_edited.png)
_edited.png){kind=small}
_edited.png)
Royal Family of Hawaii Official Website
_edited.png)
_edited.png)
H.M. King Kamehameha I
Queen Consort Kaʻahumanu,
wife of King Kamehameha the Great, although they had no children.
From the House of Keōua Nui, Paiʻea Kalaninui Kamehameha, became the most noted warrior and eventually conqueror of the whole Hawaiian archipelago, he was born at Kohala on the big island of Hawaiʻi and was the second son of Keōua Kalanikupuapaʻikalaninui by his second wife, she being his cousin Kekuʻiapoiwa, by lineage and blood, both paternally and maternally, Kamehameha was considered one of the highest of the high. From his infancy, Kamehameha always showed signs of bravery and a great desire for athletic contests, spear-wielding, ulu maika and other magnificent exercises of that period. He inherited the akua (god) Kūkaʻilimoku from his favorite uncle, the ruler, Kalaniopuʻu, brother of Keōua-nui. The significance of the name of the idol god bequeathed to him, "Kūkaʻilimoku" , the word itself meaning "I Conquer".
Kamehameha was already the conqueror of Hawai`i, as well as Maui, Kahoʻolawe, Lanaʻi and Molokaʻi. He moved across to Oʻahu and set at Waikiki and Waialae. In 1795, Kamehameha drove the warriors of Oʻahu's King Kalanikupule, up to Nuʻuanu valley as they plunged to their deaths over the Pali, eventually conquering Oahu. Kauai and Niʻihau was never conquered by Kamehameha and was a sovereign kingdom under King Kaumualiʻi. However, King Kaumualiʻi placed his islands under the sovereignty of Kamehameha, uniting the islands with the Kingdom being established under the rule of Kamehameha I in 1810.
Kamehameha Died on May 8, 1819 on the island of Hawaii, His son, Liholiho ascended the throne under the title of
Kamehameha II.
Queen Consort Keōpūolani, wife of King Kamehameha the Great
Children:
Prince Liholiho Iolani
(King Kamehameha II),
Prince Kauikeaoli
(King Kamehameha III),
& Princess Nahiʻenaʻena
An American sculptor, Thomas R. Gould was commissioned to create a statue of Kamehameha by the legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom and modeled the figure at his studio in Rome in 1879. It was cast in bronze at a Paris foundry in 1880 but was lost in a shipwreck on its way to Hawai'i.
A second statue was cast from the same model and arrived safely, it was unveiled by King, Kalākaua, in 1883 in front of the Judiciary Building in Honolulu, where it still remains. The first statue was subsequently recovered and brought to Hawaiʻi in 1912. It was placed at Kohala Court House in Kapaʻau on the Island of Hawai'i.
A third statue was commissioned by the State Hawai‘i and unveiled on April 15, 1969 in Washington D.C. Statutory Hall, and later moved to the Visitor's Center.
A fourth Kamehameha statue stands in Hilo, Hawai‘i at the north end of the Wailoa River State Park. The 14-foot sculpture was created by R. Sandrin in Vicenza, Italy in 1963 and erected at this site in June of 1997.
Statue unveiled by King Kalākaua located at Aliʻiolani Hale, Oʻahu
Statue at Washington D.C.
Statue lost at sea and recovered, installed at Kohala Court House in 1912
Statue at Wailoa River State Park
June 11 is proclaimed Kamehameha Day
BY AUTHORITY.
We, Kamehameha V., by the Grace of God, of the Hawaiian Islands, King, do hereby proclaim, that it is OUR will and pleasure that the Eleventh day of June of each year be hereafter observed as a Public Holiday in memory of OUR Grandfather and Predecessor, KAMEHAMEHA I, the founder of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Given at ʻIolani Palace, under OUR hand and the Great Seal of OUR Kingdom, this 22nd day of December, A. D. 1871.
[Legal Seal] KAMEHAMEHA R.
