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.

• Unofficial Royalty Index: Kingdom of Hawaii Index

********************

Kamāmalu was the favorite of the five wives of Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands, and was Queen Consort from 1819 – 1824, until her death and the death of her husband from measles. Born circa 1802 in Kawaihae, Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands, she was the eldest daughter of Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands and one of his wives, Queen Kalākua Kaheiheimālie. 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 Queen Keōpūolani succeeded him to the throne.

Kamāmalu had one half-sister from her mother’s first marriage to Prince Kalaʻimamahu, Chief Priest of ʻIo and Kāne, and a half-brother of King Kamehameha I:

Kekāuluohi (1794 – 1845), married (1) King Kamehameha I, no children (2) King Kamehameha II, no children (3) Charles Kanaʻina, had two sons, only one survived childhood, William Charles Lunalilo who reigned as King Lunalilo of the Hawaiian Islands from his election on January 8, 1873, until his death a year later

Kamāmalu had three full siblings from her mother’s second marriage to King Kamehameha I:

• Prince Liholiho-i-Kaiwi-o-Kamehameha (born 1795), died in infancy
• Prince Kamehameha Kapauaiwa (born circa 1801), died in infancy
• Princess Kīnaʻu (born circa 1805 – 1839), also known as Elizabeth Kīnaʻu, married (1) her half-brother King Kamehameha II, no children (2) Kahalaiʻa Luanuʻu, a grandson of King Kamehameha I, no children (3) Mataio Kekūanaōʻa, governor of the island of Oʻahu, had four sons and one daughter including King Kamehameha IV and King Kamehameha V

Kamāmalu was one of the five wives of King Kamehameha II, the last Hawaiian king to practice polygamy. She was betrothed to her half-brother Kamehameha II from birth and they were married when she was twelve and he was about seventeen. Kamehameha II had no children with any of his five wives:

• 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 often referred to as Kalanipauahi, Kamehameha II’s niece
• Kekauʻōnohi (circa 1805 – 1851), Kamehameha II’s niece

On May 14, 1819, Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands died and his 22-year-old son Kamehameha II became King of the Hawaiian Islands and Kamāmalu became Queen Consort.

On April 16, 1822, English missionary William Ellis arrived in the Hawaiian Islands with a gift from King George IV of Great Britain, the Prince Regent, a schooner with six guns, to add to the Kingdom of Hawaiian Island’s fleet of ships. Kamehameha II wanted to travel to Great Britain to thank King George IV and to encourage closer diplomatic ties between their two kingdoms. All Kamehameha II’s advisors, including his mother Keōpūolani and his co-regent Kaʻahumanu, were opposed to the trip. After the death of his mother on September 16, 1823, Kamehameha II was determined to travel to Great Britain.

King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu arrived in Great Britain on May 17, 1824. Kamāmalu attracted much attention for her clothing – many society women asked their hatmakers to make turbans like the ones Kamāmalu wore – and because she was strikingly beautiful and six and a half feet tall. Kamehameha II and Kamāmalu toured London, visiting Westminster Abbey but Kamehameha II refused to enter because he did not want to desecrate the British royal burial place “with his presence or his feet stepping in that area.” The royal couple attended the opera and ballet at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, and a play at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, London.

King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu were scheduled to meet King George IV on June 21, 1824, but the meeting had to be canceled because Kamāmalu became ill. Members of the Hawaiian entourage had caught measles and they had no natural immunity because the people of the Hawaiian Islands had lived in isolation until their contact with Europeans. The Hawaiian entourage was likely exposed to measles on their June 5 visit to the Royal Military Asylum, an orphanage for the children of military parents that was known for its epidemics of childhood diseases. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, epidemics of measles, smallpox, and other diseases threatened to wipe out the entire Native Hawaiian population and disrupted the culture and lives of the islands’ residents.

Twenty-one-year-old Queen Kamāmalu died on July 8, 1824. Her grief-stricken husband King Kamehameha II died six days later on July 14, 1824, at the age of twenty-six. King Kamehameha II lay in state at the Caledonian Hotel in London on July 17, 1824, and large crowds paid their respects. On the following day, the coffins of King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu were placed in the crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London, awaiting the voyage back to the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands.

In August 1824, the coffins of King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu left Great Britain on the Royal Navy frigate HMS Blonde under the command of Captain George Anson Byron, 7th Baron Byron. The HMS Blonde arrived in the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands on May 6, 1825.

