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Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!

We can first thank our mothers on this Mother’s Day.

Then we can thank Julia Ward Howe and Anna Jarvis for their efforts in making it a holiday.

It dates back to 1870, when Howe wrote a Mother’s Day Proclamation of Peace.

After witnessing the carnage of the American Civil War and the start of the Franco-Prussian War, Julia Ward Howe, a prominent American abolitionist, feminist and poet wrote the original Mother’s Day Proclamation calling upon the women of the world to unite for peace.

Arise, then, women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts,
Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly: We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies.

Howe was influenced by another peace activist, Anna Reeves Jarvis, a West Virginia woman who organized Mother’s Day Work Clubs before the Civil War.

Women in the clubs raised money for medicine and inspected bottled milk and food. They also hired helpers for families in which the mothers had tuberculosis.

During the Civil War, the Mother’s Day Work Clubs declared their neutrality, cared for the wounded and fed and clothed soldiers on both sides of the conflict.

After the Civil War, Jarvis staged a Mother’s Friendship Day at the courthouse in Pruntytown, W.Va., to bring together people who supported the Confederacy and people who supported the Union. (New England Historical Society)

Anna Reeves Jarvis died at 72 in Pennsylvania on May 9, 1905. Julia Ward Howe died five years later, at age 91 in Portsmouth, R.I., Four years after her death, President Woodrow Wilson declared Mother’s Day a national holiday. But not for peace.

Anna Reeves Jarvis’ daughter, Anna Jarvis, finally succeeded in founding the Mothers’ Day holiday. She held a memorial for her mother on May 10, 1908, at Andrews Methodist Episcopal Church in Grafton, W.Va.

Anna Jarvis continued to campaign for a Mother’s Day holiday until President Woodrow Wilson issued the proclamation on May 8, 1914.

Although Jarvis had promoted the wearing of a white carnation as a tribute to one’s mother, the custom developed of wearing a red or pink carnation to represent a living mother or a white carnation for a mother who was deceased.

Over time the day was expanded to include others, such as grandmothers and aunts, who played mothering roles. What had originally been primarily a day of honor became associated with the sending of cards and the giving of gifts.

However, in protest against its commercialization, Jarvis spent the last years of her life trying to abolish the holiday she had brought into being. (Britannica)

We typically don’t recognize Howe for her Mother’s Day Peace Day; rather, we acknowledge other accomplishments of hers including writing a song during the Civil War.

By November 1861, the early enthusiasm of the Civil War had faded into a grim appreciation of the magnitude of the struggle.

Julia Ward Howe joined a party inspecting the condition of Union troops near Washington DC. To overcome the tedium of the carriage ride back to the city, Howe and her colleagues sang army songs, including “John Brown’s Body.”

One member of the party, Reverend James Clarke, liked the melody but found the lyrics to be distinctly un-elevated. The published version ran “We’ll hang old Jeff Davis from a sour apple tree,” but the marching men sometimes preferred, “We’ll feed Jeff Davis sour apples ‘til he gets the diarhee.”

The next day, Howe awoke to the gray light of early morning. As she lay in bed, lines of poetry formed themselves in her mind. When the last verse was arranged, she rose and scribbled down the words with an old stump of a pen while barely looking at the paper.

She fell back asleep, feeling that “something of importance had happened to me.” The editor of the Atlantic Monthly, James T. Fields, paid Howe five dollars to publish the poem.  (The Atlantic)

“It’s a good march,” says Sparky Rucker. A folk singer and historian who performs a show of Civil War music with his wife, Rucker says it rallies with its rhythm: “It’s just the right cadence to march along, if you’re marching at a picket line or marching down the street carrying signs. … It really gets your blood going [so] that you can slay dragons.” (NPR)

On April 3, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. rose to speak in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee (his I’ve been to the Mountaintop speech). “I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land,” King announced.

“And I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man.” And then he closed in his lyrical voice: “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir won the Award for Best Pop Performance by a Vocal Group or Chorus singing this song in 1959 (not this rendition).

