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