Category Archives: Hawaii Royals

John Owen Dominis, Prince Consort of the Hawaiian Islands, Husband of Queen Liliuokalani

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

The Hawaiian Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, were originally divided into several independent chiefdoms. The Kingdom of Hawaii was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great of the independent island of Hawaii, conquered the independent islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, and unified them under one government and ruled as Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when Kauai and Niihau voluntarily joined the Kingdom of Hawaii. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom: the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.

In 1778, British explorer James Cook visited the islands. This led to increased trade and the introduction of new technologies and ideas. In the mid-19th century, American influence in Hawaii dramatically increased when American merchants, missionaries, and settlers arrived on the islands. Protestant missionaries converted most of the native people to Christianity. Merchants set up sugar plantations and the United States Navy established a base at Pearl Harbor. The newcomers brought diseases that were new to the indigenous people including influenza, measles, smallpox, syphilis, tuberculosis, and whooping cough. At the time of James Cook’s arrival in 1778, the indigenous Hawaiian population is estimated to have been between 250,000 and 800,000. By 1890, the indigenous Hawaiian population declined to less than 40,000.

In 1893, a group of local businessmen and politicians composed of six non-native Hawaiian Kingdom subjects, five American nationals, one British national, and one German national overthrew Queen Liliuokalani, her cabinet, and her marshal, and took over the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This led to the 1898 annexation of Hawaii as a United States territory. On August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States.

In 1993, one hundred years after the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown, the United States Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Apology Resolution which “acknowledges that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum”. As a result, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, a grassroots political and cultural campaign to reestablish an autonomous or independent nation or kingdom in Hawaii, was established along with ongoing efforts to redress the indigenous Hawaiian population.

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John Owen Dominis, Prince Consort of the Hawaiian Islands; Credit – Wikipedia

The husband of Queen Liliuokalani, the only Queen Regnant and the last monarch of the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands, John Owen Dominis was born on March 10, 1832, in Schenectady, New York. He was the youngest of the three children and the only son of John Dominis (1796 – 1846), originally from Trieste, then part of the Austrian Empire, now in Italy, and American-born Mary Lambert Jones. John had two older sisters Mary Elizabeth Dominis (1825 – 1838), Frances Ann Dominis (1829 – 1842), who both died when they were thirteen years old.

John’s father Captain John Dominis; Credit – Wikipedia

Being a sea captain, John’s father was frequently absent from home. He was involved in the Old China Trade and the fur trade in the Pacific Northwest with the British Hudson’s Bay Company. Captain John frequently stopped in the Hawaiian Islands to conduct business and resupply. Captain John, his wife Mary, and their son John relocated to Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands in 1837. They left their two daughters in the United States to complete their education but they both died at the age of thirteen.

Washinton Place in Honolulu; Credit – By Frank Schulenburg – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=146081316

King Kamehameha III awarded some land to the family in 1842 as a settlement of a lawsuit with the British Consul Richard Charlton. Captain John continued to take voyages to raise money for the construction of a house. In 1846, Captain John sailed for China to purchase Chinese-made furniture for the nearly complete house. The ship was lost at sea, and John’s mother Mary became a widow. To make ends meet, Mary rented out rooms to boarders. One of the first boarders was Anthony Ten Eyck, an American Commissioner to the Hawaiian Islands who established the American Legation in the house. Ten Eyck named the house Washington Place on February 22, 1848 after George Washington in celebration of the first president’s birthday. The Dominis family continued to live at Washington Place. It eventually became the private residence of John and his wife Queen Liliuokalani, and they both died at Washington Place. Later Washington Place became the official residence of the Governor of Hawaii, and in 2007, it was designated as a National Historic Landmark. The current governor’s residence, built in 2008, is located on the same grounds as Washington Place.

John attended a school next to the Royal School, founded for the children of the native Hawaiian nobility, and he would climb the fence to observe the princes and princesses, and became friends with them. It was there that he first met his future wife, then Princess Liliuokalani. When John finished his schooling, he worked as a mercantile clerk in San Francisco, and as a clerk in a Honolulu commercial house. By 1856, he was a staff member to Prince Lot Kapuāiwa, the future King Kamehameha V, and then a secretary to King Kamehameha IV. John and Liliuokalani became romantically involved.

The future Queen Liliuokalani: Credit – Wikipedia

On September 16, 1862, John and Liliuokalani were married in an Anglican ceremony by Reverend Samuel Chenery Damon, a missionary to Hawaii and pastor of the Seamen’s Bethel Church in Honolulu. The couple moved into the Dominis residence, Washington Place in Honolulu. However, the marriage was not happy and was childless. John chose to socialize without Liliuokalani and his mother Mary looked down upon her non-caucasian daughter-in-law. Liliuokalani noted in her memoir that her mother-in-law considered her an “intruder” but became more affectionate in her later years.

John’s marriage to Liliuokalani and his close friendship with King Kamehameha V brought him many honors including:

John’s illegitimate son John ʻAimoku Dominis with Liliuokalani in 1913; Credit – Wikipedia

John had an illegitimate son John ʻAimoku Dominis (1883 – 1917) with Mary Purdy Lamiki ʻAimoku, his wife’s servant. Liliʻuokalani accepted her husband’s unfaithfulness and adopted her husband’s son in 1910. John ʻAimoku Dominis married Sybil Frances Kahulumanu McInerny in 1911, and the couple had three children. He died on July 7, 1917, aged thirty-four, after suffering from a long illness.

Upon the death of her brother King Kalākaua on January 20, 1891, Lilluokalani became the first and the only female monarch of the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands, and John became Prince Consort. John Owen Dominis, aged fifty-nine, died less than a year later on August 27, 1891, at their Washington Place home, and was buried in the Mauna Ala Royal Mausoleum in Honolulu. Due to overcrowding, in 1907, the Territory of Hawaii allocated $20,000 for the construction of a separate underground vault for the Kalākaua family. John’s coffin and the coffins of the Kalākaua family were transferred to the new underground Kalākaua Crypt in a ceremony on June 24, 1910, officiated by his wife, the former Queen Liliuokalani.

Burial crypts of John Dominis (left) & Queen Liliuokalani (middle) in the Kalākaua Crypt; Credit – www.findagrave.com

Two years after John’s death, in 1893, a group of local businessmen and politicians composed of six non-native Hawaiian Kingdom subjects, five American nationals, one British national, and one German national overthrew Queen Liliuokalani and took over the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This led to the 1898 annexation of Hawaii as a United States territory. On August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States. Liliʻuokalani survived her husband by twenty-six years, dying on November 11, 1917, at the age of seventy-nine at her home, Washington Place in Honolulu, Hawaii. She was interred in Kalākaua Crypt next to John’s burial crypt on the grounds of the Royal Mausoleum of Mauna ʻAla in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Works Cited

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2024). Lilluokalani, Queen of the Hawiian Islands. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/liliuokalani-queen-of-the-hawaiian-islands/
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2024). John Owen Dominis. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Owen_Dominis
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Hawaiian Kingdom. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Kingdom
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2024). Mary Dominis. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Dominis
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Royal Mausoleum (Mauna ʻAla). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mausoleum_(Mauna_%CA%BBAla)
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2024). Washington Place. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washington_Place

Liliuokalani, Queen of the Hawaiian Islands

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

The Hawaiian Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, were originally divided into several independent chiefdoms. The Kingdom of Hawaii was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great of the independent island of Hawaii, conquered the independent islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, and unified them under one government and ruled as Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when Kauai and Niihau voluntarily joined the Kingdom of Hawaii. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom: the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.

In 1778, British explorer James Cook visited the islands. This led to increased trade and the introduction of new technologies and ideas. In the mid-19th century, American influence in Hawaii dramatically increased when American merchants, missionaries, and settlers arrived on the islands. Protestant missionaries converted most of the native people to Christianity. Merchants set up sugar plantations and the United States Navy established a base at Pearl Harbor. The newcomers brought diseases that were new to the indigenous people including influenza, measles, smallpox, syphilis, tuberculosis, and whooping cough. At the time of James Cook’s arrival in 1778, the indigenous Hawaiian population is estimated to have been between 250,000 and 800,000. By 1890, the indigenous Hawaiian population declined to less than 40,000.

In 1893, a group of local businessmen and politicians composed of six non-native Hawaiian Kingdom subjects, five American nationals, one British national, and one German national overthrew Queen Liliuokalani, her cabinet, and her marshal, and took over the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This led to the 1898 annexation of Hawaii as a United States territory. On August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States.

In 1993, one hundred years after the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown, the United States Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Apology Resolution which “acknowledges that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum”. As a result, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, a grassroots political and cultural campaign to reestablish an autonomous or independent nation or kingdom in Hawaii, was established along with ongoing efforts to redress the indigenous Hawaiian population.

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Liliuokalani, Queen of the Hawaiian Islands, 1891; Credit – Wikipedia

Liliuokalani, Queen of the Hawaiian Islands was the only queen regnant and the last monarch of the Hawaiian Islands, reigning from 1891 until she was deposed in 1893. She was the composer of Aloha ʻOe or Farewell to Thee, one of the most recognizable Hawaiian songs. Born Lydia Liliʻu Loloku Walania Kamakaʻeha on September 2, 1838, in Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu in the Kingdom of Hawaii, now in the state of Hawaii, she was the third but second surviving of the seven children and the eldest of the three daughters of first cousins Caesar Kaluaiku Kamakaʻehukai Kahana Keola Kapaʻakea and Analea Keohokālole. Liliuokalani was baptized by American missionary Reverend Levi Chamberlain on December 23, 1893, and given the Christian name Lydia.

Liliuokalani‘s family was aliʻi nui, Hawaiian nobility, and were distantly related to the reigning House of Kamehameha, sharing common descent from Keaweʻīkekahialiʻiokamoku, King of the island of Hawaii and the great-grandfather of Kamehameha I, the first King of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Her father Caesar Kapaʻakea was a Hawaiian chief who served in the House of Nobles from 1845 until he died in 1866 and on the King’s Privy Council from 1846 – 1866. Her mother Analea Keohokālole, who was of a higher rank than her husband, was a Hawaiian chiefess and a member of the House of Nobles from 1841 to 1847, and on the King’s Privy Council 1846 to 1847.

Liliuokalani had six siblings who survived infancy:

Liliuokalani in 1853; Credit – Wikipedia

Liliuokalani was declared eligible to be in the line of succession by the royal decree of King Kamehameha III and therefore attended the Chiefs’ Children’s School, later known as Royal School, in Honolulu, which is still in existence as a public elementary school, the Royal Elementary School, the oldest school on the island of Oahu. Her classmates included the other children declared eligible to be in the line of succession including her siblings James Kaliokalani and the future King Kalākaua, and their thirteen royal relations including the future kings Kamehameha IV, Kamehameha V, and Lunalilo.

After her schooling was complete, Liliuokalani became a part of the young social elite during the reign of King Kamehameha IV (reigned 1855 – 1863). In 1856, when King Kamehameha IV announced that he would marry their classmate Emma Rooke, there were some at the Hawaiian court who thought that his bride should be Liliuokalani because she was his equal in birth and rank. However, Liliuokalani became a close friend of Queen Emma and was a maid of honor at Emma’s wedding and one of her ladies-in-waiting.

After a brief engagement to William Charles Lunalilo, the future Lunalilo, King of the Hawaiian Islands (reigned 1873 – 1874), Liliuokalani became romantically involved with the American-born John Owen Dominis, a staff member to Prince Lot Kapuāiwa, the future King Kamehameha V, and then a secretary to King Kamehameha IV. Born on March 10, 1832, in Schenectady, New York, John was the son of sea captain John Dominis, originally from Trieste, then part of the Austrian Empire, now in Italy, who emigrated to the United States, and American-born Mary Lambert Jones Dominis. In 1837, the couple relocated to the Kingdom of Hawaii with their son John. Liliuokalani and John had known each other from childhood. John attended a school next to the Royal School, would climb the fence to observe the princes and princesses, and became friends with them.

