Kings & Queens of Hawai'i
First Dynasty - Kamehameha Dynasty
King Kamehameha I
Reigned from 1795 - 1819
By the late 18th century, the warrior Kamehameha had already conquered five of the eight main Hawaiian Islands, and in 1795 he conquered the island of Oahu.
The kingdom of the islands of Niihau and Kauai were never conquered by Kamehameha but in 1810 their ruler, Kaumuali'i placed his islands under the control of Kamehameha, establishing the Kingdom of Hawai'i in full extension.
H.M. King Kamehameha II
Reigned From 1819 - 1824
After Kamehameha died in May 1919, his son, Liholiho, ascended the throne. He was responsible for much social and religious change in the islands including abolishing the kapu system of laws and regulations (one of which forbade men and women from eating together), and he allowed American missionaries to live in Hawai'i to promote Christianity. In 1824, Kamehameha II and his wife took a trip to London, visiting Rio de Janeiro on the way. A reception at Westminster Abbey was held in their honour. Tragically, neither Kamehameha II nor his wife were to return home, with both catching measles and passing away in the British capital.
H.M. King Kamehameha III
Reigned from 1825 - 1854
Kamehameha II had named his brother, Prince Kauikeaouli, his successor and after he died in London, Kauikeaouli ascended the throne as King Kamehameha III.
He is credited with establishing Constitutional Monarchy in Hawai'i, and creating new Laws and policies of the Hawaiian Kingdom in the 1830s. He established the Chiefs' Children's School at which the highest-ranking chiefs' children would be educated and groomed for positions in the Hawaiian government. Kamehameha III died in December 1854.
H.M. King Kamehameha IV
Reigned from 1854 - 1863
Whilst Kamehameha III had two of his own children, it was his nephew, Prince Alexander Liholiho, whom he named heir.
The greatest achievement during the reign of King Kamehameha IV was the establishment of a large hospital in Honolulu, Queen's Hospital, which he named after his wife, Queen Emma. The hospital still in full operation today.
Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma had only one child, Prince Albert, godson of Queen Victoria of England, but unfortunately died at the age of four,
Kamehameha IV died in November 1863.
H.M. King Kamehameha V
Reigned from 1863 - 1872
Kamehameha IV did not have succesor so he named his brother, Prince Lot Kapuaiwa, his successor.
It was planned that he would be the successor of Hoapili as Royal Governor of Maui, although this never happened because King Kamehameha III had declared him eligible for the throne. He is responsible for founding the Order of Kamehameha I.
On his death bed, Kamehameha V asked two Princesses from the Kamehameha dynastic bloodline, Princess Ruth Ke'elikolani and Princess Bernice Pauahi, to accept the Throne as Queen, but they declined, and he died without naming an heir.
First Elected King
After the end of the First Dynasty, or Kamehameha Dynasty, the line of succession was interrupted and, according to the legislation in force, an election was held among the eligible highest ranking Ali'i. The elected king was King William Charles Lunalilo. His reign was very short-lived. ,it lasted about a year, which led to new elections.
H.M. King Lunalilo
Reigned from 1873 - 1874
Without an heir to the throne, the Constitution allowed for the election of one among candidates of the highest ranking Ali'i descent to become the Sovereign.
The election was won by William Lunalilo, grandson of the brother of King Kamehameha I.
He died a year after he was elected, however, like his predecessor, he had not named an heir.
Second Dynasty - Kalākaua Dynasty
H.M. King Kalākaua was the second elected King, giving the name to the Second Dynasty. It was a short lived dynasty, because after King's Kalākaua death, his sister Liliʻuokalani succeeded him as Sovereign, Her reign was interrupted and illegally deposed by the American Annexation Committee of the American Provisional Government.
H.M. King Kalākaua
Reigned from 1874 - 1891
David Kalākaua was elected to the throne in February 1874. In 1881 he toured the world, visiting numerous heads of state, becoming the first Monarch to circumnavigate the globe. He was responsible for renovating the Royal residence in Honolulu into the Iolani Palace. He was a King of forward thinking vision.
King Kalākaua founded the Hawaiian Youth's Abroad Program for native hawaiian students toe learn lidership skill's abroad to become valuable assets to the Kingdom. The program was legislated by Prince Robert Hoapili Baker I.
In 1887, Kalākaua was forced to sign the Bayonet Constitution, restricting his constitutional powers.
Kalākaua fell ill and died in January 1891 while on a diplomatic trip to California with his cousin and aide-de-camp Prince Robert Hoapili Baker I, who carried the king's Crown and Sceptre in the funeral procession.
H.M. Queen Liliʻuokalani
Reigned from 1891 - 1893
Having had no children, King Kalākaua named his sister, Princess Lydia Lili'u, his successor.
She ascended the throne upon the death of her brother, becoming Queen Lili'uokalani, creating a new Constitution to replace the one King Kalākaua had forcibly signed, while still honouring her brother's instructions.
Her reign ended when she was deposed by the American Provisional Government on 17th January 1893.
Fall of the Monarchy
The Annexation Comittee imprisoned the Queen in the southeastern room on the second level of the Iolani Palace for eight months. The native hawaiians and Royalists fought against the soldiers of the American Provisional Government in a short period of civil war in an effort to reinstall their Queen before many were killed or imprisioned. Hawaiian citizens that owned property, including the descendants of Ali'i and especially the highest ranking Ali'i of royal lineage, were forced to register their names, addresses and assets.