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Dollar Princesses

“I thoroly dislike … these international marriages … which are not even matches of esteem and liking, but which are based upon the sale of the girl for her money and the purchase of the man for his title”. (Theodore Roosevelt to Ambassador Whitelaw Reid, 1906; English Heritage)

Whoa … let’s look back.

British estates “supported huge communities with labourers who worked the land. In the early and mid 19th century rural landowners were the wealthiest class in the wealthiest nation, growing nearly 10 million acres of cereals.”

“However, by the late 19th century the days of wealth and prosperity in farming had slipped away as we entered the Great Depression of British Agriculture. The social and physical landscape changed substantially.” (The Field)

“The British agricultural depression is usually dated from the early 1870s to the end of the century, and was largely caused by the fall in grain prices that followed the opening up of the American prairies to cultivation in the 1870s …”

“… the late 19th century expansion of the American railway transport system, the advent of inexpensive international transportation with the rise of steamships, and other advances in agricultural technology.” (Thomas Martin)

“In the late 19th century, in the years following the American Civil War (1861–5), America underwent rapid development. Often referred to as the Gilded Age (c.1865–1900), this period was characterised by rapid industrial expansion, unprecedented economic growth (largely in the north of the country), mass migration from Europe, and growing inequality caused by the concentration of wealth within an elite class of society.”

“America became a world leader in heavy industry, particularly steel production, coal mining and the building of new railroads. The booming economy fuelled New York’s stock market, which came to rival and eventually replace London as the financial capital of the world.”

“From this economic boom rose a new class of wealthy families. Described as ‘new money’, they were often associated with conspicuous consumption and a desire to gain entrance to social elites in Britain and Europe as well as in America.”  (English Heritage)

“Whilst the lower cost of grain had benefits for Britain’s growing urban population, British grain farmers suffered. Combined with the poor harvests and atrocious weather conditions of the 1870s, the resulting Great Agricultural Depression of 1873 to 1896 caused destitution for farm labourers.” (Museum of English Rural Life)

“Wary of the falling price of grain, many landowners sought to protect their financial interests by switching to sheep farming. However, this was often not done by negotiation with tenant farmers, but by force.”

“Before 1850, the Hampshire chalklands—for instance—had always focused on arable farming. Yet, as grain prices fluctuated, farmers found that their contracts suddenly insisted they rear a minimum number of sheep, and demanded that they apply for permission to plough any land.”  (Museum of English Rural Life)

“The British aristocracy has always been a very exclusive club. It’s this small group of men with titles – you know, your barons and your viscounts. And in the late 1800s, they were firmly established as the largest landowners in Britain.” (Wailin Wong, NPR)

“The decline in late 19th century agricultural prices, by reducing the incomes of aristocratic landed estates and of non-aristocratic landed families, led to richly dowried American heiress brides being substituted for brides from landed families in British aristocratic marriages.”  (Thomas Martin)

“So cash-strapped British aristocrats represented the demand side of the dollar-princess marriage equation. For the supply side, we have to cross the Atlantic to the U.S., where some families were emerging as the nouveau riche – new money.” (Darian Woods, NPR)

“These new-money American families coveted status, but they couldn’t get it. They were shunned by American high society, which was ruled by old-money families in New York.” (Darian Woods, NPR)

“In the latter part of 19th-century America,… young [American] women married into British and European noble families.  Some Gilded Age families wanted their daughters to gain titles to secure their social standing, and many willing aristocrats needed the significant marriage settlements to repair crumbling estates and fill up their bank accounts. ” (The Gilded Gettleman)

“The wave of trans-Atlantic marriages came to a halt with the outbreak of World War I, which upended life for people across socioeconomic classes. The resulting cultural and economic changes meant that women could have jobs other than getting married. They didn’t have to be mineral deposits anymore.”  (Darian Woods, NPR)

In addition, “American heiresses found husbands among European aristocratic families outside of Britain. All told, … some 500 American women married European aristocrats [up to] World War I. Their dowries were estimated at more than $4 billion in today’s money.”  (Darian Woods, NPR)

One such Dollar Princess, the daughter of a prosperous American financier and a socially ambitious mother, was “Jennie Jerome, born in Brooklyn of a mother who was one-quarter Iroquois Indian, was one of the few tattooed women in high society. The dark beauty’s tattooing was a snake coiled around her left wrist.”