John Owen Dominis, Prince Consort of the Hawaiian Islands; Credit – Wikipedia

On September 16, 1862, Liliuokalani and John were married in an Anglican ceremony by Reverend Samuel Chenery Damon, a missionary to Hawaii and pastor of the Seamen’s Bethel Church in Honolulu. The couple moved into the Dominis residence, Washington Place in Honolulu. However, the marriage was not happy and was childless. John chose to socialize without Liliuokalani and his mother Mary Dominis looked down upon her non-caucasian daughter-in-law. Liliuokalani noted in her memoir that her mother-in-law considered her an “intruder” but became more affectionate in her later years.

Liliuokalani’s brother David (King Kalākaua); Credit – Wikipedia

On February 3, 1874, Lunalilo, King of the Hawaiian Islands (born William Charles Lunalilo) died from tuberculosis at the age of 39 without naming an heir. As King Lunalilo had wanted to make Hawaii more democratic, it is thought that he wished to have the people choose their next ruler. The Legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the people’s representatives, would choose the next monarch from the eligible royal family members. Queen Emma, the widow of King Kamehameha IV, claimed that King Lunalilo had wanted her to succeed him, but he died before a formal proclamation could be made. She decided to run in the election against Liliuokalni’s brother David who had lost to King Lunalilo in a similar election in 1873. While the Hawaiian people supported Emma, it was the legislature that elected the new monarch. They favored David who won the election 39 – 6. David reigned as King Kalākaua and became the first of two monarchs of the Kingdom of Hawaiian Islands from the House of Kalākaua, who were also the last two monarchs of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Upon his accession to the throne, King Kalākaua (David) named his brother William Pitt Leleiohoku II as his heir apparent. When his brother died from rheumatic fever in 1877, King Kalākaua named his sister Liliuokalani as his heir apparent. She acted as regent during her brother’s absences from the country.

Liliuokalani (left) and Kapiʻolani (right) at the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria; Credit – Wikipedia

In April 1887, Liliuokalani, her husband John Owen Dominis, and her sister-in-law Queen Kapiʻolani were part of the delegation from the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands sent to attend the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in London. Kapiʻolani and Liliuokalani were granted an audience with Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace. They attended the special Jubilee service at Westminster Abbey and were seated with other foreign royal guests.

On November 25, 1890, Liliuokalani’s brother King Kalākaua sailed for California aboard the USS Charleston. The purpose of the trip was uncertain but there were reports that the trip was for his ill health. David arrived in San Francisco, California on December 5, 1890. He suffered a minor stroke in Santa Barbara, California, and was rushed back to San Francisco. Two days before his death, he lapsed into a coma. King Kalākaua died in San Francisco, California on January 20, 1891, aged 54. On January 29, 1891, in the presence of the cabinet ministers and the Supreme Court justices, the new Queen Liliuokalani took the oath of office to uphold the constitution and became the first and the only female monarch of the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands. Liliuokalani’s husband John Owen Dominis died less than a year later on August 27, 1891, at their Washington Place home and was buried in the Mauna Ala Royal Mausoleum in Honolulu.

In 1875, during the reign of Queen Liliuokalani’s brother, the Reciprocity Treaty, a free trade agreement between the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands and the United States, gave free access to the United States market for sugar and other products grown in the Kingdom of Hawaii. In return, Hawaii guaranteed the United States that it would not cede or lease any of its land to other foreign powers. Then in 1887, also during the reign of Queen Liliuokalani’s brother, a new constitution was proposed by anti-monarchists that would strip the absolute Hawaiian monarchy of much of its authority and transfer power to a coalition of American, European, and native Hawaiians. It became known as the Bayonet Constitution because of the armed militia that forced King Kalākaua to sign it or be deposed.

During her reign, Queen Liliuokalani attempted to draft a new constitution that would restore the power of the monarchy. Threatened by Queen Liliuokalani’s attempts to negate the Bayonet Constitution, in 1893, a group of local businessmen and politicians composed of six non-native Hawaiian Kingdom subjects, five American nationals, one British national, and one German national overthrew Queen Liliuokalani and took over the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. The overthrow was supported by the landing of United States Marines to protect American interests, making the monarchy unable to protect itself. The Republic of Hawaii was established but the ultimate goal was the annexation of the Hawaiian Islands to the United States which would happen in 1898.

Liliʻuokalani being escorted up the steps of ʻIolani Palace, where she was imprisoned after the unsuccessful uprising of 1895; Credit – Wikipedia

In January 1895, a short, unsuccessful uprising to restore the monarchy was launched. On January 16, 1895, Liliuokalani was arrested and placed under house arrest at the ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu when firearms were found at her home, Washington Place, after a tip from a prisoner. On January 24, 1895, Liliuokalani was forced to abdicate, officially ending the monarchy.  Liliuokalani was tried by the military commission of the new Republic of Hawaii and was sentenced to five years of hard labor in prison and fined $5,000. The sentence was commuted on September 4, 1895, to imprisonment in the ʻIolani Palace. On October 13, 1896, the Republic of Hawaii granted Liliuokalani a full pardon and restored her civil rights.

Cover of Liliuokalani’s song Aloha ʻOe, 1890; Credit – Wikipedia

After her pardon, Liliuokalani felt the need to leave Hawaii, at least for a while. From December 1896 through January 1897, Liliuokalani stayed in Brookline, Massachusetts with her late husband’s cousins William Lee and Sara White Lee of the Lee & Shepard Publishing House. William and Sara and Liliuokalani’s long-time friend Julius A. Palmer Jr. helped her compile and publish her book of Hawaiian songs and her memoir Hawaii’s Story by Hawaii’s Queen which gave her point of view of the history of her country and her overthrow. Liliuokalani’s most famous song is Aloha ʻOe or Farewell to Thee. It was originally written as a lover’s goodbye, but the song came to be regarded as a symbol of the loss of her country, the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands. It remains one of the most recognizable Hawaiian songs.

Washinton Place, Liliuokalani’s home in Honolulu; Credit – By Frank Schulenburg – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=146081316

At the end of her visit to Massachusetts, Liliuokalani began to divide her time between Hawaii and Washington, D.C., where she worked to plead her case to the United States. Unsuccessful attempts were made to restore the monarchy and oppose annexation and the United States formally annexed Hawaii as a territory in 1898. In 1909, Liliuokalani brought an unsuccessful lawsuit against the United States under the Fifth Amendment seeking the return of the Hawaiian Crown Lands. The American courts invoked an 1864 Kingdom of Hawaii Supreme Court decision over a case involving Dowager Queen Emma and King Kamehameha V. In this decision, the courts found that the Crown Lands were not necessarily the private possession of the monarch in the strictest sense of the term. In 1911, Liliuokalani was granted a lifetime pension of $1,250 a month by the Territory of Hawaii.

Queen Liliuokalani lying in state at Iolani Palace; Credit – Wikipedia

By 1917, her health was suffering. She lost the use of her legs and her mental capacity was severely diminished. On the morning of November 11, 1917, Liliʻuokalani died at the age of seventy-nine at her home, Washington Place in Honolulu, Hawaii. The former queen lay in state at Kawaiahaʻo Church for public viewing, after which she received a state funeral in the throne room of ‘Iolani Palace, on November 18, 1917. Composer Charles E. King led a youth choir in Aloha ʻOe as her coffin was moved to her burial place. The procession participants and the crowds of people along the route began to sing the song. Liliuokalani was interred with her family members in the Kalākaua Crypt on the grounds of the Royal Mausoleum of Mauna ʻAla in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The burial vault of Queen Liliuokalani in the Kalākaua Crypt; Credit – Wikipedia

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2024). Kalākaua, King of the Hawaiian Islands. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/kalakaua-king-of-the-hawaiian-islands/
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2024). Liliʻuokalani. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lili%CA%BBuokalani
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Royal Mausoleum (Mauna ʻAla). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mausoleum_(Mauna_%CA%BBAla)
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Hawaiian Kingdom. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Kingdom

Kapiʻolani, Queen Consort of the Hawaiian Islands

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

The Hawaiian Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, were originally divided into several independent chiefdoms. The Kingdom of Hawaii was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great of the independent island of Hawaii, conquered the independent islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, and unified them under one government and ruled as Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when Kauai and Niihau voluntarily joined the Kingdom of Hawaii. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom: the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.

In 1778, British explorer James Cook visited the islands. This led to increased trade and the introduction of new technologies and ideas. In the mid-19th century, American influence in Hawaii dramatically increased when American merchants, missionaries, and settlers arrived on the islands. Protestant missionaries converted most of the native people to Christianity. Merchants set up sugar plantations and the United States Navy established a base at Pearl Harbor. The newcomers brought diseases that were new to the indigenous people including influenza, measles, smallpox, syphilis, tuberculosis, and whooping cough. At the time of James Cook’s arrival in 1778, the indigenous Hawaiian population is estimated to have been between 250,000 and 800,000. By 1890, the indigenous Hawaiian population had declined to less than 40,000.

In 1893, a group of local businessmen and politicians composed of six non-native Hawaiian Kingdom subjects, five American nationals, one British national, and one German national overthrew Queen Liliuokalani, her cabinet, and her marshal, and took over the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This led to the 1898 annexation of Hawaii as a United States territory. On August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States.

In 1993, one hundred years after the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown, the United States Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Apology Resolution which “acknowledges that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum”. As a result, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, a grassroots political and cultural campaign to reestablish an autonomous or independent nation or kingdom in Hawaii, was established along with ongoing efforts to redress the indigenous Hawaiian population.

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Kapiʻolani, Queen Consort of the Hawaiian Islands; Credit – Wikipedia

Kapiʻolani, Queen Consort of the Hawaiian Islands was the wife of Kalākaua, King of the Hawaiian Islands, who reigned from 1874 to 1891. Kapiʻolani Napelakapuokakaʻe was born on December 31, 1834, in Hilo on the island of Hawaii, then in the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands, now in the state of Hawaii. She was the eldest of the three daughters of High Chief Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole of Hilo and High Chiefess Kinoiki Kekaulike of Kauaʻi, the daughter of King Kaumualiʻi, the last king of an independent Kauaʻi. Kapiʻolani’s Christian name was Esther but unlike other Christian Hawaiian royals, she and her two sisters never used their Christian names. When Kapiʻolani was sixteen, she was sent to the royal court in Honolulu on the island of Oahu and was under the guardianship of King Kamehameha III. Kapiʻolani learned to understand a few English words and phrases but she never learned to speak English fluently and required a Hawaiian translator when communicating with English speakers.

Kapiʻolani had two younger sisters:

Kapiʻolani in 1852, the year she married Bennett Nāmākēhā; Credit – Wikipedia

On March 7, 1852, 17-year-old Kapiʻolani married 53-year-old High Chief Bennett Nāmākēhā, as his third wife. Bennett was a member of the House of Nobles and the uncle of Queen Emma, the wife of King Kamehameha IV. The marriage was childless but Kapiʻolani and Bennett were appointed the caretakers of Prince Albert Edward Kauikeaouli Kaleiopapa a Kamehameha, the only child of Emma and King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma. Kapiʻolani also served as a lady-in-waiting to Queen Emma. Sadly, the young prince died in 1862, when he was four years old. Two years earlier, Kapiʻolani’s husband Bennett died on December 27, 1860, aged sixty-one.