King Kamehameha II’s brother-in-law William Pitt Kalanimoku, a High Chief who functioned similarly to a prime minister, had been notified of the deaths, and so Hawaiian royalty and nobility gathered at his house where the bodies were moved for the funeral. On May 11, 1825, a state funeral was held for the late King and Queen, the first Christian memorial service for a ruler of Hawaii. The crew from the HMS Blonde participated in the formal procession from the ship to the funeral site, the chaplain of the HMS Blonde said an Anglican prayer, and an American missionary said a prayer in the Hawaiian language.

A Western-style mausoleum was constructed for King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu near the ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu. The mausoleum was a small house made of coral blocks with a thatched roof. King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu were interred there on August 23, 1825. 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, including King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu, 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.

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 II, King of the Hawaiian Islands. Unofficial Royalty. https://www.unofficialroyalty.com/kamehameha-ii-king-of-the-hawaiian-islands/
• U.S. Department of the Interior. Liholiho (Kamehameha II). National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/puhe/learn/historyculture/kamehameha2.htm
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Kalākua Kaheiheimālie. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kal%C4%81kua_Kaheiheim%C4%81lie
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Kamāmalu. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kam%C4%81malu
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2024). Kamehameha II. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamehameha_II
• 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

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.

• Unofficial Royalty Index: Kingdom of Hawaii Index

********************

Born Prince Liholiho in November 1797, in Hilo, Kingdom of Hawaii, Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands was the eldest of the three children and the elder of the two sons of Kamehameha I the Great, King of the Hawaiian Islands and his chief wife 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 II had two full siblings:

• Prince Kauikeaouli, later Kamehameha III, King of the Hawaiian Islands (1814 – 1854), married Kalama Hakaleleponi Kapakuhaili, had two children who died in infancy
• 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 II’s care was entrusted to his father’s trusted servant Hanapi. However, after several months, he was taken back by his maternal grandmother Queen Kekuʻiapoiwa Liliha because she felt he was not getting the proper care. Kamehameha I then put his son in the care of Queen Kaʻahumanu, his favorite wife, who was appointed as Kamehameha II’s official guardian.

Jean Baptiste Rives, a Frenchman who arrived in the Kingdom of Hawaii in the early 19th century, taught the royal princes some English and French and became a close friend of Kamehameha II. He also had three other close companions. Charles Kanaʻina was an aliʻi (hereditary noble) of the Kingdom of Hawaii who served on both the Privy Counsel and in the House of Nobles. Mataio Kekūanaōʻa was governor of the island of Oʻahu, held the office of Kuhina Nui  (equivalent of the 19th-century European office of Prime Minister), and was the father of two kings, Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V. Gideon Peleioholani Laanu was a Hawaiian chief and the great nephew of Kamehameha I.

Kamehameha II continued the practice of polygamy and 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 often referred to as Kalanipauahi, Kamehameha II’s niece
• Kekauʻōnohi (circa 1805 – 1851), Kamehameha II’s niece

On May 14, 1819, Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands died and 22-year-old Kamehameha II became King of the Hawaiian Islands. However, Queen Kaʻahumanu, who had been Kamehameha II’s official guardian, had no intention of giving up her power. When she first saw Kamehameha II after his father’s death, she was wearing Kamehameha I’s royal red cape and announced to the surprised young king, “We two shall rule the land.” The council of advisors agreed and created her Kuhina Nui. Her role was similar to a co-regent or modern-day prime minister. Queen Kaʻahumanu held the administrative power while Kamehameha II was forced to take on just a ceremonial role. Kaʻahumanu ruled as co-regent during the reigns of both Kamehameha II and his brother and successor Kamehameha III, until she died in 1832.

Kamehameha II’s reign is best known for the ‘Ai Noa, the elimination of the Hawaiian kapu system in October 1819. Kapu was the ancient Hawaiian code of conduct of laws and regulations governing lifestyle, gender roles, politics, and religion. After the elimination of the kapu system, women were allowed to eat formerly forbidden food and to eat with men, the priests no longer offered human sacrifices, and the many prohibitions surrounding the high chiefs were relaxed. Kamehameha II’s mother Keōpūolani played an important role in the elimination of the Hawaiian kapu system, and the move from the ancient religion and traditions. In 1820, when Christian missionaries came to the Hawaiian Islands, Keōpūolani and her second husband Hoapili were among the first of the Hawaiian nobles to convert to Christianity. Keōpūolani then wore Western clothing and learned to read and write. She made a public declaration that the custom of taking multiple spouses by royalty would end and the Christian practice of monogamy would be followed. Kamehameha II never officially converted to Christianity because he refused to give up four of his five wives and his love of alcohol. He was the last Hawaiian king to practice polygamy.

