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Princess Victoria Kamāmalu Kaʻahumanu IV (1 November 1838–29 May 1866), was Kuhina Nui of Hawaii and its crown princess. Princess Kamāmalu is one of Hawaii lesser notable historical figures. She was largely overshadowed by her female contemporaries including her sister-in-law, Queen Emma Kaleleonalani; her schoolmate, Liliʻuokalani whose fame exceeded hers much later on; her half-sister, Ruth Keelikolani, known for her tragedy and large land holding; and her first-cousin-once removed, Bernice Pauahi famous for her legacy to the Hawaiian people, Kamehameha Schools. She was the last true Princess of the House of Kamehameha. Although not agreed upon by most, she was the first female to become the monarch of Hawaii, reigning from 30 November 1863 to 30 November 1863.
[edit] FamilyShe was born in Honolulu two months after Liliʻuokalani and she was named Wikolia Kamehamalu Keawenui Kaʻahumanu-a-Kekūanaō‘a[1] and also named Kalehelani Kiheahealani[1], but was mostly referred to as Victoria Kamāmalu or Kaʻahumanu IV, when addressing her as the priemer. She was the only daughter of Kaʻahumanu II and her third husband Governor Mataio Kekuanaoa. Through her mother she was granddaughter of King Kamehameha I, founder of the kingdom. Her two brothers were kings of Hawaii as Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V. She was named after her maternal aunt Queen Kamāmalu, the consort of Kamehameha II, who died in London from the measles. The Christian name Victoria signified the close friendship of the British monarchs and the Hawaiian monarchs for it was Queen Victoria who returned the sovereignty of the Hawaiian Islands to her uncle, Kamehameha III, after the Paulet Affair. Victoria's mother would died not long after her birth. She was the highest female chief in Hawaii at the time. Her kahu (attendants) were John Papa Īī and his wife Sarai. They later followed Victoria to school due to her age at the time. [2] [edit] Early lifeShe was educated at Royal School along with all her cousins and brothers. She was expected from birth to one day succeed to the position of Kuhina Nui if not the office of Monarch, so she was educated by the Cooke with full attention of what political scheme she would play in the near future. In the school, they were permitted to visit with relatives from time to time. When the students fell ill, their kahu and families went to the school and stayed for a while to attend to the patient. Victoria's kahu, the talented John Papa 'I'i, eventually was appointed kahu for all the students at the Chief's Children's School and visited in that capacity, though his political services were in such demand by the court that he was often absent. Her father Mataio Kekuanaoa raised her. He was the royal governor of Oahu. In Honolulu her father build her a Greek-revival mansion which was the largest house in the town of Honolulu, or any where in Hawaii, at the time. Her father was in debt to the foreigners, so Kamehameha III bought the palace from him. He made it his royal palace and call it Hale Aliʻi (House of the Chiefs) and this was the first Iolani Palace which stood at the exact spot as the present one. She was a two months younger than Lydia Liliʻuokalani. They were close friends and aikane or foster-siblings. At the birth of Princess Victoria, Lydia's foster mother Laura Konia brought her to Kinau. While Victoria was at her mother's breast, Kinau always preferred to take Lydia into her arms to nurse, and would hand her own child to the woman attendant who was there for that purpose. So she frequently declared in the presence of Konia, that a bond of the closest friendship must always exist between her own baby girl and her foster child as aikane or foster-children of the same mother, and that all she had would also appertain to her just as if she had been her own child; and that although in the future Liliʻu might be her child's rival, yet whatever would belong to Victoria should also be Lydia's. This insistence on the part of the mother was never forgotten; it remained in the history of Victoria's girlhood that she would share almost everything with Lydia. On any occasion Victoria visited her Aunt Kekauluohi (Kaʻahumanu III), Liliʻu would be invited to join her. Victoria was destined to become the first Queen of Hawaii, but it would be Liliʻuokalani who would one day become the first Queen of Hawaii due to Victoria's own death.