David Laʻamea Kamanakapuʻu Māhinulani Nālaʻiaʻehuokalani Lumialani Kalākaua, (King Kalākaua); Credit – Wikipedia

On December 19, 1863, Kapiʻolani married David Laʻamea Kamanakapuʻu Māhinulani Nālaʻiaʻehuokalani Lumialani Kalākaua, the future King Kalākaua, who was only two years older than Kapiʻolani. Their marriage was childless. David’s family was aliʻi nui, Hawaiian nobility, and was distantly related to the reigning House of Kamehameha, sharing common descent from Keaweʻīkekahialiʻiokamoku, King of the island of Hawaii and the great-grandfather of Kamehameha I, the first King of the Kingdom of Hawaii. David’s father Caesar Kapaʻakea was a Hawaiian chief who served in the House of Nobles from 1845 until he died in 1866 and on the King’s Privy Council from 1846 – 1866. David’s mother Analea Keohokālole, who was of a higher rank than her husband, was a Hawaiian chiefess and a member of the House of Nobles from 1841 to 1847, and on the King’s Privy Council from 1846 to 1847. David was declared eligible to be in the line of succession by the royal decree of King Kamehameha III. He served in the House of Nobles, and the Privy Council of State and held many other court and government posts during the reigns of King Kamehameha IV, King Kamehameha V, and King Lunalilo.

On February 3, 1874, Lunalilo, King of the Hawaiian Islands (born William Charles Lunalilo) died from tuberculosis without naming an heir. As King Lunalilo had wanted to make Hawaii more democratic, it is thought that he wished to have the people choose their next ruler. The Legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the people’s representatives, would choose the next monarch from the eligible royal family members. Queen Emma, the widow of King Kamehameha IV, claimed that King Lunalilo had wanted her to succeed him, but he died before a formal proclamation could be made. She decided to run in the election against David who had lost to King Lunalilo in a similar election in 1873. While the Hawaiian people supported Emma, it was the legislature that elected the new monarch. They favored David who won the election 39 – 6. David reigned as King Kalākaua and became the first of two monarchs of the Kingdom of Hawaiian Islands from the House of Kalākaua, who were also the last two monarchs of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

The Sisters of St. Francis and some of the residents of the home Kapiʻolani had built for the children of couples with leprosy; Credit – WIkipedia

As Queen, Kapiʻolani worked to improve the health of the Hawaiian people. She founded the Kapiʻolani Maternity Home in Honolulu, where Hawaiian mothers and their newborn babies could receive care. The Kapiʻolani Maternity Home is still in existence as the Kapiʻolani Medical Center for Women and Children, part of Hawaii Pacific Health’s network of hospitals. Kapiʻolani frequently visited Kakaʻako Branch Hospital on Oʻahu, which served as a receiving station for leprosy patients from all over the islands, and befriended the Roman Catholic Sisters of Saint Francis who staffed the hospital. On July 21, 1884, Kapiʻolani, along with her sister-in-law and her husband Princess Liliuokalani and John Owen Dominis, visited the Kalaupapa Leper Settlement on Molokaʻi where the now famous Belgian priest Father Damien (now Saint Damien of Molokai) spent sixteen years caring for the physical, spiritual, and emotional needs of those in the leper colony before he contracted leprosy. One of the concerns brought to the attention of Queen Kapiʻolani was the welfare of non-leprous children living on the island born to couples with leprosy. Kapiʻolani promised to build a home for these children. After the royal visit, the patients’ living conditions improved significantly.

Princess Liliuokalani (left) and Queen Kapiʻolani (right) at the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria; Credit – Wikipedia

In April 1887, Queen Kapiʻolani, along with her sister-in-law Princess Liliuokalani and her husband John Owen Dominis, were part of the delegation from the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands sent to attend the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria in London. Kapiʻolani and Liliuokalani were granted an audience with Queen Victoria at Buckingham Palace. They attended the special Jubilee service at Westminster Abbey and were seated with other foreign royal guests.

Queen Kapiʻolani kneeling at the coffin of her husband David (King Kalākaua); Credit – Wikipedia

On November 25, 1890, Kapiʻolani’s husband David set sail for California aboard the USS Charleston. The purpose of the trip was uncertain but there were reports that the trip was for his ill health. David arrived in San Francisco, California on December 5, 1890. He suffered a minor stroke in Santa Barbara, California, and was rushed back to San Francisco. Two days before his death, he lapsed into a coma. Kalākaua, King of the Hawaiian Islands, born David Laʻamea Kamanakapuʻu Māhinulani Nālaʻiaʻehuokalani Lumialani Kalākaua died in San Francisco, California on January 20, 1891, aged 54. He had been under the care of US Navy doctors who listed the cause of his death as nephritis, an inflammation of the kidneys.

After the death of her husband and the accession of her sister-in-law Liliuokalani to the throne, Kapiʻolani retired from public life and rarely attended formal social events. Queen Liliuokalani ruled for two years before she was overthrown. In 1893, a group of local businessmen and politicians composed of six non-native Hawaiian Kingdom subjects, five American nationals, one British national, and one German national overthrew Queen Liliuokalani, her cabinet, and her marshal, and took over the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This led to the 1898 annexation of Hawaii as a United States territory.

Tomb of Queen Kapiʻolani and her husband David (King Kalākaua); Credit – Wikipedia

Kapiʻolani lived out the remainder of her life at her private residence Pualeilani in Waikīkī, Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, where the Hyatt Regency Waikiki now stands. During the last two years of her life, Kapiʻolani suffered three strokes. She died, aged sixty-four, at her home on June 24, 1899. After a funeral at the Kawaiahaʻo Church in Honolulu officiated by the Anglican Bishop Alfred Willis, Kapiʻolani was buried in the Royal Mausoleum at Mauna ʻAla. Due to overcrowding, in 1907, the Territory of Hawaii allocated $20,000 for the construction of a separate underground vault for the Kalākaua family. Kapiʻolani’s coffin and the coffins of the Kalākaua family were transferred to the new underground Kalākaua Crypt in a ceremony on June 24, 1910, officiated by her sister-in-law, the former Queen Liliuokalani.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2024). Kalākaua, King of the Hawaiian Islands. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/kalakaua-king-of-the-hawaiian-islands/
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Hawaiian Kingdom. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Kingdom
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2024). Kalākaua. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kal%C4%81kaua
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2024a, January 6). Kapiʻolani. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kapi%CA%BBolani
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Royal Mausoleum (Mauna ʻAla). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mausoleum_(Mauna_%CA%BBAla)

Kalākaua, King of the Hawaiian Islands

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

The Hawaiian Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, were originally divided into several independent chiefdoms. The Kingdom of Hawaii was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great of the independent island of Hawaii, conquered the independent islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, and unified them under one government and ruled as Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when Kauai and Niihau voluntarily joined the Kingdom of Hawaii. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom: the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.

In 1778, British explorer James Cook visited the islands. This led to increased trade and the introduction of new technologies and ideas. In the mid-19th century, American influence in Hawaii dramatically increased when American merchants, missionaries, and settlers arrived on the islands. Protestant missionaries converted most of the native people to Christianity. Merchants set up sugar plantations and the United States Navy established a base at Pearl Harbor. The newcomers brought diseases that were new to the indigenous people including influenza, measles, smallpox, syphilis, tuberculosis, and whooping cough. At the time of James Cook’s arrival in 1778, the indigenous Hawaiian population is estimated to have been between 250,000 and 800,000. By 1890, the indigenous Hawaiian population declined had to less than 40,000.

In 1893, a group of local businessmen and politicians composed of six non-native Hawaiian Kingdom subjects, five American nationals, one British national, and one German national overthrew Queen Liliuokalani, her cabinet, and her marshal, and took over the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This led to the 1898 annexation of Hawaii as a United States territory. On August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States.

In 1993, one hundred years after the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown, the United States Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Apology Resolution which “acknowledges that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum”. As a result, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, a grassroots political and cultural campaign to reestablish an autonomous or independent nation or kingdom in Hawaii, was established along with ongoing efforts to redress the indigenous Hawaiian population.

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Kalākaua, King of the Hawaiian Islands; Credit – Wikipedia

Known for his patronage and the restoration of many Hawaiian cultural traditions, Kalākaua, King of the Hawaiian Islands from 1874 – 1891 was the first of the two monarchs of the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands from the House of Kalākaua. He was born David Laʻamea Kamanakapuʻu Māhinulani Nālaʻiaʻehuokalani Lumialani Kalākaua on November 16, 1836, in the grass hut compound of his maternal grandfather at the base of Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu, Kingdom of Hawaii now in the state of Hawaii. Known as David, he was the second eldest of the seven surviving children who survived infancy and the second of the three surviving sons of first cousins Caesar Kaluaiku Kamakaʻehukai Kahana Keola Kapaʻakea and Analea Keohokālole.

David’s family was aliʻi nui, Hawaiian nobility, and were distantly related to the reigning House of Kamehameha, sharing common descent from Keaweʻīkekahialiʻiokamoku, King of the island of Hawaii and the great-grandfather of Kamehameha I, the first King of the Kingdom of Hawaii. His father Caesar Kapaʻakea was a Hawaiian chief who served in the House of Nobles from 1845 until he died in 1866 and on the King’s Privy Council from 1846 – 1866. David’s mother Analea Keohokālole, who was of a higher rank than her husband, was a Hawaiian chiefess and a member of the House of Nobles from 1841 to 1847, and on the King’s Privy Council 1846 to 1847.

David had six siblings who survived infancy:

David, aged fourteen; Credit – Wikipedia

David was declared eligible to be in the line of succession by the royal decree of King Kamehameha III and therefore attended the Chiefs’ Children’s School, later known as Royal School, in Honolulu, which is still in existence as a public elementary school, the Royal Elementary School, the oldest school on the island of Oahu. His classmates included the other children declared eligible to be in the line of succession including his siblings James Kaliokalani and the future Queen Lydia Liliʻuokalani, and their thirteen royal relations including the future kings Kamehameha IV, Kamehameha V, and Lunalilo. Following his formal schooling, David studied law under Charles Coffin Harris, a New England lawyer who became a politician and judge in the Kingdom of Hawaii. David would appoint Harris as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Hawaii in 1877. David held various military, government, and court positions that provided him with much experience for his future role as King of the Hawaiian Islands.

David’s wife Queen Kapiʻolani; Credit – Wikipedia

On December 19, 1863, David married Kapiʻolani Napelakapuokakaʻe, the daughter of High Chief Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole of Hilo and High Chiefess Kinoiki Kekaulike of Kauaʻi, the daughter of King Kaumualiʻi, the last king of an independent Kauaʻi. Kapiʻolani was the widow of High Chief Bennett Nāmākēhā, the uncle of King Kamehameha IV’s wife Queen Emma, and served as Queen Emma’s lady-in-waiting, and Prince Albert Edward Kamehameha‘s nurse and caretaker, the only child of King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma who died when he was four years old. David and Kapiʻolani’s marriage was childless.

On February 3, 1874, Lunalilo, King of the Hawaiian Islands (born William Charles Lunalilo) died from tuberculosis at the age of 39 without naming an heir. As King Lunalilo had wanted to make Hawaii more democratic, it is thought that he wished to have the people choose their next ruler. The Legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the people’s representatives, would choose the next monarch from the eligible royal family members. Queen Emma, the widow of King Kamehameha IV, claimed that King Lunalilo had wanted her to succeed him, but he died before a formal proclamation could be made. She decided to run in the election against David who had lost to King Lunalilo in a similar election in 1873. While the Hawaiian people supported Emma, it was the legislature that elected the new monarch. They favored David who won the election 39 – 6. David reigned as King Kalākaua and became the first of two monarchs of the Kingdom of Hawaiian Islands from the House of Kalākaua, who were also the last two monarchs of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Upon his accession to the throne, David named his brother William Pitt Leleiohoku II as his heir apparent. When his brother died from rheumatic fever in 1877, David changed the name of his sister Lydia Dominis to Liliuokalani and named her as his heir apparent. She acted as regent during her brother’s absences from the country, and after his death, she became the last monarch of Hawaii.