On April 16, 1822, English missionary William Ellis arrived in the Hawaiian Islands with a gift from King George IV of Great Britain, the Prince Regent, a schooner with six guns, to add to the Kingdom of Hawaiian Island’s fleet of ships. Kamehameha II wanted to travel to Great Britain to thank King George IV and to encourage closer diplomatic ties between their two kingdoms. All Kamehameha II’s advisors, including his mother Keōpūolani and his co-regent Kaʻahumanu, were opposed to the trip. After the death of his mother on September 16, 1823, Kamehameha II was determined to travel to Great Britain.

King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu arrived in Great Britain on May 17, 1824. They were an unusual sight to the British people who had seen few Native Hawaiians or a person as tall as Kamāmalu who was over six feet tall. They toured London, visiting Westminster Abbey but Kamehameha II refused to enter because he did not want to desecrate the British royal burial place “with his presence or his feet stepping in that area.” The royal couple attended the opera and ballet at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, and a play at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, London.

King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu were scheduled to meet King George IV on June 21, 1824, but the meeting had to be canceled because Queen Kamāmalu became ill. Members of the Hawaiian entourage had caught measles and they had no natural immunity because the people of the Hawaiian Islands had lived in isolation until their contact with Europeans. The Hawaiian entourage was likely exposed to measles on their June 5 visit to the Royal Military Asylum, an orphanage for the children of military parents that was known for its epidemics of childhood diseases. During the 19th and early 20th centuries, epidemics of measles, smallpox, and other diseases threatened to wipe out the entire Native Hawaiian population and disrupted the culture and lives of the islands’ residents.

Twenty-one-year-old Queen Kamāmalu died on July 8, 1824. Her grief-stricken husband King Kamehameha II died six days later on July 14, 1824, at the age of twenty-six.  King Kamehameha II lay in state at the Caledonian Hotel in London on July 17, 1824, and large crowds paid their respects. On the following day, the coffins of King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu were placed in the crypt of St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London, awaiting the voyage back to the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands.

In August 1824, the coffins of King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu left Great Britain on the Royal Navy frigate HMS Blonde under the command of Captain George Anson Byron, 7th Baron Byron. The HMS Blonde arrived in the Kingdom of the Hawaiian Islands on May 6, 1825.

King Kamehameha II’s brother-in-law William Pitt Kalanimoku, a High Chief who functioned similarly to a prime minister, had been notified of the deaths, and so Hawaiian royalty and nobility gathered at his house where the bodies were moved for the funeral. On May 11, 1825, a state funeral was held for the late King and Queen, the first Christian memorial service for a ruler of Hawaii. The crew from the HMS Blonde participated in the formal procession from the ship to the funeral site, the chaplain of the HMS Blonde said an Anglican prayer, and an American missionary said a prayer in the Hawaiian language.

A Western-style mausoleum was constructed for King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu near the ʻIolani Palace in Honolulu. The mausoleum was a small house made of coral blocks with a thatched roof. King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu were interred there on August 23, 1825. 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, including King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu, 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.

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/
• U.S. Department of the Interior. Liholiho (Kamehameha II). National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/puhe/learn/historyculture/kamehameha2.htm
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2024). Kamehameha II. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamehameha_II
• 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

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.

• Unofficial Royalty Index: Kingdom of Hawaii Index

********************

Keōpūolani was the highest-ranking wife of Kamehameha I the Great, King of the Hawaiian Islands. She was born around 1778, in Pāpōhaku, near present-day Wailuku, on the island of Maui. Keōpūolani was the daughter of Kīwalaʻō, the aliʻi nui (supreme monarch or chief) of the island of Hawaii, and Kekuʻiapoiwa Liliha, half-sister of Kamehameha I. In July 1782, Keōpūolani’s father Kiwalao was overthrown and killed at the Battle of Mokuʻōhai. This was the first step toward Kamehameha I’s domination over all the Hawaiian Islands.

