Kamehameha V (Lota Kapuāiwa Kalanimakua Aliʻiōlani Kalanikupuapaʻīkalaninui; December 11, 1830 – December 11, 1872), reigned as the fifth
monarch
A monarch is a head of stateWebster's II New College DictionarMonarch Houghton Mifflin. Boston. 2001. p. 707. Life tenure, for life or until abdication, and therefore the head of state of a monarchy. A monarch may exercise the highest authority ...
of the
Kingdom of Hawaiʻi from 1863 to 1872. His motto was "Onipaʻa": immovable, firm, steadfast or determined; he worked diligently for his people and kingdom and was described as the last great traditional chief.
Early life
He was born and given the name Lot Kapuāiwa December 11, 1830. His mother was
Elizabeth Kīnaʻu and father was
Mataio Kekūanāoʻa. His siblings included
David Kamehameha,
Moses Kekūāiwa,
Alexander Liholiho, and
Victoria Kamāmalu.
He also was a grandson of Kamehameha I. ''Kapu āiwa'' means mysterious
kapu or sacred one protected by supernatural powers. He was adopted using the ancient Hawaiian tradition called ''
hānai'' by
Princess Nāhiʻenaʻena, but she died in 1836. He was then adopted by his grandmother
Queen Kalākua Kaheiheimālie and step-grandfather High Chief
Ulumāheihei Hoapili. His childhood was difficult; he felt that his ''hānai'' parents treated him as a stranger in their house, and that the adoption had deprived him the love of his mother. Throughout his life he would have a deep dislike for this tradition as it could be later seen by his anger at his half-sister
Ruth Keelikolani giving away her second son Keolaokalani to
Bernice Pauahi Bishop.
It was planned that he would be Hoapili's heir as
Governor of Maui, although this never happened. Since King
Kamehameha III declared him eligible for the throne, he was educated at the
Royal School like his cousins and siblings. He was betrothed to
Bernice Pauahi at birth, but she chose to marry American
Charles Reed Bishop instead.
After leaving school, he traveled abroad with his brother Alexander Liholiho. With the supervision of their guardian Dr. Judd, Lot and his brother sailed to
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
in September 1849. After their tour of
California
California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...
, they continued on to
Panama
Panama ( , ; es, link=no, Panamá ), officially the Republic of Panama ( es, República de Panamá), is a transcontinental country spanning the southern part of North America and the northern part of South America. It is bordered by Co ...
,
Jamaica
Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of Hispa ...
,
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and
Washington, D.C. They toured
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
and met with various heads of state including French president
Louis Napoleon, British prince consort
Albert, and US president
Zachary Taylor
Zachary Taylor (November 24, 1784 – July 9, 1850) was an American military leader who served as the 12th president of the United States from 1849 until his death in 1850. Taylor was a career officer in the United States Army, rising to th ...
and vice president
Millard Fillmore
Millard Fillmore (January 7, 1800March 8, 1874) was the 13th president of the United States, serving from 1850 to 1853; he was the last to be a member of the Whig Party while in the White House. A former member of the U.S. House of Represen ...
.
Career
From 1852 to 1855 he served on the
Privy Council of State, and from 1852 to 1862 in the
House of Nobles. He was Minister of the Interior from 1857 to 1863, chief justice of the supreme court from 1857 to 1858, and held other offices.
His more charismatic younger brother Prince Alexander Liholiho was chosen to become King Kamehameha IV in 1854. In 1862, he was officially added to the line of succession in an amendment to the
1852 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Lot and his heirs, follow by his sister Princess Victoria and her heirs, would succeed in the case his brother died without any legitimate heirs. The change was made shortly before the death of Prince
Albert Kamehameha, the only son of Kamehameha IV, on August 23, 1862.
New constitution and new laws
He came to power on November 30, 1863, after his brother's death, but refused to uphold the
previous constitution of 1852.
He objected, in particular, to that constitution's grant of universal male suffrage in elections for the lower House of Representatives. In May 1864 he called for a constitutional convention. On July 7, 1864, he proposed a new constitution rather than amending the old one. The convention ran smoothly until the 62nd article. It limited voters to being residents who passed a literacy test and possessed property or had income qualifications. On August 20, 1864, he signed the
1864 Constitution of the Kingdom of Hawaii
Events
January–March
* January 13 – American songwriter Stephen Foster ("Oh! Susanna", "Old Folks at Home") dies aged 37 in New York City, leaving a scrap of paper reading "Dear friends and gentle hearts". His parlor song " ...
and took an oath to protect it. The constitution was based on the original draft but 20 articles were deleted. When he appointed
Charles de Varigny, a French national, as minister of finance in December 1863, Americans in Hawaiʻi were convinced that he had adopted an anti-American policy. In reality, his foreign policy remained the same. Later de Varigny became minister of foreign affairs from 1865 to 1869.
