The '''Nguyễn lords''' ({{vie|v=Chúa Nguyễn}}, 主阮; 1558–1777, 1780–1802),{{Efn|Internally stylised as the '''Nguyễn kings''' ({{vie|v=Nguyễn vương}}; {{Lang-vi-hantu|廣南國}})({{vie|v=Nguyễn vương}}, 阮王) from 1744 onwards.<ref name="BBC-News-Paris-Vietnamese-artifacts-2015">{{cite web|url= https://www.bbc.com/vietnamese/forum/2015/09/150903_vua_bao_dai_va_an_kiem|title= Bảo Đại trao kiếm giả cho 'cách mạng'? Mùa thu năm trước Bảo tàng Lịch sử Việt Nam mang chuông sang gióng ở thủ đô Pháp.|date=4 September 2015|accessdate=10 April 2021|author= Phạm Cao Phong (Gửi cho BBC từ [[Paris]]) |publisher= [[BBC News]] ([[British Broadcasting Corporation]], [[Government of the United Kingdom]]) |language=vi}}</ref>}} also known as the '''Nguyễn clan''' (阮氏, ''{{vie|v=Nguyễn thị''}}; {{Lang-vi-hantu|阮氏}}), were a feudal [[nobility]] clan that ruled southern part of [[Đại Việt]] during the [[Revival Lê dynasty]] and ancestors of [[Nguyễn dynasty]]'s emperors. The territory they ruled was known contemporarily as [[Đàng Trong]] (Inner Realm) and known by Europeans as '''Kingdom of [[Cochinchina]]''' and by Imperial China as '''Kingdom of [[Quảng Nam]]''' ({{vie|v=Quảng Nam Quốc}}; {{Lang-vi-hantu|廣南國}}), in opposition to the [[Trịnh lords]] ruling northern Đại Việt as [[Đàng Ngoài]] (Outer Realm), known as '''Kingdom of [[Tonkin]]''' by Europeans and '''Kingdom of [[Annam]]''' ({{vie|v= An Nam Quốc}}; {{Lang-vi-hantu|安南國}}) by Imperial China in bilateral diplomacy.{{sfnp|Taylor|1995|p=170|ps=: "The 'Kingdom of Cochinchina' was the polity of the Nguyễn lords (chúa), who had become the more and more independent rivals of Trịnh lords of the north – if not of the Lê emperors whose affairs the Trịnh lords managed..."}} They were officially called '''King of Nguyễn ''' ({{vie|v=Nguyễn Vương}}; {{Lang-vi-hantu|阮王}}) in 1744 when lord [[Nguyễn Phúc Khoát]] self-proclaimed himself to elevate his status equally to Trịnh lords's title known as '''King of Trịnh ''' ({{Lang-vi|Trịnh Vương}} ; {{Lang-vi-hantu|鄭王}}). Both Nguyễn and Trịnh clans were ''de jure'' [[subordinates]] and [[fief]] of the [[Lê dynasty]] .
The Nguyễn lords were members of the [[House of Nguyễn Phúc]]. While they recognized the authority of and claimed to be loyal subjects of the revival Lê dynasty, they were de facto rulers of southern Đại Việt. Meanwhile, the [[Trịnh lords]] ruled northern Đại Việt in the name of the Lê emperor, who was in reality a [[puppet ruler]].{{sfnp|Pelley|2002|p=216|ps=: "This fragmentation became more pronounced in the mid-sixteenth century when a distinctly bifurcated pattern of politics arose, with the Trịnh lords in the North and the Nguyễn lords in the South."}}{{sfnp|Chapuis|1995|p=119ff}} They fought [[Trịnh–Nguyễn War|a series of long and bitter wars]] that pitted the two halves of Vietnam against each other. The Nguyễn were finally overthrown in the [[Tây Sơn dynasty|Tây Sơn wars]], but [[Gia Long|one of their descendants]] would eventually come to unite all of Vietnam. Their rule consolidated earlier [[Nam tien|southward expansion]] into [[Champa]] and pushed southwest into [[Cambodia]].{{sfnp|Hardy|2009|p=61|ps=: "Vietnam's southward expansion as it took place before the period of the Nguyễn Lords ..."}}