Keōpūolani and Kamehameha I were married in 1795. Their marriage linked the House of Kamehameha to the ruling house of Maui and the old ruling house of Hawaii. 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. Keōpūolani had eleven children, all but three died young. Kamehameha I was about twenty years older than Keōpūolani. Because of the large age difference, Kamehameha I called his children with Keōpūolani his grandchildren. (Note: Unofficial Royalty articles are coming for Kamehameha II and Kamehameha III.)

• Prince Liholiho, later Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands (1797 – 1824), had five wives, no children
• Prince Kauikeaouli, later Kamehameha III, King of the Hawaiian Islands (1814 – 1854), married Kalama Hakaleleponi Kapakuhaili, had two children who died in infancy
• 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 I, King of the Hawaiian Islands died on May 14, 1819. His eldest son with Keōpūolani, Liholiho, succeeded as Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands. After the death of Kamehameha I, Keōpūolani married Hoapili, a close friend and advisor of Kamehameha I.

Keōpūolani played an important role in the ʻAi Noa, the elimination of the Hawaiian kapu system in 1819. Kapu was the ancient Hawaiian code of conduct of laws and regulations governing lifestyle, gender roles, politics, and religion. After the elimintion of the kapu system, women were allowed to eat formerly forbidden food and to eat with men, the priests no longer offered human sacrifices, and the many prohibitions surrounding the high chiefs were relaxed. In 1820, Christian missionaries came to the Hawaiian Islands and Keōpūolani and her second husband Hoapili were among the first of the Hawaiian nobles to convert to Christianity. Keōpūolani then wore Western clothing and learned to read and write. She made a public declaration that the custom of taking multiple spouses by royalty would end and the Christian practice of monogamy would be followed.

In August 1823, Keōpūolani became ill and her condition quickly worsened. Many chiefs visited her to pay their respects. When William Pitt Kalanimoku, a High Chief who functioned as the prime minister of the Hawaiian Kingdom, arrived to pay her respects, Keōpūolani told him: “Jehovah is a good God. I love him and I love Jesus Christ. I have given myself to him to be his. When I die, let none of the evil customs of this country be practiced. Let not my body be disturbed. Let it be put in a coffin. Let the teachers attend, and speak to the people at my interment. Let me be buried, and let my burial be after the manner of Christ’s people. I think very much of my grandfather, Kalaniopuʻu, and my father Kiwalaʻo, and my husband Kamehameha, and all my deceased relatives. They lived not to see these good times, and to hear of Jesus Christ. They died depending on false gods. I exceedingly mourn and lament on account of them, for they saw not these good times.”

Keōpūolani had not yet been baptized and wished to do so before she died. English missionary William Ellis, who was fluent in Hawaiian, conducted the baptism in Hawaiian so all could understand. Keōpūolani’s son Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands and all the assembled family and nobles listened to Ellis. When they saw that she was baptized with holy water in the name of God, they said that she was no longer one of them and that they believed she was God’s and would go to dwell with him. Keōpūolani stated that she wanted her eight-year-old daughter Princess Nāhienaena to be raised as a Christian and so she was also baptized too. Keōpūolani and her daughter took their Christian name Harriet after Harriet Stewart, the wife of missionary Charles Stewart. An hour later in the early evening of September 16, 1823, 45-year-old Keōpūolani died at Hale Kamani, her home on the beach in Lahaina, on the island of Maui.

After a large public funeral on September 18, 1823, Keōpūolani was buried at her home Hale Kamani in Lahaina, Maui. In 1837, her second son King Kamehameha III transferred her remains to the sacred island of Mokuʻula in Lahaina, Maui. Later her remains were reburied at the Christian cemetery at Waiola Church in Lahaina, Maui along with her daughter, her second husband, and other royal family members.

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/
• Kamehameha I. Royal Family Hawaii. https://www.crownofhawaii.com/kamehameha-i
• U.S. Department of the Interior. Kamehameha the Great. National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/puhe/learn/historyculture/kamehameha.htm
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Hawaiian Kingdom. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Kingdom
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Kamehameha I. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamehameha_I
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2023c, August 16). Keōpūolani. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ke%C5%8Dp%C5%ABolani
• Young, Peter T. (2022). Hawaiian Woods – Hawaiian Royal Residences. Images of Old Hawaiʻi. https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/hawaiian-woods-hawaiian-royal-residences/

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.