During David’s reign, the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875, a free trade agreement between the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands and the United States greatly benefitted Hawaii. The treaty gave free access to the United States market for sugar and other products grown in the Kingdom of Hawaii. In return, Hawaii guaranteed the United States that it would not cede or lease any of its land to other foreign powers. The treaty led to large investment by Americans in sugarcane plantations in Hawaii. At a later time, an additional clause was added to the treaty allowing the United States exclusive use of land in the area known as Puʻu Loa, which was later used for the American Pearl Harbor naval base. David’s extravagant expenditures and his plans for a Polynesian confederation gave power to the annexationists who were already working toward a United States takeover of Hawaii, which would happen during the reign of David’s sister Queen Liliuokalani. In 1887, David was pressured to sign a new constitution that made the monarchy little more than a figurehead position.

The hula being danced at David’s 49th birthday celebrations; Credit – Wikipedia

During the earlier reigns of Christian converts, dancing the hula was forbidden and punishable by law. Gradually Hawaiian monarchs began to allow the hula but it was David who brought it back in full force. David encouraged Hawaiians with knowledge of the old songs and chants to participate in events and arranged for musicologists to observe and document the old songs and chants. Called the “Merrie Monarch” for his patronage of the arts and the restoration of many Hawaiian cultural traditions during his reign, David is honored by the Merrie Monarch Festival, an annual week-long cultural festival in Hilo, Hawaii, held the week after Easter.

David (in white slacks) aboard the USS Charleston en route to San Francisco; Credit – Wikipedia

On November 25, 1890, David sailed for California aboard the USS Charleston. The purpose of the trip was uncertain but there were reports that the trip was for his ill health. David arrived in San Francisco, California on December 5, 1890. He suffered a minor stroke in Santa Barbara, California, and was rushed back to San Francisco. Two days before his death, he lapsed into a coma. Kalākaua, King of the Hawaiian Islands, born David Laʻamea Kamanakapuʻu Māhinulani Nālaʻiaʻehuokalani Lumialani Kalākaua died in San Francisco, California on January 20, 1891, aged 54. He had been under the care of US Navy doctors who listed the cause of his death as nephritis, an inflammation of the kidneys.

Funeral Procession; Credit – Wikipedia

News of David’s death did not reach Hawaii until January 29, 1891, when the USS Charleston returned to Hawaii with his remains. His sister Liliuokalani ascended to the throne of the Queen of the Hawaiian Islands the same day. After a state funeral, David was buried in the Royal Mausoleum at Mauna ʻAla on February 15, 1891.

Tomb of David and his wife; Credit – Wikipedia

Due to overcrowding, in 1907, the Territory of Hawaii allocated $20,000 for the construction of a separate underground vault for the Kalākaua family. David’s coffin and the coffins of the Kalākaua family were transferred to the new underground Kalākaua Crypt in a ceremony on June 24, 1910, officiated by his sister, the former Queen Liliuokalani.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2024). Kalākaua. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kal%C4%81kaua
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Royal Mausoleum (Mauna ʻAla). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mausoleum_(Mauna_%CA%BBAla)
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Hawaiian Kingdom. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Kingdom

Lunalilo, King of the Hawaiian Islands

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

The Hawaiian Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, were originally divided into several independent chiefdoms. The Kingdom of Hawaii was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great of the independent island of Hawaii, conquered the independent islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, and unified them under one government and ruled as Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when Kauai and Niihau voluntarily joined the Kingdom of Hawaii. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom: the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.

In 1778, British explorer James Cook visited the islands. This led to increased trade and the introduction of new technologies and ideas. In the mid-19th century, American influence in Hawaii dramatically increased when American merchants, missionaries, and settlers arrived on the islands. Protestant missionaries converted most of the native people to Christianity. Merchants set up sugar plantations and the United States Navy established a base at Pearl Harbor. The newcomers brought diseases that were new to the indigenous people including influenza, measles, smallpox, syphilis, tuberculosis, and whooping cough. At the time of James Cook’s arrival in 1778, the indigenous Hawaiian population is estimated to have been between 250,000 and 800,000. By 1890, the indigenous Hawaiian population declined had to less than 40,000.

In 1893, a group of local businessmen and politicians composed of six non-native Hawaiian Kingdom subjects, five American nationals, one British national, and one German national overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani, her cabinet, and her marshal, and took over the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This led to the 1898 annexation of Hawaii as a United States territory. On August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States.

In 1993, one hundred years after the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown, the United States Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Apology Resolution which “acknowledges that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum”. As a result, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, a grassroots political and cultural campaign to reestablish an autonomous or independent nation or kingdom in Hawaii, was established along with ongoing efforts to redress the indigenous Hawaiian population.

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Lunalilo, King of the Hawaiian Islands; Credit – Wikipedia

Lunalilo, King of the Hawaiian Islands reigned for a little more than a year, from January 8, 1873, until his death on February 3, 1874. Born William Charles Lunalilo (the name William will be used in this article) on January 31, 1835, at the ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu, Oahu, Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands, now in the state of Hawaii, he was the only surviving child of the two children, both sons, of High Chief Charles Kanaʻina and Chiefess Miriam Auhea Kekāuluohi. He was given the name William in honor of King William IV of the United Kingdom. William’s elder brother Davida died in early childhood.

   
William’s parents; Credit – Wikipedia

William’s father Charles Kanaʻina, a great-great-grandson of King Kamehameha I, was an aliʻi, a hereditary noble of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and served on both the Privy Council and the House of Nobles. His mother Miriam Auhea Kekāuluohi was one of the many wives and also a niece of King Kamehameha I. She had also married King Kamehameha II before he converted to Christianity and gave up all but one wife.

Nicknamed Prince Bill, William was declared eligible to be in the line of succession by the royal decree of King Kamehameha III. He attended the Chiefs’ Children’s School, later known as Royal School, in Honolulu, which is still in existence as a public elementary school, the Royal Elementary School, the oldest school on the island of Oahu. William learned both Hawaiian and English. He loved English literature, especially the soliloquies from the plays of William Shakespeare. He was being prepared to assume the Governorship of the island of Oahu.

William as a teenager, circa 1850 – 1852; Credit – Wikipedia

Before 1860, the Kingdom of Hawaii used the British “God Save the King” as its national anthem. In 1860, King Kamehameha IV sponsored a contest for a new national anthem. He wanted a song with Hawaiian lyrics set to the tune of the British anthem. William wrote the winning entry “E Ola Ke Aliʻi Ke Akua” and donated his monetary winnings to the Queen’s Hospital founded by King Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma in Honolulu. It remained the national anthem until it was replaced by Queen Liliʻuokalani’s composition “He Mele Lāhui Hawaiʻi”. See the Hawaiian and English lyrics at Wikipedia: E Ola Ke Aliʻi Ke Akua.

William never married. He was betrothed to marry his cousin Princess Victoria Kamāmalu but her brothers King Kamehameha IV and King Kamehameha V refused to allow her to marry William because their children would outrank the House of Kamehameha in the mana, the supernatural force that permeates the universe. William briefly courted Liliʻuokalani, the future Queen Regnant of Hawaii, but she broke off their relationship on the advice of King Kamehameha IV. During William’s reign as king, it was proposed that he marry Queen Emma, the widow of King Kamehameha IV, but this came to naught due to Queen Emma’s devotion to her late husband.

King Kamehameha V, known by his given name Lot, never married. He named his sister Princess Victoria Kamāmalu as his heir but she died in 1866 and Lot never named another successor. As he lay dying on December 11, 1872, his forty-second birthday, he offered the throne to his cousin Bernice Pauahi Bishop but she refused, and he died an hour later without naming his successor. Because of this, the Legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom chose the next monarch from the eligible royal family members. Lot’s cousin William Charles Lunalilo, a Kamehameha by birth from his mother, became the first elected King of the Hawaiian Kingdom and reigned as Lunalilo, King of the Hawaiian Islands.

Painting of King Lunalilo (William) by Danish painter Eiler Jurgensen, currently hangs at Iolani Palace. Purchased by the Kingdom of Hawaii government in 1882 from the estate of Charles Kana’ina, William’s father; Credit – Wikipedia

On January 9, 1873, William’s investiture ceremony was held at the Kawaiahaʻo Church in Honolulu, then the national church of the Hawaiian Kingdom and the church of the Hawaiian royal family, popularly known as Hawaii’s Westminster Abbey. Because William’s popularity was so great, and because he became king through a democratic process, he became known as “The People’s King”. William wanted to make the Hawaiian government more democratic and to improve the Hawaiian economy. He had many ideas and plans but nothing was accomplished due to his short reign.

Lunalilo Mausoleum on the grounds of Kawaiahaʻo Church in Honolulu, Hawaii; Credit – Wikipedia

William had suffered from tuberculosis since childhood and was an alcoholic which further exacerbated his health. On February 3, 1874, he died from tuberculosis at the age of 39, at Haimoeipo, his private residence in Honolulu. On his deathbed, William requested to be buried on the grounds of the Kawaiahaʻo Church, saying he wanted to be “entombed among my people, rather than the kings and chiefs” at the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii in Honolulu. On November 23, 1875, his coffin was taken from the Royal Mausoleum, where it had rested temporarily awaiting the completion of the Lunalilo Mausoleum, to the completed tomb on the grounds of Kawaiahaʻo Church in Honolulu.

Interior of Lunalilo Mausoleum with William’s tomb in the center and the tomb of his father Charles Kanaʻina on the right; Credit – Wikipedia

Like his predecessor, William died without naming an heir. As William had wanted to make Hawaii more democratic, it is thought that he wished to have the people choose their next ruler. The Legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom, the people’s representatives, would choose the next monarch from the eligible royal family members. Queen Emma, the widow of King Kamehameha IV, claimed that William had wanted her to succeed him, but he died before a formal proclamation could be made. She decided to run in the election against David Kalākaua who had lost to William in a similar election in 1873. While the Hawaiian people supported Emma, it was the legislature that elected the new monarch. They favored David Kalākaua, who won the election 39 – 6 and became the first of two monarchs of the Kingdom of Hawaiian Islands from the House of Kalākaua, who were the last two monarchs of the Kingdom of Hawaii.

Works Cited

  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2024c, February 1). Charles Kanaʻina. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Kana%CA%BBina
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2022, December 29). Kekāuluohi. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kek%C4%81uluohi
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2024). Lunalilo. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunalilo
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023f, December 28). Lunalilo Mausoleum. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunalilo_Mausoleum
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Royal Mausoleum (Mauna ʻAla). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mausoleum_(Mauna_%CA%BBAla)
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Hawaiian Kingdom. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Kingdom

Kamehameha V, King of the Hawaiian Islands

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

The Hawaiian Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, were originally divided into several independent chiefdoms. The Kingdom of Hawaii was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great of the independent island of Hawaii, conquered the independent islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, and unified them under one government and ruled as Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when Kauai and Niihau voluntarily joined the Kingdom of Hawaii. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom: the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.

In 1778, British explorer James Cook visited the islands. This led to increased trade and the introduction of new technologies and ideas. In the mid-19th century, American influence in Hawaii dramatically increased when American merchants, missionaries, and settlers arrived on the islands. Protestant missionaries converted most of the native people to Christianity. Merchants set up sugar plantations and the United States Navy established a base at Pearl Harbor. The newcomers brought diseases that were new to the indigenous people including influenza, measles, smallpox, syphilis, tuberculosis, and whooping cough. At the time of James Cook’s arrival in 1778, the indigenous Hawaiian population is estimated to have been between 250,000 and 800,000. By 1890, the indigenous Hawaiian population declined had to less than 40,000.

