Seondeok Becomes Silla’s First Reigning Queen

In January 632, Princess Deokman succeeded her father, King Jinpyeong, taking the throne as Queen Seondeok of Silla. Her accession made her the twenty-seventh monarch of the realm and its first reigning queen. Under Silla's strict bone-rank social system, succession was limited to the highest royal tier, known as the sacred bone or seonggol. According to the ancient chronicle Samguk yusa, her rise was prompted simply by the lack of eligible male heirs in that rank. Her elevation nevertheless encountered royal opposition. Months before her accession, in May 631, officials Chilsuk and Seokpum plotted a rebellion to halt her path to power, but royal authorities discovered the conspiracy and executed the conspirators.

Upon ascending the throne, Seondeok moved quickly to establish her authority and ease public anxieties. She directed royal inspectors to travel across Silla to oversee relief for orphans, widows, widowers, the impoverished, and the elderly. In her second year on the throne, she granted a full year of tax exemption to peasants and lowered taxes for the middle class. The Samguk yusa also credits her reign with building Cheomseongdae, a stone tower in the capital of Gyeongju long regarded as an astronomical observatory, although scholars have debated its exact function.