She was honored as Grand Queen Dowager Seongryeol (성렬대왕대비) during the reign of her son, Yi Hwan, King Myeongjong.
King Yeonsan was deposed in 1506 after a serious altercation with his Grandmother the Grand Queen Dowager Insu which resulted into her being pushed down the stairs of her residence and falling to her death, his half-brother, Jungjong, was placed on the throne as the eleventh king of Joseon by leaders of the Hungu factions, the established power elites that time who had led the coup.
Nam Gon and Shim Jung connived with one another and ousted Kim Ahn-ro from the political arena for abusing power resulting in his exile.
Hong Gyeong-ju, Nam Gon and Shim Jung were collectively called "Evil Three of Gimyo" because of their role in the literati purge.
[6] On the other hand, the Queen herself gave birth to three daughters and had no son for 17 years despite Jungjong's expectation to have a prince which only intensified the arrogance of the three Consorts.
After receiving a special pardon from Jungjong, whose realization had led him to believe that the latter's presence was necessary to restrain resistance from Nam Gon's extremist supporters and as he was desperate to settle the scores, his first action was to accuse Shim Jung for accepting bribes from Park Gyeong-bin to help her put Prince Bokseong in line for the throne.
Jungjong eager but cunning and wise enough to not show it acquiesced to grant a Kim Ahn-ro a Royal sanction with ease that permitted Shim Jung, Park Gyeong-bin and Prince Bokseong's execution in cold blood in 1533 immediately.
Queen Yun herself after much longing and frustration finally gave birth to a son, Yi Hwan, who was honoured as Grand Prince Gyeongwon (경원대군), an event which became the most significant turning point in her political career.
Queen Yun who had noticed the plot beforehand had, through her infant son, won over the affection of her husband and in turn persuaded the King to get rid of him instead assuring him of the support of her clan which would strengthen his Royal Authority.
The incident had the unfortunate consequence of isolating the Queen, whose intervention in the political strife having been publicized, ended the alliance system she had forged in her favor.
For the embattled woman who had been liable to falling victim to a fatal political machination which would have cost her her life, and those of her kin, she realized that it was useless to be in a high position without wielding tremendous power.
Which many Sarim scholars joined the Greater Yun since they had great hopes for the Crown Prince, who studied under Jo Gwang-jo and Yi Hwang.
The Annals of the Joseon Dynasty tells the story of the Queen who threatened the Crown Prince to not to kill her brothers and her own son.
As Yun Im finally felt that her alliance was irrelevant often times, he was bent on ousting her two brothers who were also ultimately her most powerful protectors from the political arena which poisoned her relationship with him and intensified her resistance.
When Jungjong's health intensely declined, he eventually succumbed in the same year and the Crown Prince ascended to the throne as 12th king of Joseon in front of his coffin (temple name: Injong).
In the early months of his reign, Injong promoted his maternal relatives to high position and demoted the Queen Dowager's allies to lesser offices, Yun Im was the mastermind behind the design of the new political layout in the Court and Injong who was himself lenient probably out of guilt for old times sake preferred to keep Queen Dowager Seongryeol in check rather than expel her from the Inner Court.
Yun Im soon started exploiting his connection to the young king to censure the Queen Dowager and even push for Grand Prince Gyeongwon to be demoted to the rank of commoner despite his infancy and his political detachment.
According to unofficial chronicles, there is a tale of Seongryeol finally showing love and understanding for her "adoptive" son Injong, after decades of polite indifference (in reality behind-the-scenes hatred).
The closest person in the line of succession was Grand Prince Gyeongwon, the Queen Dowager Seongryeol's biological son, and he ascended to the throne as 13th king of Joseon (temple name: Myeongjong) at only 9 years of age marking the beginning of renaissance period in Joseon whose early years were those of unrelieved horror.
As the young King's mother and grand queen dowager, Seongryeol was empowered by officials of the Lesser Yun faction and upon their forced invitation acted as regent behind the silk and bamboo screen,[7] the second woman in the History of the Joseon Dynasty to officially take on the role after Queen Jeonghui, who was her mother-in-law and a first cousin four times removed.
In 1553 after ruling behind the bamboo Silk screen for 8 years, acting through the office of the Royal Censors, Myeongjong finally gathered the courage to make his first independent decision to ask his mother to step down from her regency.
The Queen Mother efficiently continued to rule even after her son reached the age of majority, issuing Royal Edicts and not the humbler directives and even receiving officials in her residence.
Everyday she received petitions and even envoys from the Ming Dynasty with the King; even going the extra mile to perform duties that were initially reserved for the Monarch.
She continued distributing to the common people land formerly owned by the nobility and astonishingly, she was also the most influential supporter of Buddhism during the early dynasty.
Before the reconstruction, Buddhism fell under severe state-imposed oppression as the government maintained Neo-Confucianism as the sole state ideal.
He revived an official system of training and selecting monks in both the Seon (meditation) and Gyo (doctrinal, scholastic) sects of Korean Buddhism.
He was exiled from the capital and unable to make a political comeback, he and his second wife, Jeong Nan-jeong, committed suicide by poison as Myeongjong readmitted the Sarim into the Royal Court.
Upon her death, the Queen had been the direct de-facto ruler of the Joseon Dynasty for over twenty years, much longer than any other woman of her era.
Unlike most Joseon queens who preceded and succeeded her, none acted as brazen as she was and none was more headstrong, arrogant, resilient and firm in execution of royal power and authority.