In 1893, a group of local businessmen and politicians composed of six non-native Hawaiian Kingdom subjects, five American nationals, one British national, and one German national overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani, her cabinet, and her marshal, and took over the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This led to the 1898 annexation of Hawaii as a United States territory. On August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States.

In 1993, one hundred years after the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown, the United States Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Apology Resolution which “acknowledges that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum”. As a result, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, a grassroots political and cultural campaign to reestablish an autonomous or independent nation or kingdom in Hawaii, was established along with ongoing efforts to redress the indigenous Hawaiian population.

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Kamehameha V, King of the Hawaiian Islands; Credit – Wikipedia

Born on December 11, 1830, in Honolulu on the island of Oahu in the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands, now in the state of Hawaii, Kamehameha V, King of the Hawaiian Islands was the third of the five children and the third of the four sons of  High Chief Mataio Kekūanaōʻa, Royal Governor of Oʻahu, and Princess Elizabeth Kīnaʻu, daughter of Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands and Queen Kalākua Kaheiheimālie.

Kamehameha V had four siblings:

Both parents of Kamehameha IV were converts to Christianity so Kamehameha V was given the name Lot Kapuāiwa and was known as Lot which will be used for the rest of the article. Lot was adopted using the ancient Hawaiian tradition called hānai by Princess Nāhiʻenaʻena, the daughter of King Kamehameha I and Queen Keōpūolani. After Princess Nāhiʻenaʻena died in 1836, Lot was then adopted by his maternal grandmother Queen Kalākua Kaheiheimālie and step-grandfather High Chief Ulumāheihei Hoapili. He was not treated well by his hānai parents and developed a strong dislike for the hānai tradition.

Lot was educated by Congregationalist missionaries at the Chiefs’ Children’s School, later known as Royal School, in Honolulu, which is still in existence as a public elementary school, the Royal Elementary School, the oldest school on the island of Oahu. While he was a student at the Chiefs’ Children’s School, Lot and another student Abigail Maheha had a child, a daughter Keanolani, born in 1847. Although the father was never publicly identified, much circumstantial evidence points to Lot as the father.

Geritt P. Judd and his two royal charges: Prince Lot Kapuāiwa (left) and Prince Alexander Liholiho (right); Credit – Wikipedia

From 1849 to 1852, Lot traveled around the world with his brother Alexander Liholiho ‘Iolanian, the future King Kamehameha IV, and their guardian Gerrit P. Judd, an American physician and missionary who had become a citizen of Hawaii and an advisor and translator to King Kamehameha III. They set sail to San Francisco in September 1849. After they toured California, they continued to Panama, Jamaica, New York City, Washington, D C., and then they crossed the Atlantic Ocean and toured Europe. They met government leaders including American President Zachary Taylor and his Vice President Millard Fillmore, French President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (later Napoleon III, Emperor of the French), Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, and British Foreign Secretary and future Prime Minister Lord Palmerston.  While in the United States, Alexander personally suffered racism, including when he was almost thrown out of his train car after being misidentified as a slave. His experiences with racism in the United States and the puritanical views of American missionaries in Hawaii influenced the anti-American views of Alexander and the Hawaiian royal family.

Upon returning to the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands in 1852, Lot’s uncle King Kamehameha III appointed him to the Privy Council and the House of Nobles where he gained much governmental experience. On December 15, 1854, King Kamehameha III died and Lot’s 20-year-old brother Alexander succeeded him as King Kamehameha IV.

In 1862, Lot was officially added to the line of succession in an amendment to the 1852 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Lot and his heirs, followed by his sister Princess Victoria Kamāmalu and her heirs, would succeed in the case his brother died without any legitimate heirs. When Prince Albert Kamehameha, the only son of King Kamehameha IV, died on August 23, 1862, Lot became the heir to the throne. On November 30, 1863, Lot’s brother, 29-year-old brother King Kamehameha IV, and Lot succeeded him as Kamehameha V, King of the Hawaiian Islands.

Kamehameha V addressing the legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom, circa 1867; Credit – Wikipedia

During Lot’s reign, the 1864 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii was passed. It changed the way Hawaii’s government worked by increasing the power of the king and changing the way the kingdom’s legislature worked. Lot encouraged the revival of some traditional practices by having the laws against Kahunaism repealed. A kahuna was an expert in any field. In 1865, Lot refused to give his assent to a bill that would allow foreign merchants the right to sell liquor directly to native Hawaiians saying: “I will never sign the death warrant of my people.” Alcoholism was one of the many causes of the already declining population of the native Hawaiians.

Travel to the Hawaiian Islands increased during Lot’s reign. The American author Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) came in March 1866 and stayed for four months. He wrote articles sent to the California newspaper the Sacramento Union describing Hawaii. He described Lot: “He was a wise sovereign; he had seen something of the world; he was educated & accomplished, & he tried hard to do well by his people, & succeeded. There was no trivial royal nonsense about him; He dressed plainly, poked about Honolulu, night or day, on his old horse, unattended; he was popular, greatly respected, and even beloved.” In 1869, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom sent her second son Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh on a state visit.

Lot’s sister Princess Victoria Kamāmalu; Credit – Wikipedia

Lot never married. He named his sister Princess Victoria Kamāmalu as his heir, however, neither of her brothers had allowed her to marry. Victoria died in 1866 and Lot never named another successor. As he lay dying on December 11, 1872, his forty-second birthday, he told those who came to visit him, “It is hard to die on my birthday, but God’s will be done.” He offered the throne to his cousin Bernice Pauahi Bishop but she refused, and he died an hour later without naming his successor. Because of this, the Legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom chose the next monarch from the eligible royal family members. Lot’s cousin William Charles Lunalilo, a Kamehameha by birth from his mother, became the first elected King of the Hawaiian Kingdom and reigned as Lunalilo, King of the Hawaiian Islands for only a year before he died.

In the background, the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla, now a chapel; Credit – Wikipedia

Lot was interred in the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla (Fragrant Hills) in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. On November 9, 1887, after the Royal Mausoleum became too crowded, the caskets of the members of the House of Kamehameha were moved to the newly built Kamehameha Tomb, an underground vault, under the Kamehameha Dynasty Tomb. Two additional underground vaults were built over the years. In 1922, the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla was converted to a chapel after the last royal remains were moved to tombs constructed on the grounds.

Kamehameha Dynasty Tomb – Royal Mausoleum, Honolulu, Hawai; Credit – By Daderot. – Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1101293

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2024). Kamehameha IV, King of the Hawaiian Islands. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/kamehameha-iv-king-of-the-hawaiian-islands/
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2024). Kamehameha V. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamehameha_V
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Royal Mausoleum (Mauna ʻAla). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mausoleum_(Mauna_%CA%BBAla)
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Hawaiian Kingdom. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Kingdom

Emma, Queen Consort of the Hawaiian Islands, wife of King Kamehameha IV

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

The Hawaiian Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, were originally divided into several independent chiefdoms. The Kingdom of Hawaii was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great of the independent island of Hawaii, conquered the independent islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, and unified them under one government and ruled as Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when Kauai and Niihau voluntarily joined the Kingdom of Hawaii. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom: the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.

In 1778, British explorer James Cook visited the islands. This led to increased trade and the introduction of new technologies and ideas. In the mid-19th century, American influence in Hawaii dramatically increased when American merchants, missionaries, and settlers arrived on the islands. Protestant missionaries converted most of the native people to Christianity. Merchants set up sugar plantations and the United States Navy established a base at Pearl Harbor. The newcomers brought diseases that were new to the indigenous people including influenza, measles, smallpox, syphilis, tuberculosis, and whooping cough. At the time of James Cook’s arrival in 1778, the indigenous Hawaiian population is estimated to have been between 250,000 and 800,000. By 1890, the indigenous Hawaiian population declined had to less than 40,000.

In 1893, a group of local businessmen and politicians composed of six non-native Hawaiian Kingdom subjects, five American nationals, one British national, and one German national overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani, her cabinet, and her marshal, and took over the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This led to the 1898 annexation of Hawaii as a United States territory. On August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States.

In 1993, one hundred years after the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown, the United States Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Apology Resolution which “acknowledges that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum”. As a result, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, a grassroots political and cultural campaign to reestablish an autonomous or independent nation or kingdom in Hawaii, was established along with ongoing efforts to redress the indigenous Hawaiian population.

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Emma, Queen Consort of the Hawaiian Islands, circa 1880; Credit – Wikipedia

Born on January 2, 1836, in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu, then in the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands, Emma Kalanikaumakaʻamano Kaleleonālani Naʻea Rooke was the only surviving child of the three children of High Chief George Naʻea and High Chiefess Fanny Kekelaokalani Young. Queen Emma is known for having a long-term friendship via letters with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom. The two Queens met in the United Kingdom in 1865.

Emma’s two full siblings died young but she had an elder half-sister from her mother’s marriage/relationship with Henry Coleman Lewis:

Emma’s father George Naʻea was a high chief of the Kingdom of Hawaii and was descended from the high chiefs of the northern area of the island of Hawaii. He served under King Kamehameha III as a member of his Council of Chiefs. Emma’s mother Fanny Kekelaokalani Young was the daughter of High Chiefess Kaʻoanaʻeha, a niece of King Kamehameha I, and the British-born John Young who was an important military advisor to King Kamehameha I during the formation of the Kingdom of Hawaii. John Young had first come to Hawaii in 1789 on an American trading ship and spent the rest of his life in Hawaii.

Emma with her adoptive parents Dr. Thomas Rooke and Grace Kamaʻikuʻi Young in 1853, Credit – Wikipedia

Emma was adopted under the Hawaiian tradition of hānai by her childless maternal aunt, High Chiefess Grace Kamaʻikuʻi Young, and her husband Dr. Thomas Rooke, a British physician – hence Emma’s surname of Rooke. The Rookes built a splendid home, Rooke House, that faced the Nuʻuanu Valley, on the island of Oahu. Rooke House, one of the largest private homes in Honolulu at the time, had a large library and was used for Dr. Rooke’s medical practice and entertaining guests. It was at Rooke House that Emma grew up with elaborate dinners, parties, teas, and receptions attended by important guests including members of the Hawaiian royal family.

Emma was raised as a Christian and was first educated by Congregationalist missionaries at the Chiefs’ Children’s School, later known as the Royal School, in Honolulu, which is still in existence as a public elementary school, the Royal Elementary School, the oldest school on the island of Oahu. It was at this school that Emma met her future husband King Kamehameha IV, known as Alexander. After the Chiefs’ Children’s School ceased to be a boarding school, Emma was educated at home by an English governess, Sarah Rhodes von Pfister. Dr. Rooke had an extensive library and influenced Emma’s interest in reading and books. At the age of twenty, Emma was quite an accomplished young woman. A skilled equestrian, Emma excelled at singing, dancing, and playing the piano.

Emma’s husband, Kamehameha IV, King of the Hawaiian Islands; Credit – Wikipedia

On December 15, 1854, King Kamehameha III died and his 20-year-old nephew Alexander Liholiho ‘Iolanian, succeeded him as King Kamehameha IV. Alexander was the son of High Chief Mataio Kekūanaōʻa, Royal Governor of Oʻahu, and Princess Elizabeth Kīnaʻu, daughter of King Kamehameha I. He had been adopted by his uncle King Kamehameha III who had no surviving sons. His uncle proclaimed Alexander as heir to the throne and raised him as the crown prince. On June 19, 1856, 20-year-old Emma became Queen of the Hawaiian Islands when she married 22-year-old King Kamehameha IV, known as Alexander. Some at the Hawaiian royal court felt Emma’s British descent made her unfit to be the Hawaiian queen and her lineage was not suitable enough to be Alexander’s wife.