[3] As the descendant of a long line of chiefs, stretching back to the days of her mythical ancestor Piʻi, she was of the highest rank. As Mark Twain stated on his visited to Hawaii: The natives have always been remarkable for the extravagant love and devotion they show toward their Chiefs - it almost amounts to worship. When Victoria was a girl of fifteen she made an excursion through the island of Hawaii (the realm of the ancient founders of her race), with her guardian and a retinue of servants, and was everywhere received with wild enthusiasm by her people. In Hilo, they came in multitudes to the house of the missionary, where she was stopping, and brought with them all manner of offerings - poi, taro, bananas, pigs, fowls - anything they could get hold of which was valuable in their eyes - and many of them stinted and starved themselves for the time being, no doubt, to do this honor to a Princess who could not use or carry away the hundredth part of what they lavished upon her. And for hours and even days together the people thronged around the place and wept and chanted their distressing songs, and wailed their agonizing wails; for joy at the return of a loved one and sorrow at his death are expressed in precisely the same way with this curious people.[4] [edit] Kuhina NuiAs the daughter of Kīna‘u, the second Kuhina Nui, and as the highest ranking female chief of the day, it had long been her destiny to assume the responsibilities of the office. While she was a minor, her aunt Kekauluohi (Kaʻahumanu III) became a place-holder for her niece Victoria. She died while her niece was still too young, so Kamehameha III appointed John Kaleipahala Young II, also known as Keoni Ana, the son of John Young as Kuhina Nui. Princess Kamāmalu Kaʻahumanu was appointed as Heiress Presumptive to the title of Kuhina-Nui in 1850, successor to Keoni Ana. Since 1845, by legislative act, the office of Kuhina Nui had been joined with that of the Minister of Interior. Given her young age, it would have been clear to the King, Privy Council, and Legislative Council that Victoria was not suited to be Minister of Interior. Therefore, on 6 January 1855, an act was passed to repeal the earlier legislation. She received her appointment ten days later. An Act to separate the office of Kuhina Nui from that of Minister of Interior Affairs, was approved 6 January 1855, Session of 1854.[5] She became Kuhina Nui in 1855 mainly due to her brother, Kamehameha IV's, ascession to the throne and the death of her uncle. It is probable that Kamehameha III had mean for Keoni Ana to hold the office till his death. She presided over the King’s Privy Council. She constitutionally assume the power of the monarch for a day when her brother Kamehameha IV died leaving no legal heirs in 1864. Section II Article 47 of the 1852 Constitution of the Hawaiian Kingdom provided that the Kuhina Nui (Premier), in absence of a Monarch, would fill the vacant office.
As the first female Head of State of Hawaii, she met with the Legislature and gave the throne to her brother Lot Kapuaiwa (Kamehameha V). Princess Victoria is often overlooked in Hawaiian history and rarely recognized as a Queen of Hawai'i. She was literally a "Queen for a day."[6] [edit] BetrothalShe was betrothed to William Charles Lunalilo their parent had plan out their marriage from infancy and it was popular among the Hawaiians. The date was set, but interference from her brothers, cancelled the wedding.[7] They were forbidden to marry by her brothers Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V. The reason was because their children will have a higher rank or mana than her or her brothers. This offended Lunalilo so deeply, he refused to be buried with Hawaiian royalty, choosing to be laid to rest on the grounds of Kawaihao Church, alone and away from the Kamehameha dynasts. Her brother, Alexander Liholiho, had tried to split them apart by engaging Victoria to David Kalākaua, and Lunalilo to Lydia Kamaka'eha. In Liliʻuokalani's Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen, she mentioned this incident:
[edit] Crown PrincessFrom her infancy it was expected that she would one day fill the throne, and therefore great importance was attached to her acts, and they were duly observed and noted as straws calculated to show how the wind would be likely to set in her ultimate official life. Princess Victoria was appointed as Heiress-Apparent and crown princess of Hawaiian monarchy by her brother king Kamehameha V in 1863. She could have become queen of Hawaii upon her brother's death but she predeceased him. It was said that she was pro-American and had a close friendship with the American missionaries. She became an accomplished pianist and vocalist, and for many years sat at the melodeon and led the choir of Kawaiahao Church. Robert Wyllie, Minister of Foreign Affairs, once sent for Mr. Ii, and endeavored to get him to use his influence in dissuading the Princess and Mrs. Bernice Pauahi Bishop from further attendance upon the church choirs. He said it was very improper and out of character for Princesses to sing in a choir, and that such personages in England would not do such a thing. The effort was fruitless, however; Victoria continued her former course, and remained faithful to her early friends, the missionaries at Kawaiahao. She was urged to desert them and go over to the Reformed Catholic Church or Anglican Church of Hawaii, but she steadfastly refused. [4] [edit] DeathKamāmalu Kaʻahumanu died unmarried and without issue 29 May 1866, when she was 27 years old. The cause was over a scandal that involved her love for Monsarrat, a married English auctioneer. Of course the King did not approve and as Kuhina