“She married Lord Randolph Churchill and for many years was a glamorous figure in English society.”  She was the mother of … Winston Churchill. (International Churchill Society)

“Downton Abbey” is modeled on the Gilded Age ‘dollar princesses’.  The family’s fortune, the young unwed heiress ends up in London and marries into the British aristocracy. “The family in ‘Downton Abbey’ is fictional.”  (Wailin Wong, NPR)

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by Peter T Young 3 Comments

Kamehameha Death

“E oni wale no ‘oukou i ku‘u pono ‘a‘ole e pau.”
“Endless is the good that I have given you to enjoy.”
(Kamehameha)

Don Francisco de Paula Marin made numerous notations in his diary from 1818 to 1825 of the epidemics of colds and flu among the Hawaiians and reported, ‘many people died.’ (Van Dyke) Both Kamehameha and Ka’ahumanu may have come down with it. (Parker)

It was Kamehameha’s intention to remain on O‘ahu until his death, but he became suspicious of conspiracies among the younger chiefs. Even if they were sons of his old advisors, and they took the place of their fathers on the council, he was not confident in their loyalty.

They were gaining more and more agricultural land and followers in the districts allotted them. Trading with the foreigners also increased their personal arsenals. This power shifting alarmed the great chief and so in the year 1812 he decided to move his capitol back to Kona with him.

Kamehameha required all weapons to be placed on his own western vessel, the Keoua (formerly the Fair American) for transport to Hawaii Island. The chiefs were allowed two attendants each and were told to follow his vessel in separate vessels. (Parker)

“The view of the king’s camp was concealed only by a narrow tongue of land, consisting of naked rocks, but when we had sailed round we were surprised at the sight of the most beautiful landscape.”

“We found ourselves in a small sandy bay of the smoothest water, protected against the waves of the sea; on the bank was a pleasant wood of palm-trees, under whose shade were built several straw houses …”

“… to the right, between the green leaves of the banana-trees, peeped two snow-white houses, built of stone after the European fashion, on which account this place has the mixed appearance of a European and Owhyee village”.

“(T)o the left, close to the water, on an artificial elevation, stood the morai (heiau) of the king, surrounded by large wooden statues of his gods, representing caricatures of the human figure.” (Kotzebue, visiting in 1816)

‘I‘i describes that the “King erected three houses thatched with dried ti leaves,” a sleeping house (hale moe) and separate men’s (hale mua) and women’s (hale ‘āina) eating houses.”

Kamehameha first moved into the former residence of Keawe a Mahi. He then built another house on the seaward side of that residence, that was referred to as hale nana mahina ‘ai.

This house was built high on stones and faced directly upland toward the planting fields of Kūāhewa. Like an observation post this house afforded a view of the farm lands and was also a good vantage point to see canoes coming from South Kona and from the Kailua vicinity. (Rechtman)

Fishing was the occupation of Kamehameha’s old age at Kailua. He would often go out with his fishermen and when there had been a great catch of aku or ‘ahi he would give it away to the chiefs and people, the cultivators and canoe makers. (Kamakau)

At the onset of his illness, Kamehameha was treated by his kahuna. When the illness would not yield to their treatment, a ship was sent to Honolulu for Marin, a Spaniard who had no formal medical training, but had some basic Western medical knowledge.

Marin, noted in his diary, April 15, that a ship arrived at Honolulu that day from Hawaii seeking him ‘to cure the king;’ Marin reached Kailua four days later and stayed there until after the death of the king; his services proved ineffectual. (Kuykendall)

During Kamehamehaʻs illness the kahuna had suggested human sacrifices to appease, or pacify, the gods so that they might prolong Kamehamehaʻs life. To this Kamehameha said, “No! The men are kapu [sacred] for the king!” By king he meant his son and heir, Liholiho. (Williams)

About ten o’clock he took a mouthful of food and a swallow of water. Ka-iki-o-‘ewa then asked him for a last word, saying. “We are all here, your younger brothers, your chiefs, your foreigner (Young.) Give us a word.”

