Heungseon Daewongun (선대원군, 1820-1898) or The Daewongun (대원군), Guktaegong (국태공, ‘The Great Archduke’), also known to period western diplomats as Prince Gung, was the title of Li Ha-eung, regent of Joseon during the minority of King Gojong in the 1860s and until his death a key political figure of late Joseon Korea. Daewongun literally translates as 'prince of the great court', a title customarily granted to the father of the reigning monarch when that father did not reign himself (usually because his son had been adopted as heir of a relative who did reign). While there had been three other Daewongun during the Joseon Dynasty, so dominant a place did Yi Ha-eung have in the history of the late Joseon dynasty that the term Daewongun usually refers specifically to him. The Daewongun is remembered for the wide-ranging reforms he attempted during his regency, as well as for his vigorous enforcement of the seclusion policy, persecution of Christians, and the killing or driving off of foreign