Nui she had to sign the papers that would banish him from Hawaiʻi. Her death left her brother the king without obvious heirs. The Legislature took $6,000 to defray the funeral expenses of the Princess. Her coffin was fashion out of the native woods, kou and koa. The former is nearly as dark as ebony; the latter is like fine California laurel, richly grained and clouded with mahogany. Both woods had an iron-like hardness, and were exceedingly close in grain, and when highly polished and varnished nothing in the shape of wood can be more brilliant, more lustrous, more beautiful. There was nothing extraordinary about the fashioning - the planning and construction - of this coffin, but still it was beautiful. The wood was so splendidly burnished, and so gracefully grained and clouded. The silver tablet upon the coffin, upon which is to be inscribed the name and title of the deceased, is to cost $500. This has proves royal state in the Kingdom of Hawaii approaches as near to its European models as the circumstances of the case will admit. [4] Her funeral also revived many of the funeral rites of the Native Hawaiians including the kanikau (grief wailing). The wailing lasted for weeks. Many loyal Hawaiians walked as much as 50 miles to pay their last respects to their princess. Writing in high revolutionary fervor of the days immediately following the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii, Professor William D. Alexander remarked:
Mark Twain was in attendance but was decidedly unsympathetic and denounced the grief of the misunderstood Hawaiian as "pagan orgies." Mark twain had sent letters to his little newspaper in Sacramento, describing the "Pagan orgies" in such a way that considerable venom crept through his mawkish sentences intended, no doubt, to produce a humorous picture of Princess Kamāmalu's burial. Outsider that he was, Twain lay the blame for the heathen spectacle at the feet of Bishop Staley and the Episcopal Church. They were, in Twain's views, the king's Christian conscience, and as such they should have prevailed upon that monarch to direct the proceedings of his sister's burial in a fashion more acceptable to the foreign community. Twain's attitude reflects the contempt in which the native practices of any people who lived outside the pale of the Anglo-Saxon complex, were held. He knew his reading audience all too well when he fashioned his statements in the guise of ridicule, some of it assuming the same character as the "Hickey, Pokey, Winky Wum..." jewel, which was composed, they say, in honour of King Kalākaua.[9] Actually, Twain's remarks concerning Victoria Kamāmalu's burial captured some of the truth, but unfortunately he knew nothing of the underlying circumstances, or he might have been more charitable. Princess Kamāmalu had turned away from Western influences after a humiliating scandal involving her love for a married white man. She had retreated to the ways of her ancestors, such as this was possible in the 1860s. Her brother, Kamehameha V, may have been paying his sister the final respect of recognizing the last despairing years of her life for what they were in allowing her burial rites to be celebrated somewhat in line with ancient tradition. On the other hand, the spontaneous kanikau (grief wailing) that began when news of her death spread through the city may have influenced the king to allow native subjects to show grief as they would in honoring the demise of this high ranking chiefess.[9] Twain's lengthy polemic concerning the burial of the Princess Kamāmalu actually described the proceedings in a more detailed way than any other account that has come down to us in print. As a sociological document, it reflected certainly the "recrudescence" of native practices that Professor Alexander wrote about in 1893. So far as the Hawaiians were concerned, it can be seen as another thoughtless attack upon a people who at this stage were scarcely able to find a plausible reason for reproducing themselves, or staying alive. The long years of tension between the Hawaiians and white settlers had reached at last a crisis, the main causes of which can easily be traced. Kamehameha V had refused to take the oath of office as king in 1864 until the constitution of 1852 was revised to restore hereditary powers to the throne, and to establish property qualifications for the right to vote and to hold certain offices in the government. In time, the constitution under dispute was revoked. Professor Alexander made direct reference to the revised Constitution of 1864 when he wrote (in language quaintly suggesting a Marx or Eagle's tract) of the "reactionary policy of that Monarch."[9] Her brother had remained a bachelor throughout his life, intending that she should be his heir. Her death left her brother without an obvious successor. After his brother's death an election was held between Kalākaua and Lunalilo, both former suitors of the princess. Lunalilo easily won the election, yet his reign lasted less than a year. [edit] References
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