The Mạc dynasty (1527–1677), officially Great Việt, was a Vietnamese dynasty which ruled over a unified Vietnam between 1527 and 1540, and northern Vietnam from 1540 until 1593. The Mạc dynasty lost control over the capital Đông Kinh for the last time in its wars against the Later Lê dynasty and the Trịnh Lords in 1592. Subsequent members of the Mạc dynasty ruled over the province of Cao Bằng with the direct support of the Chinese Ming and Qing dynasties until 1677.

The Lê dynasty, also known in historiography as the Later Lê dynasty, officially Great Việt, was the longest-ruling Vietnamese dynasty, having ruled from 1428 to 1789, with an interregnum between 1527 and 1533. The Lê dynasty is divided into two historical periods: the Initial Lê dynasty before the usurpation by the Mạc dynasty, in which emperors ruled in their own right, and the Revival Lê dynasty, in which emperors were figures reigned under the auspices of the powerful Trịnh family. The Revival Lê dynasty was marked by two lengthy civil wars: the Lê–Mạc War (1533–1592) in which two dynasties battled for legitimacy in northern Vietnam and the Trịnh–Nguyễn Wars between the Trịnh lords in North and the Nguyễn lords of the South.