Ka'iulani

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Victoria Kaʻiulani
Crown Princess of the Hawaiian Islands
Full name
Victoria Kawekiu Lunalilo Kalaninuiahilapalapa Kaʻiulani Cleghorn
Titles and styles
HRH The Princess
HRH The Crown Princess
Royal house House of Kalakaua
Father Archibald Scott Cleghorn
Mother Princess Miriam Kapili Kekauluohi Likelike
Born 16 August 1875(1875-08-16)
Honolulu, Oʻahu,Hawaii,
Died 6 March 1899 (aged 23)
ʻAinahau, Honolulu, Oahu, Hawaii

Victoria Kawekiu Lunalilo Kalaninuiahilapalapa Kaʻiulani Cleghorn, Crown Princess of Hawaii (October 16, 1875 – March 6, 1899) was heir to the throne of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and held the title of crown princess. Kaʻiulani became known throughout the world for her intelligence, beauty and determination. During the Overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893, she spearheaded a campaign to restore the monarchy by speaking before the United States Congress and pleading with U.S. Presidents Benjamin Harrison and later Grover Cleveland. Her life story grew to legendary proportions after her untimely death.

Contents

[edit] Early years

Victoria Kaʻiulani was born in Honolulu. It is through her mother that Kaʻiulani is descended from High Chief Kepoʻokalani, the first cousin of Kamehameha the Great on his mother Keku'i'apowa II's side. Kaʻiulani's father was a Scottish financier from Edinburgh and last Royal Governor of Oʻahu Archibald Cleghorn. Kaʻiulani was named after her aunt Anna Kaiulani who died at a young age and Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, whose help restored the sovereignty and independence of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi during the reign of Kamehameha III. The name Kaʻiulani translates from the Hawaiian language as the The Royal Sacred One. Upon her birth, Kaʻiulani was gifted the estate of ʻAinahau in Waikiki by her godmother Ruth Keelikolani. Kaʻiulani became mistress of Ainahau at the age of 11 upon the tragic death of her mother.

In 1881, King David Kalakaua tried to arrange a marriage between Kaʻiulani and Japan's Prince Higashifushimi Yorihito in hopes of creating an alliance between Japan and the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. However, the prince declined, as he was already pre-arranged to marry a Japanese noble lady. Later, Liliuokalani asked her niece to marry one of the three; Prince David Kawananakoa, Prince Jonah Kuhio Kalanianaole, or Prince Komatsu Akihito, the half-brother of Higashifushimi Yorihito. She refused and told her aunt that she would only marry for love.

'Poppies', oil on canvas painting by Princess Kaʻiulani, 1890
'Poppies', oil on canvas painting by Princess Kaʻiulani, 1890

[edit] Education

Because Princess Kaʻiulani was second in line to the throne after her elderly and childless aunt, it was predicted that the young girl would eventually become Queen. King Kalakaua, Queen Kapiʻolani, Cleghorn, and the Princess talked about the issue and it was determined that it would be in the young Princess's best interests that she be given a British education. In 1888, at the age of 13, Kaʻiulani was sent to Northamptonshire, England to be given a private education at Great Harrowden Hall. She excelled in her studies of Latin, Literature, Mathematics, and History there. She continued to study in England for the next four years, despite the fact that she had originally been told that she would only be studying in Britain for one year. Her overseers from Hawaiʻi had planned for her to take a trip around Europe and had even arranged for her to have an audience with Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, but all was cancelled and she went to New York. In New York, she made many speeches and public appearances denouncing the annexation of her country. She later moved on to Washington, D.C, but none of her negotiations helped. The country was annexed.

The Princess grew up knowing painters Joseph Dwight Strong and Isobel Strong, and one of them may have given her art lessons. Her few surviving paintings demonstrate considerable talent.

[edit] During the overthrow

During her absence, much turmoil occurred back in Hawaiʻi. King Kalakaua died in 1891 and Princess Lydia Liliʻuokalani became Queen. Liliʻuokalani immediately appointed Kaʻiulani as her heir, and Kaʻiulani became the Crown Princess. In 1893, the Hawaiʻian monarchy was overthrown. The news arrived to Kaʻiulani on January 30, 1893 in a short telegram that said: "'Queen Deposed', 'Monarchy Abrogated', 'Break News to Princess'".

Ka'iulani then made a statement to the press in England:

"Four years ago, at the request of Mr. Thurston, then a Hawaiian Cabinet Minister, I was sent away to England to be educated privately and fitted to the position which by the constitution of Hawaii I was to inherit. For all these years, I have patiently and in exile striven to fit myself for my return this year to my native country. I am now told that Mr. Thurston will be in Washington asking you to take away my flag and my throne. No one tells me even this officially. Have I done anything wrong that this wrong should ‘be done to me and my people? I am coming to Washington to plead for my throne, my nation and my flag. Will not the great American people hear me?"