Prince Albert Edward Kauikeaouli Leiopapa a Kamehameha, who wanted to be a fireman, in his fireman outfit on May 1, 1862; Credit – Wikipedia

Emma and Alexander had one son, Prince Albert Edward Kauikeaouli Kaleiopapa a Kamehameha, born on May 20, 1858. He was named in honor of Queen Victoria’s eldest son Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII. Alexander had met Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert – he did not meet Queen Victoria because she was about to give birth to her son Prince Arthur – on an around-the-world trip from 1849 to 1852. Queen Victoria agreed to become Albert Edward’s godmother by proxy and sent an elaborate silver christening cup.

The Queen’s Hospital in 1860; Credit – Wikipedia

Emma and Alexander were concerned that foreign diseases like measles, leprosy, and influenza were decimating the native Hawaiian population but the legislature refused to pass a healthcare plan. Emma and Alexander then lobbied businessmen, merchants, and wealthy residents to fund their healthcare plans. The fundraising was very successful and in 1859, The Queen’s Hospital in Honolulu was founded. Today it is known as The Queen’s Medical Center and is the largest private hospital in Hawaii.

Alexander and Emma (left) and Bishop Staley (next to them) on a stained glass window at St. Andrew’s Cathedral; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1860, Emma and Alexander petitioned the Church of England (also known as Anglican, the Episcopal Church in the United States is the same denomination) to help establish the Church of Hawaii. Upon the arrival of Anglican Bishop Thomas Nettleship Staley and two Anglican priests in 1862, the Church of Hawaii became the official royal church. After Alexander’s death, Emma continued their work by raising funds for the construction of St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Honolulu.

Sadly, four-year-old  Prince Albert Edward died on August 27, 1862, at ʻIolani Palace, Honolulu, Oʻahu in Honolulu, possibly from meningitis but at a later time appendicitis was thought to be a more likely possibility. He was temporarily interred in a tomb in front of the palace below a tamarind tree. The mausoleum constructed near the ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu had become crowded and Alexander ordered that a new, larger mausoleum be built.

Alexander blamed himself for the 1862 death of his son Prince Albert Edward and he withdrew from public life. His continuing grief and worsening asthma contributed to his death on November 30, 1863, in Honolulu, Oahu, Kingdom of Hawaii, at the age of twenty-nine. Alexander’s burial was delayed until the west wing of the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla (Fragrant Hills), was completed in January 1864. On February 3, 1864, Alexander’s casket was interred in the completed west wing. Later in the evening, the casket of his son Prince Albert Edward was interred next to his father. Emma was so overcome with grief that she slept in the mausoleum that night.

Queen Emma taken by famous American photographer Matthew Brady on August 1, 1866 while Emma was traveling in the United States. She is wearing the widow’s weeds Queen Victoria mentions in her 1865 journal entry below; Credit – Wikipedia

Queen Emma and Queen Victoria became long-term friends. They exchanged letters and commiserated over the loss of their husbands, the loss of Emma’s son, and the hemophilia of Queen Victoria’s youngest son Prince Leopold who would die from hemophilia complications in 1884, a year before Emma’s death. On her trip to Europe and the United States in 1865 – 1866, Emma met Queen Victoria on September 9, 1865, and again on November 27, 1865, when she spent a night at Windsor Castle. Queen Victoria wrote about their first meeting in her journal:

After luncheon, I received Queen Emma, the widowed Queen of the Sandwich Islands or Hawaii. Met her in the Corridor & nothing could be nicer or more dignified than her manner. She is dark, but not more so than an Indian, with fine feathers [features?] & splendid soft eyes. She was dressed in just the same widow’s weeds as I wear. I took her into the White Drawing room, where I asked her to sit down next to me on the sofa. She was moved when I spoke to her of her great misfortune in losing her only child.

Emma with Anglican church clergy in Oxford, England 1866; Credit –  Wikipedia

From 1865 – 1866, Emma traveled to Europe, the United States, and Canada for her health and to raise funds for the growing Anglican Church of Hawaii. She visited London twice, spent the winter in the French Riviera, and visited Paris, Italy, Germany, and Ireland where she departed for the United States. While in Europe, Emma met with Queen Victoria, as already noted, and  Napoleon III, Emperor of the French and his wife Empress Eugénie, Grand Duke Friedrich I of Baden and his wife Grand Duchess Luise, along with other royalty, government officials and Anglican clergy.

On August 14, 1866, American President Andrew Johnson and First Lady Eliza McCardle Johnson gave a reception for Emma at the White House. Secretary of State William Seward hosted a state dinner for Emma at his home on August 18, 1866. The following evening, she attended a private dinner at the White House with President Andrew Johnson, his family, and William Seward. While in Washington, Emma also met with American indigenous representatives including the Choctaw Chief Peter Pitchlynn and delegations of Chickasaw and Cherokee.

While in Montreal, Canada, Emma received a telegram informing her that her adoptive mother and maternal aunt Grace Kamaʻikuʻi Young Rooke had died on July 26, 1866. This prompted her to end her trip and return to Hawaii. On her return trip, she traveled from New York to Panama and then to California. In San Francisco, the United States government dispatched the USS Vanderbilt to bring her back to Honolulu, where she arrived on October 22, 1866.

In 1874, after a reign of only one year, Lunalilo, King of the Hawaiian Islands died without naming an heir. Because of this, the Legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom would choose the next monarch from the eligible royal family members. Emma claimed that King Lunalilo had wanted her to succeed him, but died before a formal proclamation could be made. She decided to run in the election against David Kalākaua who had lost to Lunalilo in a similar election in 1873.

Many Hawaiians supported Emma not only because her husband was a member of the Kamehameha Dynasty, but because Emma was also closer in descent to Hawaii’s first king, Kamehameha I (the Great) than David Kalākaua. While the Hawaiian people supported Emma, it was the legislature that elected the new monarch. They favored Kalākaua, who won the election 39 – 6. News of Emma’s defeat caused a large riot called, the Honolulu Courthouse riot, in which thirteen legislators who voted for Kalākaua were severely injured, with one eventually dying of his injuries. To control the riot, American and British troops stationed on warships in Honolulu Harbor were landed with the permission of the Hawaiian government, and the rioters were arrested. Emma had no part in the riot, but the opinion was that she supported the actions of the rioters. David Kalākaua took his oath on February 13, 1874, and became Kalākaua, King of the Hawaiian Islands, becoming the first of the last two Hawaiian monarchs.

After the election, Emma retired from public life. She would eventually recognize Kalākaua as the rightful king but she never again spoke to his wife Queen Kapiʻolani. In 1883, Emma had the first of several small strokes. On April 25, 1885, Emma died from a series of strokes, aged 49, in Honolulu.

Queen Emma lying in state at the Kawaiahaʻo Church; Credit – Wikipedia

Emma lay in state at her home but one of her friends who had settled in Hawaii, Alexander Cartwright, a founding member of the New York Knickerbockers Base Ball Club in the 1840s and a future member of the Baseball Hall of Fame, moved Emma’s casket to Kawaiahaʻo Church because he thought her house was not large enough for her funeral. Kawaiahaʻo Church was a Congregational church and Emma was a member of the Anglican Church of Hawaii. The members of the Kawaiahaʻo Church were none too happy that Emma’s coffin lay in state at their church. However, Alfred Willis, the Anglican Bishop of Honolulu conducted Emma’s funeral service at the Congregational church using the Anglican liturgy. Emma was interred in the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla (Fragrant Hills), next to her husband Alexander (King Kamehameha IV) and her son Prince Albert Edward.

In the background, the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla, now a chapel; Credit – Wikipedia

On November 9, 1887, after the Royal Mausoleum became too crowded, the caskets of the members of the House of Kamehameha were moved to the newly built Kamehameha Tomb, an underground vault, under the Kamehameha Dynasty Tomb. Two additional underground vaults were built over the years. In 1922, the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla was converted to a chapel after the last royal remains were moved to tombs constructed on the grounds.

Kamehameha Dynasty Tomb – Royal Mausoleum, Honolulu, Hawai; Credit – By Daderot. – Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1101293

Works Cited

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2024). Kamehameha IV, King of the Hawaiian Islands. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/kamehameha-iv-king-of-the-hawaiian-islands/
  • The New York Times/Obituary – Queen Emma. Wikisource, The Free Online Library. (n.d.). https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_New_York_Times/Obituary_-_Queen_Emma
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Albert Kamehameha. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Kamehameha
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Fanny Kekelaokalani. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fanny_Kekelaokalani
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2024). George Naea. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Naea
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2024). Kamehameha IV. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamehameha_IV
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Queen Emma of Hawaii. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Emma_of_Hawaii
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Royal Mausoleum (Mauna ʻAla). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mausoleum_(Mauna_%CA%BBAla)
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Hawaiian Kingdom. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Kingdom

Kamehameha IV, King of the Hawaiian Islands

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

The Hawaiian Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, were originally divided into several independent chiefdoms. The Kingdom of Hawaii was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great of the independent island of Hawaii, conquered the independent islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, and unified them under one government and ruled as Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when Kauai and Niihau voluntarily joined the Kingdom of Hawaii. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom: the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.

In 1778, British explorer James Cook visited the islands. This led to increased trade and the introduction of new technologies and ideas. In the mid-19th century, American influence in Hawaii dramatically increased when American merchants, missionaries, and settlers arrived on the islands. Protestant missionaries converted most of the native people to Christianity. Merchants set up sugar plantations and the United States Navy established a base at Pearl Harbor. The newcomers brought diseases that were new to the indigenous people including influenza, measles, smallpox, syphilis, tuberculosis, and whooping cough. At the time of James Cook’s arrival in 1778, the indigenous Hawaiian population is estimated to have been between 250,000 and 800,000. By 1890, the indigenous Hawaiian population declined had to less than 40,000.

In 1893, a group of local businessmen and politicians composed of six non-native Hawaiian Kingdom subjects, five American nationals, one British national, and one German national overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani, her cabinet, and her marshal, and took over the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This led to the 1898 annexation of Hawaii as a United States territory. On August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States.

In 1993, one hundred years after the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown, the United States Congress passed and President Bill Clinton signed the Apology Resolution which “acknowledges that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum”. As a result, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, a grassroots political and cultural campaign to reestablish an autonomous or independent nation or kingdom in Hawaii, was established along with ongoing efforts to redress the indigenous Hawaiian population.

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Kamehameha IV, King of the Hawaiian Islands; Credit – Wikipedia

Kamehameha IV, King of the Hawaiian Islands was born on February 9, 1834, in Honolulu on the island of Oahu in the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands. He was the fourth of the five children and the fourth of the four sons of High Chief Mataio Kekūanaōʻa, Royal Governor of Oʻahu, and Princess Elizabeth Kīnaʻu, daughter of Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands and Kalākua Kaheiheimālie.

Kamehameha IV had four siblings:

Both parents of Kamehameha IV were converts to Christianity and so Kamehameha IV was given the name Alekanetero, anglicized as Alexander. As a toddler, Alexander Liholiho ‘Iolanian, his full name, (Alexander will be used for the rest of the article) was adopted by his uncle King Kamehameha III who had no surviving sons. His uncle proclaimed Alexander as heir to the throne and raised him as the crown prince. While King Kamehameha III had a partial Christian upbringing and was torn between Christian guidelines and his desire to honor the old traditions, his nephew Alexander was raised as a Christian.

Alexander was educated by Congregationalist missionaries at the Chiefs’ Children’s School, later known as Royal School, in Honolulu, which is still in existence as a public elementary school, the Royal Elementary School, the oldest school on the island of Oahu. Alexander learned English and French, played the flute and the piano, and enjoyed singing, acting, and cricket. In 1848, he left the school to focus on studying law.

