her death in 1462.