Queen of King Chungsuk of Goryeo and mother of Kings Chunghye and Gongmin (Queen Dowager Myeongdeok)
| Life | 1298 ~ 1380 |
| Era | 고려 후기 |
| Clan | 남양 홍씨 |
Queen Gongwon of the Hong clan (恭元王后, 1298–1380) was the queen of King Chungsuk, the 27th ruler of Goryeo, and mother of Kings Chunghye and Gongmin. She is also known as Queen Dowager Myeongdeok. She was the fifth daughter of Hong Gyu, Prince Namyang, and her elder sister was a consort of King Chungseon.
She married King Chungsuk in 1313 and was named Consort Deok. She bore the future King Chunghye in 1315 and the future King Gongmin in 1330. When Yuan princesses entered the palace as queens under the Yuan marriage policy she had to live outside the palace, but the Goryeosa records that the king remained devoted to her. She was once slandered and sent back to her home district, but returned to Gaegyeong after Chungsuk regained the throne.
King Chunghye created an office to serve her, which King Gongmin renamed when he made her queen dowager. She opposed the monk Sin Don and often rebuked Gongmin for executing so many officials and leaving government to ministers, which strained their relationship; after Queen Noguk's death in 1365 she also urged the grieving king to turn to his other consorts. After Sin Don's death she received the honorific title Sunggyeong Wangtaehu.
She died in 1380. Her posthumous title is Gongwon and her tomb is Yeongneung. Through her marriage the Namyang Hong became one of the most powerful in-law families of late Goryeo; her nephew Hong Eon-bak became chancellor under Gongmin.
The tomb epitaphs of her father and mother survive and confirm her birth and family. State rites for her began only in 1391. She appears in television dramas set in late Goryeo, such as MBC's Sin Don and KBS's Jeong Do-jeon.