Geritt P. Judd and his two royal charges: Prince Lot Kapuāiwa (left) and Prince Alexander Liholiho (right); Credit – Wikipedia

From 1849 to 1852, Alexander traveled around the world with his brother Lot Kapuāiwa, the future King Kamehameha V, and their guardian Gerrit P. Judd, an American physician and missionary who had become a citizen of Hawaii and an advisor and translator to King Kamehameha III. They set sail to San Francisco in September 1849. After they toured California, they continued to Panama, Jamaica, New York City, Washington, D C., and then they crossed the Atlantic Ocean and toured Europe. They met government leaders including American President Zachary Taylor and his Vice President Millard Fillmore, French President Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte (later Napoleon III, Emperor of the French), Prince Albert (husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom – who did not meet Alexander because she was about to give birth to her son Prince Arthur), and British Foreign Secretary and future Prime Minister Lord Palmerston.  While in the United States, Alexander personally suffered racism, including when he was almost thrown out of his train car after being misidentified as a slave. His experiences with racism in the United States and the puritanical views of American missionaries in Hawaii influenced the anti-American views of Alexander and the Hawaiian royal family.

Upon returning to the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands in 1852, Alexander’s uncle King Kamehameha III appointed him to the Privy Council and the House of Nobles where he gained much governmental experience. On December 15, 1854, King Kamehameha III died and 20-year-old Alexander succeeded him as King Kamehameha IV.

Alexander and his wife Emma; Credit – Wikipedia

On June 19, 1856, Alexander married 20-year-old Emma Rooke, whom Alexander had met at the Chiefs’ Children’s School. Emma’s father was High Chief George Naʻea and her mother was High Chiefess Fanny Kekelaokalani Young. Emma’s maternal grandfather was the British-born John Young who was an important military advisor to King Kamehameha I during the formation of the Kingdom of Hawaii. John Young had first come to Hawaii in 1789 on an American trading ship and spent the rest of his life in Hawaii. Some at the Hawaiian royal court felt Emma’s British descent made her unfit to be the Hawaiian queen and her lineage was not suitable enough to be Alexander’s wife.

Prince Albert Edward Kauikeaouli Leiopapa a Kamehameha, who wanted to be a fireman, in his fireman outfit on May 1, 1862; Credit – Wikipedia

Alexander and Emma had one son, Prince Albert Edward Kauikeaouli Kaleiopapa a Kamehameha, born on May 20, 1858. He was named in honor of Queen Victoria’s eldest son Albert Edward, Prince of Wales, the future King Edward VII. Queen Victoria agreed to become Albert Edward’s godmother by proxy and sent an elaborate silver christening cup. Sadly, four-year-old Albert Edward died on August 27, 1862, at ʻIolani Palace, Honolulu, Oʻahu in Honolulu, possibly from meningitis but at a later time appendicitis was thought to be a more likely possibility. He was temporarily interred in a tomb in front of the palace below a tamarind tree. The mausoleum constructed for King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu near the ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu had become crowded and Alexander ordered that a new, larger mausoleum be built.

Alexander worried about the growing American population in the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands and was concerned about the pressures that they could exert. He particularly worried about the sugar producers because they were pushing for the United States to annex the Hawaiian Islands so that there would be free trade. Alexander strongly felt that annexation would mean the end of the monarchy and the Hawaiian people. His concerns turned out to be prophetic in 1898 when Hawaii was annexed as a United States territory.

Alexander and Emma (left) and Bishop Staley (next to them) on a stained glass window at St. Andrew’s Cathedral; Credit – Wikipedia

In 1860, Alexander and Emma petitioned the Church of England England (also known as Anglican, the Episcopal Church in the United States is the same denomination) to help establish the Church of Hawaii. Upon the arrival of Anglican Bishop Thomas Nettleship Staley and two Anglican priests in 1862, the Church of Hawaii became the official royal church. After Alexander’s death, Emma continued their work by raising funds for the construction of St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Honolulu.

The Queen’s Hospital in 1860; Credit – Wikipedia

Alexander and Emma were concerned that foreign diseases like measles, leprosy, and influenza were decimating the native Hawaiian population but the legislature refused to pass a healthcare plan. Alexander and Emma then lobbied businessmen, merchants, and wealthy residents to fund their healthcare plans. The fundraising was very successful and in 1859, The Queen’s Hospital in Honolulu was founded. Today it is known as The Queen’s Medical Center and is the largest private hospital in Hawaiʻi.

Alexander blamed himself for the 1862 death of his son Prince Albert Edward and he withdrew from public life. His continuing grief and worsening asthma contributed to his death on November 30, 1863, in Honolulu, Oahu, Kingdom of Hawaii, at the age of twenty-nine. Bishop Thomas Nettleship Staley presided over the funeral service.

In the background, the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla, now a chapel; Credit – Wikipedia

Alexander’s burial was delayed until the west wing of the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla (Fragrant Hills), was completed in January 1864. On February 3, 1864, Alexander’s casket was interred in the completed west wing. Later in the evening, the casket of his son Prince Albert Edward was interred next to his father. On October 30, 1865, the remains of past deceased royals were transferred in a torchlit ceremony at night to the new Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla (Fragrant Hills). On November 9, 1887, after the Royal Mausoleum became too crowded, the caskets of the members of the House of Kamehameha were moved to the newly built Kamehameha Tomb, an underground vault, under the Kamehameha Dynasty Tomb. Two additional underground vaults were built over the years. In 1922, the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla was converted to a chapel after the last royal remains were moved to tombs constructed on the grounds.

Kamehameha Dynasty Tomb – Royal Mausoleum, Honolulu, Hawai; Credit – By Daderot. – Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1101293

Queen Emma remained active in Hawaiian politics. With the end of the House of Kamehameha in 1874, Queen Emma ran unsuccessfully to become the Kingdom’s ruling monarch. She lost to David Kalākaua who would establish a dynasty of his own, the last to rule Hawaii. Queen Emma survived her husband by twenty-two years, dying in 1885 at the age of 49.

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Albert Kamehameha. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Kamehameha
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2024). Kamehameha IV. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamehameha_IV
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Kekūanaōʻa. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kek%C5%ABana%C5%8D%CA%BBa
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Kīnaʻu. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C4%ABna%CA%BBu
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Queen Emma of Hawaii. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Emma_of_Hawaii
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Royal Mausoleum (Mauna ʻAla). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mausoleum_(Mauna_%CA%BBAla)
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Hawaiian Kingdom. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Kingdom

Kalama, Queen Consort of the Hawaiian Islands, wife of King Kamehameha III

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

The Hawaiian Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, were originally divided into several independent chiefdoms. The Kingdom of Hawaii was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great of the independent island of Hawaii, conquered the independent islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, and unified them under one government and ruled as Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when Kauai and Niihau voluntarily joined the Kingdom of Hawaii. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom: the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.

In 1778, British explorer James Cook visited the islands. This led to increased trade and the introduction of new technologies and ideas. In the mid-19th century, American influence in Hawaii dramatically increased when American merchants, missionaries, and settlers arrived on the islands. Protestant missionaries converted most of the native people to Christianity. Merchants set up sugar plantations and the United States Navy established a base at Pearl Harbor. The newcomers brought diseases that were new to the indigenous people including influenza, measles, smallpox, syphilis, tuberculosis, and whooping cough. At the time of James Cook’s arrival in 1778, the indigenous Hawaiian population is estimated to have been between 250,000 and 800,000. By 1890, the indigenous Hawaiian population declined had to less than 40,000.

In 1893, a group of local businessmen and politicians composed of six non-native Hawaiian Kingdom subjects, five American nationals, one British national, and one German national overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani, her cabinet, and her marshal, and took over the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This led to the 1898 annexation of Hawaii as a United States territory. On August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States.

In 1993, one hundred years after the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown, the United States Congress passed, and President Bill Clinton signed the Apology Resolution which “acknowledges that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum”. As a result, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, a grassroots political and cultural campaign to reestablish an autonomous or independent nation or kingdom in Hawaii, was established along with ongoing efforts to redress the indigenous Hawaiian population.

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Queen Kalama; Credit – Wikipedia

Kalama Hakaleleponi Kapakuhaili was the only wife of King Kamehameha III of the Hawaiian Islands, son of King Kamehameha I and brother of King Kamehameha II. King Kamehameha III was the first Hawaiian king not to practice polygamy. Born March 17, 1817, in Kailua, on the island of Oahu, Kalama was the only child of Naihe Kukui Kapihe and Chiefess Iʻahuʻula, the younger sister of Charles Kanaʻina, who served on both the Privy Counsel as an advisor to the Kings of the Hawaiian Islands and in the House of Nobles. Kalama’s father was the Honolulu harbor master and admiral of the Hawaiian royal fleet. He accompanied King Kamehameha II on his trip to London, where Kamehameha II and his favorite wife Kamāmalu both died from measles. Kalama’s father Naihe Kukui Kapihe did not return to Hawaii either. He accompanied the coffins of the late King and Queen as they traveled back to Hawaii on the British Royal Navy frigate HMS Blonde but he died on the voyage and was buried at sea.

King Kamehameha III reigned during the transition of the traditional Hawaiian practices to Christianity. He had a partial Christian upbringing and was torn between Christian guidelines and his desire to honor the old traditions. His brother Kamehameha II and his favorite wife Kamāmalu were half-siblings and Kamehameha II was also closely related to his four other wives. Kamehameha III and many of the traditional chiefs wanted a marriage between the king and his sister Princess Nāhienaena but the marriage was opposed by the missionaries because they considered it incest. Kamanele, the daughter of John Adams Kuakini, the Royal Governor of Hawaii Island and Oahu, was proposed because of her suitability in age, rank, and education and because the family had converted to Christianity. However, Kamanele died in 1834 before the wedding took place. Kamehameha III then chose to marry Kalama. On February 14, 1837, in a Christian ceremony, Kamehameha III and Kalama were married.

King Kamehameha III and his wife Queen Kalama; Credit – Wikipedia

Kamehameha III and Kalama had two sons, but they both died in infancy and both were given the same name:

  • Keaweaweʻulaokalani I (born and died 1839)
  • Keaweaweʻulaokalani II (born and died 1842)

King Kamehameha III and Queen Kalama with Albert Kūnuiākea; Credit – Wikipedia

Kamehameha III and Kalama adopted Albert Kūnuiākea, the son of Kamehameha III and his mistress Jane Lahilahi, a Hawaiian high chiefess. They also adopted Alexander Liholiho, later King Kamehameha IV, whose mother Princess Kīnaʻu, also known as also known as Elizabeth Kīnaʻu, was a daughter of Kamehameha I and a half-sister of Kamehameha III. Therefore, Alexander Liholiho was Kamehameha III’s nephew.

Hawaiian Royal Family: King Kamehameha III (center) and his wife, Queen Kalama (left); the future King Kamehameha IV (left rear), the future King Kamehameha V (right rear) and their sister Victoria Kamāmalu (right), circa 1853; Credit – Wikipedia

On December 15, 1854, at the ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu, Kamehameha III, King of the Hawaiian Islands suddenly died, aged 40, after a brief illness, possibly related to a stroke. He was succeeded by his nephew and adopted son Alexander Liholiho, who was styled as King Kamehameha IV.

Portrait of Queen Kalama by John Mix Stanley which hangs in the Grand Hall of Iolani Palace; Credit – Wikipedia

Kalama outlived both her husband Kamehameha III and his nephew Kamehameha IV, and was known as the Queen Dowager. In 1869, during the reign of Kamehameha V, she welcomed Queen Victoria’s son Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh on his visit to the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands. Meeting the prince as he disembarked his ship, she accompanied him in her state carriage with the drivers wearing royal feather shoulder capes, and the footmen dressed in royal fashion. Kalama skillfully managed her property and, at the time of her death, she owned more than 22,000 acres on the island of Oahu. In her will, her maternal uncle Charles Kanaʻina was declared the heir to her vast properties.