“For what purpose?’ asked the chief. “As a saying for us” (I hua na makou.) “E oni wale no ‘oukou i ku‘u pono ‘a‘ole e pau (Endless is the good that I have given you to enjoy.”)

Nearby, crouched sadly in silence, were John Young, his friend for almost thirty years; High Chief Hoapili; High Chief Kalanimōku; Queen Ka‘ahumanu; the heir Liholiho and others close to the king. Hours later, at two o’clock on the morning of May 8, 1819, Kamehameha passed away at Kamakahonu, Kailua-Kona. (Williams)

Fourteen years Kamehameha fought to unite the islands and he ruled twenty-three years. When he died his body was still strong. his eyes were not dimmed, his head unbowed, nor did he lean upon a cane; it was only by his gray hair that one could tell his age. (Kamakau)

The period of mourning began in Kailua-Kona. It lasted about ten days and was called kūmākena (‘to mourn loudly for the dead.’) When the people learned that Kamehameha I was dead, many fell to their knees, crying and wailing. They became hysterical and expressed their grief in painful ways.

The kapu was not enforced at this time so there was not only sadness and grief but disorder and confusion, as well. The kapu normally governed what the people could and could not do. (Williams)

Immediately after the death of the Kamehameha, his son Liholiho, heir to the throne, went away with his personal attendants to Kawaihae, Kohala, where he remained until Kailua, defiled by death, had been purified. After about a week, he returned for the purpose of being proclaimed king. (Kuykendall) (Image by Brook Parker.)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Boeing Wonderland

Maj. John F. Ohmer, Jr., of the Office of the Chief of Engineers, an expert in camouflage, found that almost nothing had been done to conceal military installations in the US. (Corps of Engineers)

The art and science of camouflage had infatuated Ohmer for years. After joining the Army in 1938, he combined his love of magic and photography to find inventive ways to fool the eye and the lens.

When Ohmer went overseas to study Britain’s wartime concealment efforts, he marveled as German attackers wasted their bombs in open fields brilliantly attired to appear as vital targets. (Popular Mechanics)

During the Battle of Britain, which lasted from July until October 1940, the Luftwaffe rained thousands of bombs over England. One of Germany’s main goals for the constant bombing was to destroy the Royal Air Force.

The Luftwaffe had a long list of important targets that included aircraft factories and airfields. The British covered their factories, warplanes and tanks with camouflaging materials and paint, and put fake airplanes and tanks in fields far away from civilization. The Luftwaffe bombed hundreds of fake targets, leaving the real targets intact. (Mishpacha)

As commander of the Army’s 604th Engineer Camouflage Battalion, Ohmer campaigned to demonstrate his craft by obscuring Hawai‘i’s Wheeler Field in 1941. His superiors rejected his proposal because of the $56,210 price tag (nearly $900,000 today).

Then on December 7, 1941, Japanese attackers bombed and strafed Oahu’s exposed airfields, along with the naval base at Pearl Harbor. Wheeler alone lost 83 warplanes, each one nearly worth the cost of Ohmer’s proposed cover-up. (Popular Mechanics)

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Ohmer received an urgent call from the US Army. The threat of further attack led Ohmer’s superiors to reassess the value of his vision.

The most visible and vulnerable targets were a dozen or so distinctive, wooden aircraft assembly buildings. Military leaders were concerned that just a few air-dropped incendiary bombs would burn them to the ground. The loss of just one major airplane-producing facility could lengthen the war considerably. (Popular Mechanics)

Ohmer’s assignment … he had to make everything worth bombing, from San Diego to Seattle, disappear. The long list included airfields, oil depots, aircraft warning stations, military camps, and defensive gun batteries.

