Peleuli

Peleuli

Royal Court of Kamehameha I at Kailua-Kona, c. 1816.
Spouse Kamehameha I
Kaweloʻokalani
Issue Maheha Kapulikoliko
Kahōʻanokū Kīnaʻu
Kaikoʻokalani
Kiliwehi
Kīnaʻu (hānai)
Full name
Peleuli-i-Kekela-o-kalani
Father Kamanawa
Mother Kekelaokalani-a-Kauakahiakua

Peleuli (fl. 19th-century), formally Peleuli-i-Kekela-o-kalani, was a Queen consort of the Kingdom of Hawaii as a wife of king Kamehameha I.

Biography

She was a daughter of High Chief Kamanawa and High Chiefess Kekelaokalani.[1]:320 Her father, along with his brother Kameʻeiamoku, were known as one of the "royal twins" who helped Kamehameha I come to power and served as advisors.[2]:53 Her mother was the daughter of High Chief Kauakahiakua, son of Lonomakahonua and Kahapoohiwi,[3]:127 and High Chiefess Kekuʻiapoiwa I, once the wife of King Kekaulike of Maui.[4] She had three brothers: Koahou, Noukana and Amamalua, and a half-sister Piʻipiʻi Kalanikaulihiwakama.[3]:221[5][6]

In 1920, Elizabeth Kekaaniau published a book accounting the history of the descendants of Keōua. In the book, Elizabeth Kekaaniau stated that Piʻipiʻi Kalanikaulihiwakama and Peleuli were the daughters of Keōua and Kekuʻiapoiwa II, therefore full-blood sisters of Kamehameha I, when in fact, Piʻipiʻi was the daughter of Kekuʻiapoiwa II and Kamanawa and Peleuli's parents were Kamanwa and Kekelaokalani.[7]:18 Many sources also incorrectly call her an aunt of Kamehameha I because of Queen Liliuokalani's autobiography Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen, which confused Peleuli's mother Kekelaokalani-a-Kauakahiakua with Kekuʻiapoiwa II's mother Kekelakekeokalani-a-Keawe.[4][8] It should also be noted that Hawaiian historian Samuel Kamakau stated that Peleuli was the aunt of Keōpūolani, whom she served as an attentant.[3]:184

Peleuli was given in marriage to Kamehameha I by her father after the former's victory at the Battle of Mokuʻōhai while Kamanawa took Kamehameha's mother Kekuʻiapoiwa II as his wife, cementing an alliance between their families. She was his second wife because up to that point, Kamehameha had only one other wife Kalola-a-Kumukoʻa.[3]:311[9]:11[10]

According to Kamakau, she was considered his fifth favorite wife, behind Kaʻahumanu, Kalākua Kaheiheimālie, Kahakuhaʻakoi Wahinepio, and Keōpūolani, his highest ranking consort.[3]:184 With Kamehameha I, she was mother of four children including: Maheha Kapulikoliko, a daughter, of whom nothing more is known; Kahōʻanokū Kīnaʻu, a son, who married Wahinepio; Kaikoʻokalani, a son, who married Haaheo; and Kiliwehi, a daughter, who married of Kamehamehakauokoa[1]:320[3]:208[11][12] and probably Kalanimoku.[13] Her grandchildren were Kekauʻōnohi by Kīnaʻu and Leleiohoku II by Kiliwehi. Her progenies with Kamehameha were his eldest children, with the exception of his illegitimate son Pauli Kaʻōleiokū by his aunt Kānekapōlei, but they were passed over in the line of succession in favor of his descendants by Keōpūolani and Kalākua Kaheiheimālie because of their superior rank.[3]:315

She later married to Kaweloʻokalani, her husband's younger half-brother and the son of Keōua and Kamakaeheikuli. This marriage occurred while Kamehameha was still alive and the couple lived in the King's household.[3]:311 She and Kaweloʻokalani had no children, although one source says that Kaukuna Kahekili was the son of Kaweloʻokalani and Peleuli.[14][15]:154 They adopted (hānai) the youngest daughter of Kamehameha I and Kalākua Kaheiheimālie. She named the child Kīnaʻu after her own son and took her back to the island of Hawaiʻi after Kamehameha moved his capital back to Kailua-Kona.[3]:346 Another hānai child and namesake was Elizabeth Peleuli II, who became the ancestor of the Crowningburg family.[16]

After Kamehameha I's death, his son Liholiho succeeded him as Kamehameha II and they were both included as a part of his court.[3]:221,250 The last mention of her or her husband was that they transferred to Lahaina on the island of Maui, which had become the new capital, in the 1820s.[3]:262[17]:42 Her husband Kawelo died around 1824,[18][19] and she probably died soon after if she had not already predeceased him.