In the background, the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla, now a chapel; Credit – Wikipedia

Kamala, aged 53, died during the reign of Kamehameha V, on September 20, 1870, in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu. She was buried at Mauna ʻAla (Fragrant Hills), the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii in Honolulu, Oahu.

Kamehameha Dynasty Tomb – Royal Mausoleum, Honolulu, Hawai; Credit – By Daderot. Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1101293

On November 9, 1887, after the Royal Mausoleum became too crowded, the caskets of the members of the House of Kamehameha were moved to the newly built Kamehameha Tomb, an underground vault, under the Kamehameha Dynasty Tomb. Two additional underground vaults were built over the years. In 1922, the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla was converted to a chapel after the last royal remains were moved to tombs constructed on the grounds.

Inscriptions of Queen Consorts of Hawaii on the Kamehameha Dynasty Tomb; Credit – www.findagrave.com

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2024). Kamehameha III, King of the Hawaiian Islands. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/kamehameha-iii-king-of-the-hawaiian-islands/
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Kalama. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalama
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2024). Kalama. Wikipedia (Spanish). https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalama
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2022). Naihekukui. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naihekukui
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Royal Mausoleum (Mauna ʻAla). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mausoleum_(Mauna_%CA%BBAla)
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Hawaiian Kingdom. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Kingdom

Kamehameha III, King of the Hawaiian Islands

by Susan Flantzer
© Unofficial Royalty 2024

The Hawaiian Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, were originally divided into several independent chiefdoms. The Kingdom of Hawaii was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great of the independent island of Hawaii, conquered the independent islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Lanai, and unified them under one government and ruled as Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when Kauai and Niihau voluntarily joined the Kingdom of Hawaii. Two major dynastic families ruled the kingdom: the House of Kamehameha and the House of Kalākaua.

In 1778, British explorer James Cook visited the islands. This led to increased trade and the introduction of new technologies and ideas. In the mid-19th century, American influence in Hawaii dramatically increased when American merchants, missionaries, and settlers arrived on the islands. Protestant missionaries converted most of the native people to Christianity. Merchants set up sugar plantations and the United States Navy established a base at Pearl Harbor. The newcomers brought diseases that were new to the indigenous people including influenza, measles, smallpox, syphilis, tuberculosis, and whooping cough. At the time of James Cook’s arrival in 1778, the indigenous Hawaiian population is estimated to have been between 250,000 and 800,000. By 1890, the indigenous Hawaiian population declined had to less than 40,000.

In 1893, a group of local businessmen and politicians composed of six non-native Hawaiian Kingdom subjects, five American nationals, one British national, and one German national overthrew Queen Liliʻuokalani, her cabinet, and her marshal, and took over the government of the Kingdom of Hawaii. This led to the 1898 annexation of Hawaii as a United States territory. On August 21, 1959, Hawaii became the 50th state of the United States.

In 1993, one hundred years after the Hawaiian monarchy was overthrown, the United States Congress passed, and President Bill Clinton signed the Apology Resolution which “acknowledges that the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii occurred with the active participation of agents and citizens of the United States and further acknowledges that the Native Hawaiian people never directly relinquished to the United States their claims to their inherent sovereignty as a people over their national lands, either through the Kingdom of Hawaii or through a plebiscite or referendum”. As a result, the Hawaiian sovereignty movement, a grassroots political and cultural campaign to reestablish an autonomous or independent nation or kingdom in Hawaii, was established along with ongoing efforts to redress the indigenous Hawaiian population.

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King Kamehameha III; circa 1853; Credit – Wikipedia

Kamehameha III, King of the Hawaiian Islands reigned from 1825 to 1854. He was the longest-reigning monarch of the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands, reigning ruling for 29 years and 192 days. Born Kauikeaouli on March 17, 1814, in Keauhou Bay, on the island of Hawaiʻi in the Kingdom of Hawaii, he was the second of the three children and the younger of the two sons of Kamehameha I the Great, King of the Hawaiian Islands and his chief wife Queen Keōpūolani. King Kamehameha I had many wives and many children. The exact number is debated because documents that recorded the names of his wives were destroyed. While he had many wives and children, only his children from his highest-ranking wife Keōpūolani succeeded him to the throne.

Kamehameha III had two full siblings:

  • Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands (1797 – 1824), the last Hawaiian king to practice polygamy, had five wives but none of the marriages produced children:
    • Kamāmalu (circa 1802 – 1824), Kamehameha II’s favorite wife, his half-sister
    • Kīnaʻu (circa 1805 – 1839), Kamehameha II’s half-sister
    • Kekāuluohi (1794 – 1845), Kamehameha II’s cousin
    • Pauahi (circa 1804–1826), often referred to as Kalanipauahi, Kamehameha II’s niece
    • Kekauʻōnohi (circa 1805 – 1851), Kamehameha II’s niece
  • Princess Nāhienaena (1815 – 1836), married William Pitt Leleiohoku I, had one child who died at birth, Nāhienaena died three and half months after giving birth

Kamehameha III’s brother and predecessor Kamehameha II and his favorite wife and half-sister Kamāmalu visited Great Britain in 1824. While there, members of the Hawaiian entourage caught measles. They had no natural immunity because the people of the Hawaiian Islands had lived in isolation until their contact with Europeans. Twenty-one-year-old Queen Kamāmalu died on July 8, 1824, and twenty-six-year-old King Kamehameha II died six days later.

10-year-old Kamehameha III, King of the Hawaiian Islands, 1825; Credit – Wikipedia

Ten-year-old Kamehameha III succeeded his brother as King of the Hawaiian Islands, although the news of Kamehameha II’s death did not reach Hawaii until 1825. Queen Kaʻahumanu, Kamehameha I’s favorite wife, had been created Kuhina Nui, a role similar to a co-regent or modern-day prime minister, by the council of advisors. She ruled as co-regent during the reigns of both Kamehameha II and his brother and successor Kamehameha III, until she died in 1832.

Queen Kaʻahumanu, Kamehameha III’s his co-regent; Credit – Wikipedia

In April 1824, Queen Kaʻahumanu publicly acknowledged her conversion to Christianity and encouraged native Hawaiians to also convert. With the introduction of Christianity, Hawaiians were encouraged to take British or American names. The young Kamehameha III, who had a partial Christian upbringing, was torn between Queen Kaʻahumanu’s Puritan Christian guidelines and his desire to honor the old traditions. One of the old traditions was the marriages between closely related members of the Hawaiian royal family to preserve pure bloodlines. His brother Kamehameha II and his favorite wife Kamāmalu were half-siblings and Kamehameha II was also closely related to his four other wives. Kamehameha III and many of the traditional chiefs wanted a marriage between the king and his sister Nāhienaena but the marriage was opposed by the missionaries because they considered it incest.

Kamanele, the daughter of John Adams Kuakini, the Royal Governor of Hawaiʻi Island and Oʻahu, was proposed because of her suitability in age, rank, and education. In addition, the family of John Adams Kuakini had converted to Christianity. With the introduction of Christianity, Hawaiians were encouraged to take British or American names, hence the addition of John Adams to the Governor’s name. However, Kamanele died in 1834 before the wedding took place.

King Kamehameha III and his wife Queen Kalama; Credit – Wikipedia

Kamehameha III chose to marry Kalama Hakaleleponi Kapakuhaili, the only child of High Chief Naihekukui, who was commander of the native Hawaiian fleet at Honolulu. On February 14, 1837, in a Christian ceremony, Kamehameha III married Kalama.

Kamehameha III and Kalama had two sons, but they both died in infancy and both were given the same name:

  • Keaweaweʻulaokalani I (born and died 1839)
  • Keaweaweʻulaokalani II (born and died 1842)

King Kamehameha III and Queen Kalama with Albert Kūnuiākea; Credit – Wikipedia

Kamehameha III and his mistress Jane Lahilahi, a Hawaiian high chiefess and a daughter of John Young Olohana, a royal advisor of Kamehameha I, had twin illegitimate sons:

  • Kīwalaʻō (born and died 1851)
  • Albert Kūnuiākea (1851 – 1902), adopted by Kamehameha III and Queen Kalama, became a Hawaiian politician, unmarried

Kamehameha III and Kalama also adopted Alexander Liholiho, later King Kamehameha IV, whose mother Princess Kīnaʻu, also known as also known as Elizabeth Kīnaʻu, was a daughter of Kamehameha I and a half-sister of Kamehameha III. Therefore, Alexander Liholiho was Kamehameha III’s nephew.

Hawaiian Royal Family: King Kamehameha III (center) and his wife, Queen Kalama (left); the future King Kamehameha IV (left rear), the future King Kamehameha V (right rear) and their sister Victoria Kamāmalu (right), circa 1853; Credit – Wikipedia

During his reign, Kamehameha III’s goal was a careful balancing of modernization by adopting Western ways while keeping his nation intact. The Kingdon of the Hawaiian Islands changed from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy based on the Constitution of 1840 and the Constitution of 1852. The Legislature of the Hawaiian Islands replaced the traditional Council of Chiefs. The chiefs served in the House of Nobles, modeled on the British House of Lords. The cabinet consisted of a Privy Council and five powerful government ministers.

In 1850, Kamehameha III moved the capital of the Kingdom of Hawaii from Lahaina on Maui to Honolulu on Oahu. Kamehameha III and the monarchs who followed him transformed Honolulu into a modern capital, erecting buildings such as St. Andrew’s Cathedral, ʻIolani Palace, and Aliʻiōlani Hale, the former seat of government of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and the Republic of Hawaiʻi, now the home of the Hawaii State Supreme Court. Honolulu became the islands’ center of commerce, with descendants of American missionaries establishing major businesses downtown.

On December 15, 1854, at the ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu, Kamehameha III, King of the Hawaiian Islands suddenly died, aged 40, after a brief illness, possibly related to a stroke. He was succeeded by his nephew and adopted son Alexander Liholiho, who was styled as King Kamehameha IV.

In the background, the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla, now a chapel; Credit – Wikipedia

King Kamehameha III was originally buried in the Western-style mausoleum built for his brother and predecessor King Kamehameha II and his wife Queen Kamāmalu near the ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu. The mausoleum was a small house made of coral blocks with a thatched roof. Over time, as more coffins were added, the small vault became crowded. In 1863, construction began on Mauna ʻAla (Fragrant Hills), the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii in Honolulu. On October 30, 1865, the remains of past deceased royals were transferred in a torchlit ceremony at night to the new mausoleum. On November 9, 1887, after the Royal Mausoleum became too crowded, the caskets of the members of the House of Kamehameha were moved to the newly built Kamehameha Tomb, an underground vault, under the Kamehameha Dynasty Tomb. Two additional underground vaults were built over the years. In 1922, the Royal Mausoleum, Mauna ʻAla was converted to a chapel after the last royal remains were moved to tombs constructed on the grounds.

Kamehameha Dynasty Tomb – Royal Mausoleum, Honolulu, Hawai; Credit – By Daderot. – Self-photographed, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1101293

This article is the intellectual property of Unofficial Royalty and is NOT TO BE COPIED, EDITED, OR POSTED IN ANY FORM ON ANOTHER WEBSITE under any circumstances. It is permissible to use a link that directs to Unofficial Royalty.

Works Cited

  • Flantzer, Susan. (2024). Kamehameha I The Great, King of the Hawaiian Islands. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/kamehameha-i-the-great-king-of-the-hawaiian-islands/
  • Flantzer, Susan. (2024). Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/kamehameha-ii-king-of-the-hawaiian-islands/
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Kalama. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalama
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2024). Kamehameha III. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamehameha_III
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Royal Mausoleum (Mauna ʻAla). Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Mausoleum_(Mauna_%CA%BBAla)
  • Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Hawaiian Kingdom. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Kingdom