“He was a Hollywood art director and designer who worked on classic musicals of the late 1930s, ones with Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald and Busby Berkeley choreographed extravaganzas, the kind of movies that lit up the theater.”

“He was an art director at Golden Age MGM, and was nominated for an Oscar in 1940. He married one of the screen’s biggest stars – Veronica Lake. John Stewart Detlie was right at the heart of Tinseltown glamour.” (Cascade PBS)

Ohmer created illusions for America’s five largest aircraft manufacturers situated in California and Washington. These manufacturing plants – from Douglas Aircraft Co., Consolidated Vultee (now Convair), North American Aviation, Lockheed Martin, and Boeing – were transformed to look like cities or towns from the air. (CoffeeOrDie)

Ohmer turned to Hollywood to find the most adept civilian workers, raiding movie studios to leverage the skills of set designers, art directors, painters, carpenters, and landscape artists for the urgent task, along with a handful of willing animators, lighting experts, and prop designers.

The crown jewel of Ohmer’s concealments took place near Seattle, where Boeing’s Plant 2 sprawled over 700,000 square feet of floor space. Inside, thousands of men and women churned out a new B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber roughly every 90 minutes.

Ohmer placed his top movie studio recruit on the Boeing project, architect John Detlie. He was pure Hollywood, married to movie star Veronica Lake. Before Detlie joined the war effort, he was an Oscar-nominated art director and set designer at MGM.

In Seattle, Detlie assembled 13 architects and draftsmen, eight commercial artists, seven landscape architects, five engineers, and a soil-management expert.

Thwarting an enemy reconnaissance flier took more than simply covering the factory building. A sharp-eyed scout might zero in on the adjoining airfield, parking lots, or ramp areas. Making Boeing’s entire production facility disappear meant sowing confusion over several square miles of land. (Popular Mechanics)

Located at 7755 East Marginal Way S. in Tukwila on the banks of the Duwamish River, Boeing’s Plant 2 (also known as Air Force Plant 17) was a factory building built in 1936 by The Boeing Company in Seattle, Washington – the factory goal was to build early prototypes of the B-17 Flying Fortress and the Boeing 307 Stratoliners.

By the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the plant had been expanded to 1,776,000 square feet. In total, 6,981 B-17s were produced in Plant 2.

Boeing Plant 2 gave birth to some of the world’s most significant aircraft and a home to ‘Rosie the Riveter’ – women who built thousands of World War II planes.

Plant 2 was so critical that Boeing camouflaged its roof with faux streets and houses of fabric and plywood, making it nearly vanish into nearby neighborhoods. Beneath the plant, tunnels led to cafeterias, restrooms and classrooms, innovations to make life easier for workers and keep them close to their jobs. (Fox)

The idea was to blend the facility into the surrounding neighborhood across the river. This elaborate pretend town was nicknamed the “Boeing Wonderland” by the Seattle Daily Times on July 23, 1945. (RareHistoricalPhotos)

Workers obscured the heart of Boeing’s facility with 26 acres of camouflage netting stretched across the roof to create the appearance of a new faux ground level elevated roughly 50 feet above the surrounding landscape.

The building’s uneven bays and distinctive saw-tooth profile required the netting to be supported by wooden scaffolding or steel cables in low spots.

Reinforced catwalks, sometimes masquerading as sidewalks, included wood and wire handrails to keep a distracted maintenance man from straying off the supported path and plunging through the netting. (Popular Mechanics)

Disguising the active runways and taxiways as an innocuous urban scene called for a two-dimensional solution to not impede aircraft operations. Planners envisioned a pattern of visual noise composed of lawns, buildings, and roads crisscrossing the active airfield.

First, builders mixed finely crushed rock into bitumen, an asphalt-like substance, and applied it to areas heavily trafficked by aircraft. The mixture provided a dull texture to the airfield’s large, flat concrete surfaces. In non-traffic spaces, the men added wood chips and cement to absorb light. (Popular Mechanics)

Over the rough texture, workmen used paint to create an intricate top-down view of a typical neighborhood, devised by Detlie’s crew. Its pigment, developed by Warner Brothers, was reputed to “resist disclosure of the camouflage through infra-red photography.”