Ancestry

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 Abraham Fornander (1880). John F. G. Stokes, ed. An Account of the Polynesian Race: Its Origins and Migrations, and the Ancient History of the Hawaiian People to the Times of Kamehameha I 2. Trübner & Co.
  2. Kuykendall, Ralph Simpson (1965) [1938]. The Hawaiian Kingdom 1778–1854, Foundation and Transformation 1. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 0-87022-431-X.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7 3.8 3.9 3.10 Samuel Kamakau (1991). Ruling chiefs of Hawaiʻi (Revised ed.). Honolulu: Kamehameha Schools Press. ISBN 0-87336-014-1.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Robert William Wilcox (May 27, 1898). "Some Geneology. R. W. Wilcox Corrects Statements in Ex-Queen's Book. Ancestry of Liliuokalani. Only Surviving Members of Royal School Destined to Be Rulers of Hawaii". Hawaiian Gazette. Retrieved April 14, 2012.
  5. Christopher Buyers. "Kauai Genealogy". Royal Ark web site. Retrieved 2009-12-03.
  6. Kapiikauinamoku (1956). "Kekaulike Dynasty Held Great Power, Prestige". in The Story of Maui Royalty (The Honolulu Advertiser, Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library).
  7. Elizabeth Kekaaniauokalani Pratt (2009) [1920]. History of Keoua Kalanikupuapa-i-nui: father of Hawaii kings, and his descendants. T. H., republished by Kessinger Publishing. ISBN 978-1-104-76661-0.
  8. Queen Liliʻuokalani (July 25, 2007) [1898]. Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen, Liliuokalani. Lee and Shepard, reprinted by Kessinger Publishing, LLC. ISBN 978-0-548-22265-2.
  9. Esther T. Mookini (1998). "Keopuolani: Sacred Wife, Queen Mother, 1778-1823". Hawaiian Journal of History (Hawaiian Historical Society) 32: 1–24. hdl:10524/569.
  10. Kapiikauinamoku (1955). "Peleuli I Was Another Consort of Great King". in The Story of Hawaiian Royalty (The Honolulu Advertiser, Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library).
  11. Edith Kawelohea McKinzie, Ishmael W. Stagner (1983). Hawaiian Genealogies: Extracted from Hawaiian Language Newspapers 1. University of Hawaii Press. p. 9. ISBN 0-939154-28-5.
  12. Thomas G. Thrum (1916). "Was There A Lost Son of Kamehameha?". Hawaiian Journal of History (Hawaiian Historical Society): 44–51. hdl:10524/96.
  13. Barbara Del Piano (2009). "Kalanimoku: Iron Cable of the Hawaiian Kingdom, 1769-1827". Hawaiian Journal of History (Hawaiian Historical Society) 43: 1–28. hdl:10524/12237.
  14. Sheldon Dibble (1843). History of the Sandwich Islands. Lahainaluna: Press of the Mission Seminary.
  15. John Papa Īī, Mary Kawena Pukui, Dorothy B. Barrère (1983). Fragments of Hawaiian History (2 ed.). Bishop Museum Press. ISBN 0-910240-31-0.
  16. Kapiikauinamoku (1956). "Peleuli II Brought Up In Kamehamehaʻs Court". in The Story of Maui Royalty (The Honolulu Advertiser, Ulukau, the Hawaiian Electronic Library).
  17. Elspeth P. Sterling (1998). Sites of Maui. Bishop Museum Press. p. 42. ISBN 0-930897-97-8.
  18. J. Susan Corley; Puakea M. Nogelmeier (2010). "Notes & Queries: Kalanimoku's Lost Letter". Hawaiian Journal of History (Hawaiian Historical Society) 44: 91–100. hdl:10524/12255.
  19. Ross H. Gast (2002). Agnes C. Conrad, ed. Don Francisco De Paula Marin: The Letters and Journals of Francisco De Paula Marin. University of Hawaii Press. p. 272. ISBN 0-945048-09-2.