• Unofficial Royalty Index: Kingdom of Hawaii Index

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Kamehameha I the Great, reigned as King of the Hawaiian Islands from 1795 – 1819. He was born Kalani Paiʻea Wohi o Kaleikini Kealiʻikui Kamehameha o ʻIolani i Kaiwikapu kauʻi Ka Liholiho Kūnuiākea and known as Paiʻea. His father was Keōua Kalanikupuapaʻīkalaninui Ahilapalapa, from an old Hawaiian noble family, and his mother was Kekuʻiapoiwa II, a Hawaiian chiefess. Kamehameha was probably born in November 1758.  At the time of his birth, a comet was visible. Since Halley’s Comet was visible from Hawaii in 1758, it is believed that Kamehameha was probably born in 1758. His birth ceremony was held at the Moʻokini Heiau, an ancient temple that is preserved at the Kohala Historical Sites State Monument.

The Hawaiian Islands, located in the Pacific Ocean, were originally divided into several independent chiefdoms. Kamehameha I grew up at the court of his uncle Kalaniʻopuʻu, the aliʻi nui (supreme monarch or chief) of the island of Hawaii. During Kalaniʻopuʻu’s reign, British explorer Captain James Cook visited the island of Hawaii three times and had two cordial visits with Kalaniʻopuʻu. However, in 1779, during Cook’s third exploratory voyage in the Pacific, tensions escalated between his men and the people of the island of Hawaii. The theft of a longboat and an attempt by Cook to kidnap Kalaniʻōpuʻu led to the death of Cook’s death.

After Kalaniʻopuʻu’ died in April 1782, his son Kiwalao became the aliʻi nui (supreme monarch or chief) of the island of Hawaii. In July 1782, Kiwalao was overthrown and killed at the Battle of Mokuʻōhai. This was the first step toward Kamehameha I’s domination over all the Hawaiian Islands. The island of Hawaiʻi was divided into three parts: Kamehameha I ruled Kona, Kohala, and Hāmākua, Kiwalao’s half-brother Keawemaʻuhili controlled Hilo and Kiwalao’s son Keōua Kūʻahuʻula controlled Kaʻū.

Kamehameha and his council of chiefs planned to unite the rest of the Hawaiian Islands. British and American traders sold guns and ammunition to Kamehameha. Captain William Brown of the Butterworth Squadron, a British commercial group of three vessels, gave Kamehameha the formula for gunpowder: sulfur, saltpeter, and charcoal, all of which are abundant in the islands. Welshman Isaac Davis and the British John Young who both lived on the island of Hawaii and had married native Hawaiian women, became valued advisors to Kamehameha. By 1795, Kamehameha had conquered the independent islands of Oahu, Maui, Molokai, and Lānaʻi and unified them under one government, the Kingdom of Hawaii. In 1810, the whole Hawaiian archipelago became unified when the islands of Kauaʻi and Niʻihau joined the Kingdom of Hawaii voluntarily.

Kamehameha 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. Keōpūolani had eleven children, all but three died young.

• Prince Liholiho, later Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands (1797 – 1824), had five wives, no children
• Prince Kauikeaouli, later Kamehameha III, King of the Hawaiian Islands (1814 – 1854), married Kalama Hakaleleponi Kapakuhaili, had two children who died in infancy
• 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 I spent the last years of his life at Kamakahonu, the compound he built in Kailua-Kona on the island of Hawaii. It was at Kamakahonu that Kamehameha I, King of the Hawaiian Islands died on May 14, 1819. After his death, Kamehameha I’s body was hidden by his trusted friends Hoapili and Hoʻolulu in the ancient custom called hūnākele (to hide in secret). The mana, or power of a person, was considered to be sacred and his body was buried in a hidden location because of his mana. His final resting place remains unknown. King Kamehameha III asked Hoapili to show him where his father was buried, but on the way there Hoapili knew that they were being followed, so he turned around.

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Works Cited

• Kamehameha I. Royal Family Hawaii. https://www.crownofhawaii.com/kamehameha-i
• U.S. Department of the Interior. Kamehameha the Great. National Parks Service. https://www.nps.gov/puhe/learn/historyculture/kamehameha.htm
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Hawaiian Kingdom. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaiian_Kingdom
• Wikimedia Foundation. (2023). Kamehameha I. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamehameha_I