Oil mixed with the custom paint helped establish a convincing cross-hatch of artificial roads. On the airport’s infield, men constructed six-inch-high false buildings made from concrete blocks.

From overhead, the small structures cast realistic shadows and gave just a small amount of depth, giving more life to the scene. The finished deception looked amazingly impressive from the “attacker’s-eye-view” at five to ten thousand feet. Only as a pilot came in low for landing did the hidden runway lose its illusion. (Popular Mechanics)

The strange, house-filled neighborhood could be seen in the middle of an industrial area from the air. The “neighborhood” was completed in 1944 and removed a year after the war. (Seattle Times)

Fortunately, the enemy bombers never came. (AirMailNews)

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by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Kings and Queens

Hawaiian Dynasties

Using stratigraphic archaeology and refinements in radiocarbon dating, studies suggest it was about 1000-1200 AD that “Polynesian explorers first made their remarkable voyage from central Eastern Polynesia Islands, across the doldrums and into the North Pacific, to discover Hawai‘i.”  (Kirch)

“(I)n the earliest times all the people were alii … it was only after the lapse of several generations that a division was made into commoners and chiefs” (Malo)  Kamakau noted, in early Hawaiʻi “The parents were masters over their own family group … No man was made chief over another.”  Essentially, the extended family was the socio, biological, economic, and political unit.

The arrival of Pā‘ao from Tahiti in about the thirteenth century resulted in the establishment (or, at least expanded upon) a religious and political code in old Hawai`i, collectively called the kapu system.

Fornander writes that prior to the period of Pā‘ao “… the kapu (forbidden actions) were few and the ceremonials easy; that human sacrifices were not practiced, and cannibalism unknown; and that government was more of a patriarchal than of a regal nature.”

Until European contact, Hawai‘i was a highly stratified society with strictly maintained castes. The ali‘i (chiefs) headed the social pyramid and ruled over the land. Highly regarded and sometimes feared, the kahuna (professionals) were experts on religious ritual or specialists in canoe-building, herbal medicine, and healing.

The maka‘āinana (commoners) farmed and fished; built walls, houses, and fishponds; and paid taxes to the paramount chiefs and his chiefs. Kauwā, the lowest class, were outcasts or slaves. (NPS)

Each Hawaiian was born into a class of people, and at the top were the rulers, a small but powerful class of chiefs, known as the aliʻi and in those days, the aliʻi was the government.

Of all the people, it was the ali‘i who held the greatest respect and the one whom no one questioned.  But this class of royalty did not just consist of the chief and his family, the aliʻi or the government system was more complicated and consisted of more than what most people think of when they hear of the Aliʻi.  (Seleska)

When Kamehameha I unified the islands under a single rule, dynasties emerged and references of “King” and “Queen” were given to these new monarchies.

The Kamehameha Dynasty ruled for nearly a century from the late 1700s to the late 1800s, while the Kalākaua Dynasty ruled from 1874 to 1893.  These Ali‘i monarchs continued to rule Hawai‘i until Queen Lili‘uokalani was forced out of rule and the Hawaiian Monarchy was overthrown.

Kamehameha I, Kamehameha the Great (reign 1782-1819)

Born in North Kohala on the Big Island, Kamehameha united all the major islands under one rule in 1810.

Kamehameha II, Liholiho (reign 1819-1824)

The son of Kamehameha and his sacred wife Keopūolani, Liholiho overthrew the ancient kapu system by allowing men and women of the court to eat together.  At the same time, he announced that the heiau (temples) should be destroyed.

Kamehameha III, Kauikeaouli (reign 1825-1854)

Born in Keauhou, the younger brother of Liholiho had the longest reign.  He was not yet a teenager when he was proclaimed king in 1825 under a regency with Ka‘ahumanu, his father’s favorite queen.

