Liliʻuokalani

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Lore & Background

Liliʻuokalani was born in the large grass hut of her maternal grandfather, ʻAikanaka, at the base of Punchbowl Crater in Honolulu. She was named after an event linked to her birth: Kuhina Nui Elizabeth Kīnaʻu had developed an eye infection, so the child was named using the words liliʻu (smarting), loloku (tearful), walania (a burning pain), and kamakaʻeha (sore eyes). Her family were of the aliʻi class, collateral relations of the House of Kamehameha, descending from Keaweaheulu and Kameʻeiamoku, two of the five royal counselors of Kamehameha I. She was the third surviving child of a large family; her biological siblings included David Kalākaua and William Pitt Leleiohoku II. At age four in 1842, she began education at the Chiefs' Children's School, where she and her classmates were formally proclaimed by Kamehameha III as eligible for the throne. She later noted these "pupils were exclusively persons whose claims to the throne were acknowledged." The boarding school run by American missionaries Amos Starr Cooke and Juliette Montague Cooke was discontinued around 1850, so she was sent to a day school run by Reverend Edward G. Beckwith. On May 5, 1853, she finished third in her final class exams behind Victoria Kamāmalu and Nancy Sumner. In 1865, after her marriage, she informally attended Oahu College and received instruction under Susan Tolman Mills.

Reader's Guide

After her brother David Kalākaua's accession in 1874, Liliʻuokalani and her siblings were given Western-style titles of Prince and Princess. In 1877, after her younger brother Leleiohoku II's death, she was proclaimed heir apparent. She represented her brother as an official envoy to the United Kingdom during the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. She ascended to the throne on January 29, 1891, nine days after her brother's death. During her reign, she attempted to draft a new constitution to restore the power of the monarchy and the voting rights of the economically disenfranchised. Threatened by her attempts to abrogate the Bayonet Constitution, pro-American elements overthrew the monarchy on January 17, 1893, bolstered by the landing of US Marines under John L. Stevens. The coup established a Provisional Government that became the Republic of Hawaiʻi, aiming for annexation to the United States, temporarily blocked by President Grover Cleveland. After an unsuccessful uprising to restore the monarchy, she was placed under house arrest at ʻIolani Palace. On January 24, 1895, under threat of execution of her imprisoned supporters, she was forced to abdicate the Hawaiian throne. With the outbreak of the Spanish–American War, the United States annexed Hawaiʻi. She lived out her later life as a private citizen and died at her residence, Washington Place, in Honolulu on November 11, 1917.

Did You Know?

• She was named after Kuhina Nui Elizabeth Kīnaʻu's eye infection, using the Hawaiian words liliʻu (smarting), loloku (tearful), walania (a burning pain), and kamakaʻeha (sore eyes).
• She finished third in her final class exams at the Royal School on May 5, 1853, behind Victoria Kamāmalu and Nancy Sumner.
• Her wedding to John Owen Dominis was postponed from her twenty-fourth birthday to September 16, 1862, out of respect for the death of Prince Albert Kamehameha.
• She wrote her autobiography *Hawaiʻi's Story by Hawaiʻi's Queen* in 1898 during her imprisonment following the overthrow.
• She was forced to abdicate the Hawaiian throne on January 24, 1895, under threat of execution of her imprisoned supporters.