[1]

Kaʻiulani decided to take action and traveled to the United States the following month. Upon arrival on American shores she, although shy by nature, addressed the press in public with these resounding words:

"Seventy years ago Christian America sent over Christian men and women to give religion and civilization to Hawai'i. Today, three of the sons of those missionaries are at your capitol asking you to undo their father’s work. Who sent them? Who gave them the authority to break the Constitution which they swore they would uphold? Today, I, a poor weak girl with not one of my people with me and all these ‘Hawaiian’ statesmen against me, have strength to stand up for the rights of my people. Even now I can hear their wail in my heart and it gives me strength and courage and I am strong - strong in the faith of God, strong in the knowledge that I am right, strong in the strength of seventy million people who in this free land will hear my cry and will refuse to let their flag cover dishonor to mine!"

[2]

She was portrayed as a "heathen Princess", the clownish "Princess Koylani" of pro-Annexation skits and cartoons. "Barbaric" or "savage" the anti-Monarchy propaganda-merchants tried to paint her, proved quite a surprise as she traveled across the United States following her education; instead of the caricature cannibal expected, the paparazzi of the day were confronted by an exquisite Royal Princess wearing the latest Paris gowns and speaking cultured English (or Hawaiian, French and German, if the occasion demanded). She traveled through New York City and Boston where she attended numerous press conferences and banquets. She then went to Washington DC where she met with President Grover Cleveland and his wife at the White House. She made a good impression and Cleveland promised to help her cause. Kaʻiulani felt satisfied that something would be done and returned to England. However, when Cleveland brought forth Kaʻiulani's case to Congress, the United States Senate refused to help. The situation in Hawaiʻi did not improve, and Kaʻiulani grew impatient. Over the next few years, Kaʻiulani remained in Europe. There, she received news in 1894 that her childhood friend and famed author, Robert Louis Stevenson, had died and that a new Republic of Hawaiʻi had been established. Her health slowly began to deteriorate. Kaʻiulani's health worsened when she learned that her half-sister, Annie Cleghorn, had died in 1897 and her guardian from England, Mr. Davies, had also died.

[edit] Later years

Kaʻiulani returned to Hawaiʻi in 1897. The return to a warmer climate did not help her health at all, as she had spent more than seven years in Europe. Her health continued to deteriorate as she struggled to readjust to the tropical climate of the Hawaiian islands. However, she continued to make public appearances at the urging of her father.

Kaʻiulani was famous for her love of peacocks, and she kept the animals on her estate. For this reason, another name for her is the "Peacock Princess". It was said that when she died, her peacocks screamed so loud that they had to be shot to silence them.

In 1898, while on a horse ride in the mountains of Hawaiʻi Island, she got caught in a storm and shortly came down with a fever. Kaʻiulani was brought back to Oʻahu where her health continued to decline. She died on March 6, 1899 at the age of 23. Some Native Hawaiians believe that Kaʻiulani died of a broken heart, having suffered many losses in her life. Her father also said that he thought that since Hawaiʻi was gone, it was fitting for Kaʻiulani to go as well.

[edit] After death

The Kaʻiulani statue in Waikiki.
The Kaʻiulani statue in Waikiki.

After her death, her aunt, the deposed Queen Liliʻuokalani, recognized another relative, David Kawananakoa as the heir of Hawaiian Royal House, and adopted him.

In 1999, a bronze statue cast by Jan Gordon Fisher was dedicated in the triangle park at Kanekapolei and Kuhio Avenues in Waikiki, Honolulu. In 2001 Ellen Emerson White published a book of the Royal Diaries Series on her early life titled Kaiulani, the People's Princess, Hawai'i, 1889.

[edit] Movie

In the fall of 2007, English filmmaker Marc Forby will begin production on a $9 million film about the princess' attempt to restore her nation's monarchy. Princess Ka'iulani will be played by 12-year-old Kaimana Pa'aluhi of O'ahu and by Q'Orianka Kilcher.[3]

[edit] The Ka'iulani Project

A celebration of the spirit and legacy of Hawaiian Crown Princess Victoria Ka'iulani Cleghorn. Spearheading the project is Ka'iulani: The Island Rose, a screenplay and stage play written and researched since 2003 by Jennifer Fahrni and Carol Harvie-Yamaguchi. It was first performed as a public reading in April of 2008 and is now in pre-production stages in Hawaii. It will be premiered on the island of Maui.

[edit] References

  • Severson, Don R., "Finding Paradise, Island Art in Private Collections", University of Hawaii Press, 2002, 85-87.
  1. ^ Sharon Linnéa, Princess Ka'iulani Hope of a Nation, Heart of a People
  2. ^ Princess Kaiulani
  3. ^ Reach Lesa Griffith (6 June 2007). Movie about Princess Ka'iulani to start production in fall. The Honolulu Advertiser. Retrieved on 2007-09-19.

The roles of the Princess' royal twin childhood friends are played by Kamu and Kimo Kalilikane.

[edit] External links