Kamehameha IV, Alexander Liholiho (reign 1854-1863)

The nephew of Kauikeaouli, Alexander Liholiho was the grandson of Kamehameha I.  He ascended to the throne after the death of his uncle in December of 1854. 

Kamehameha V, Lot Kapuaiwa Kamehameha (reign 1863-1872)

Four years older than his brother Kamehameha IV, Lot would also rule for just nine years.  Lot Kamehameha did not name a successor, which led to the invoking of the constitutional provision for electing kings of Hawai‘i.

William Charles Lunalilo (reign 1873-1874)

The grandson of a half-brother of Kamehameha I, Lunalilo defeated David Kalākaua to become the first king to be elected.  He offered many amendments to the Constitution of 1864, such as abolishing the property qualifications for voting.

David Kalākaua (reign 1874-1891)

Kalākaua was the first king in history to visit the United States.  “The Merry Monarch” was fond of old Hawaiian customs, and he attempted to restore the people’s lost heritage.  King Kalākaua built ‘Iolani Palace.

Queen Lydia Kamakaeha Lili‘uokalani (reign 1891-1893)

In 1891, upon the death of her brother, King Kalākaua, Queen Lili‘uokalani succeeded to the throne.  Queen Lili‘uokalani was the last monarch of the Hawaiian Islands.

British Royalty

The origins of kingship in England can be traced to the second century BC when Celtic and Belgic tribesmen emigrated from continental Europe and settled in Britain, displacing or absorbing the aboriginal inhabitants. The settlers established a number of tribal kingdoms.

Celtic Britain moved through the Roman invasion to the Norman Conquest of 1066 and the establishment of the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms and the coming of Christianity and the unification of England.  (National Portrait Gallery)

Fast forward to 1701, the British Parliament passed a law called the Act of Settlement. The law stipulated that only a Protestant could be king or queen of Britain. Roman Catholics were removed from the line of succession.

Then came the house of Hanover, a British royal house of German origin. The dynasty descended from George Louis of Hanover (a region of Germany), who succeeded to the British crown as George I in 1714.

The dynasty also provided the monarchs George II, George III, George IV, William IV, and Victoria. The six Hanoverian monarchs ruled Great Britain between 1714 and 1901. The dynasty was succeeded by the house of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, which was renamed in 1917 the house of Windsor.

George II (reign 1727-1760)

George II was the son of George I. George II became known for his bravery during military conflicts, such as the War of the Spanish Succession. George II played a key role in military engagements, including the French and Indian War, where British successes shaped a pivotal era in British history. His reign also witnessed significant advancements in the economy, culture, and the establishment of cabinet government, balancing the powers of the Crown and Parliament.

George III (reign 1760-1820)

George III succeeded his grandfather, George II, in the midst of the Seven Years’ War/French and Indian War (1756–63).  Having ascended to the throne at just 22, George III’s dramatic reign included the American Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, and expansion of the British Empire.

However, his reign is often most remembered for the illness that plagued his later life. He was declared unfit to rule in 1810, when his son George IV – one of 15 children – became Regent. (Britannica)

George IV (reign 1820-1830)

Son of George III, George IV was known for his extravagant spending, gambling and womanizing. Once married in secret to a Roman Catholic, his only legitimate heir with his second wife Caroline, Princess Charlotte, died in 1817 while he was still on the throne.

William IV (reign 1830-1837)

The brother of George IV, William never expected to become king. As a young man he served in the Royal Navy during the American War of Independence, and as king he oversaw major parliamentary reform. He was determined to live long enough to see his niece, Victoria, reach her majority, ensuring she would accede the throne directly.

Victoria (reign 1837-1901)

Niece of William IV, Victoria inherited the throne through her father Edward, the fourth son of George III. Victoria’s was the second longest reign in British history. (Queen Elizabeth II was longest over 70 years, 214 days.) Remembered for her strict moral values, she oversaw further expansion of the British Empire and the Industrial Revolution, and with her beloved Prince Albert.

For an expanded discussion, including interactions between the Hawaiian and British monarchs, go here: https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/wp-content/uploads/Hawaiian_and_British_Royalty.pdf

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