He was the first king to encourage revival of traditional practices. Under his reign, the laws against "
kahunaism" were repealed. A Hawaiian Board of Medicine was established, with kahuna members, and la'au lapa'au or Hawaiian medicine was again practiced. He brought kahuna practitioners to Honolulu to document their remedies.
In 1865 a bill was brought before the legislature permitting the sale of liquor to the Native Hawaiians. Kamehameha V surprised the supporters of bill, 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.
Growth in travel to Hawaii
Growth in travel to the islands increased during Kamehameha's reign.
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has pr ...
came in March 1866 aboard the ''Ajax''. He stayed for four months under his real name, Samuel Clemens, writing letters back to the
Sacramento Union describing the islands. Twain described the king:
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.
Queen Victoria
Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previ ...
sent her second son
Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh on a state visit in 1869. He appealed to Kaiser
Wilhelm I of Germany, who sent
Henri Berger to organize the
Royal Hawaiian Band
The Royal Hawaiian Band is the oldest and only full-time municipal band in the United States. At present a body of the City & County of Honolulu, the Royal Hawaiian Band has been entertaining Honolulu residents and visitors since its inception ...
, a gift of music from the king to his people.
Succession
His sister and only named
Heir Apparent
An heir apparent, often shortened to heir, is a person who is first in an order of succession and cannot be displaced from inheriting by the birth of another person; a person who is first in the order of succession but can be displaced by the b ...
to the throne, Crown Princess
Victoria Kamāmalu had died childless in 1866 and through the remainder of his reign, Kamehameha V did not name a successor. He died on December 11, 1872, while the preparations for his birthday celebration were underway. As Lot lay bedstricken, he answered those that 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 who refused, and died an hour later without designating an heir. He was buried in the
Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii at Mauna ʻAla.
He was the last ruling monarch of the
House of Kamehameha styled under the Kamehameha name. Before his death Kamehameha V stated:
The throne belongs to Lunalilo; I will not appoint him, because I consider him unworthy of the position. The constitution, in case I make no nomination, provides for the election of the next King; let it be so."'' With no heir at his death, the next monarch would be elected by the legislature. Kamehameha V's cousin William Charles Lunalilo, a Kamehameha by birth from his mother, demanded a general election and won. The legislature agreed and Lunalilo became the first elected King of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Legacy
He founded the
Royal Order of Kamehameha I
The Royal Order of Kamehameha I (''Kamehameha I e Hookanaka'') is an order of knighthood established by Kamehameha V in 1865, to promote and defend the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Hawaii. Established by the 1864 Constitution, the Order of Kameh ...
society on April 11, 1865, named to honor his grandfather.
The Prince Lot Hula Festival is named for him. It was held the third Saturday in July since 1977 at his former home called
Moanalua Gardens.
In February 1847, a female student at the Royal School
Abigail Maheha was expelled and wed in a hastily arranged marriages due to a scandalous pregnancy. Some speculate that the sixteen year-old Kamehameha V or his seventeen-year-old brother
Moses Kekūāiwa was the father of Abigail's daughter
Keanolani
Keanolani (July 7, 1847 – June 30, 1902) was a Hawaiian chiefess (aliʻi) of the Kingdom of Hawaii. She was the illegitimate daughter of Abigail Maheha and King Kamehameha V, who reigned from 1863 to 1872, and was born during a liaison betwee ...
, who left living descendants. Evidence to support this claim include his financial support of Abigail's husband Keaupuni, veiled conversations the Cookes had with Abigail and Lot dated months before the pregnancy was discovered, and entries from the period which were torn out of his school journal.
Honours
* : Founder of the
Order of Kamehameha I, ''April 11, 1865''
*
Mexican Empire: Grand Cross of the
Order of Guadalupe, ''1865''
* : Grand Cross of the
Order of Philip the Magnanimous, ''December 1, 1869''
References
Bibliography
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Further reading
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External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Kamehameha 05
1830 births
1872 deaths
Royalty of the Hawaiian Kingdom
House of Kamehameha
Protestant monarchs
Commanders-in-chief of the Hawaiian Kingdom
Hawaiian Kingdom judges
Hawaiian adoptees (hānai)
Burials at the Royal Mausoleum (Mauna ʻAla)
Monarchs of the Hawaiian Islands
Hawaiian Kingdom Finance Ministers
Members of the Hawaiian Kingdom House of Nobles
Members of the Hawaiian Kingdom Privy Council
Royal School (Hawaii) alumni
Hawaiian Kingdom Interior Ministers
Chief justices of the Hawaiian Kingdom