After the illegal annexation of Hawai'i by the United States of America, the last Royal House of Hawai'i ceases to reign. Neither King Kalākaua nor his sister Queen Liliʻuokalani had any descendants. King Kalākaua in his will, and in accordance with Hawaiian law in force at the time, was very clear that he had instructed his sister to name their niece, Ka'iulani, who was educated and prepared in Europe to reign as heir and successor.
As the progenitor of the last reigning dynasty, the King's will serves as the correct reference for instructions concerning succession. The will is very clear starting that if his niece were to have no descendants, then the line of succession would pass to his nearest blood kin, and when his blood kin were extinguished, the lines of the nephews of his wife, Queen consort Kapi'olani, follow in the line of succession. As Ka'iulani had no continuity, the Line of succession falls to King Kalākaua's cousin, Prince Robert Hoapili Baker I, the highest ranking person of blue blood in the Kingdom of Hawai'i.
Thus, the Dynastic Legitimacy of the Royal House of Hawai'i falls to Prince Robert Hoapili Baker I, and which passed down to Prince George I'i Baker, father of Princess Georgette Pua'ala and grandfather of H.R.H. Princess Idony Punahele Hoapili, current Head of the Royal House of Hawai'i.
H.R.H. Princess Victoria Kaʻiulani
Kaʻiulani was born at Honolulu, on the island of Oʻahu, in the Hawaiian Kingdom. At her christening, she was named Victoria Kawēkiu Kaʻiulani Lunalilo Kalaninuiahilapalapa Cleghorn. In 1898, her aunt Liliʻuokalani wrote it as Victoria Kaʻiulani, Kalaninuiahilapalapa, Kawēkiu i Lunalilo or Victoria Kawēkiu Lunalilo Kalaninuiahilapalapa Kaʻiulani Cleghorn in her memoir Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen.
Kaʻiulani was named after her maternal aunt Anna Kaʻiulani who died young, and Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, whose help restored the sovereignty and independence of the Hawaiian Kingdom during the reign of Kamehameha III. Her primary Hawaiian name comes from ka ʻiu lani which means "the highest point of heaven" or "the royal sacred one" in the Hawaiian language. Kawēkiu means "the highest rank or station". At the request of Charles Kanaʻina, she was also given the name Lunalilo, translated as Luna (high) lilo (lost) or "so high up as to be lost to sight", after Kanaʻina's son and her uncle King Kalākaua's predecessor King Lunalilo (r. 1873–74) to strengthen her eligibility for the throne. The name Kalaninuiahilapalapa signified her association with the Royal House of Keawe (traditional rulers of the island of Hawaii) and the flames of the torch that burns at midday, a symbol of kapu, used by the House of Kalākaua from their ancestor Iwikauikaua.
In fact, Princess Kaiulani was nominated by her uncle King Kalakaua's will to be the Heir to the Crown, as he had no descendants. In the event that she left no descendants, she would pass to the nearest branch of her blood (King Kalakaua's blood), which would make the Crown of Hawai'i fall to her cousin Prince Robert Hoapili Baker I.
Princess Kaiulani died leaving no heirs.
H.R.H. Prince Robert Hoapili Baker I
H.R.H. Princess Kaʻiulani died in 1893, at the young age of 23. After her death, the right to the Crown and the right to become Head of the Royal House of Hawai'i falls in the closest kin to the Sovereign, which was the cousin of King Kalākaua and Queen Lili'uokalani, Prince Robert Hoapili Baker I.
Prince Robert Hoapili Baker I was the eldest child of the Royal Prince Ikekeleaiku of the Royal Court of Kamakahelei, and High Ali'i Chiefess Maliekaihilani (aka Malie Kaikilani) Napu'upahoehoe, a direct descendant of the first recorded XV century ruler in the Hawaiian islands, Liloa. After the death of the Royal Prince Ikekeleaiku, later remarried a royally honored Captain of Oceanian waters named Adam C. Baker. Prince Robert Hoapili Baker I was the blood cousin appointed as King's Privy Councillor and as royal aide-de-camp of King David Kalākaua, and his grandmother was the regnant Queen Kamakahelei of the independent kingdom of Kaua'i and Ni'ihau prior to the complete unification of the Hawaiian Islands.
Ikekele'aiku and Kaumuali'i were half-brothers through their Royal mother in common. Queen Regnant Kamakahelei of Kaua'i and Ni'ihau. The father of Ikekele'aiku was of the highest ranking of Ali'i from Kauai. From his birth in 1847, the eldest child and son of the Royal Prince Ikekele'aiku and High Ali'i Malie Kaikilani Napu'upahoehoe, Kekaipuka'ala Hoapili (christened with the first name Robert, and therefore known as Robert Hoapili), was a Prince by birth. In his obituaries and royal ceremonies, Robert Hoapili Baker is referred to as an "Heir of Island Sovereigns", firstly, due to his proven blood relation to the last sovereign dynasty––the dynasty of King Kalākaua and his sister Queen Lili'uokalani––and secondly, to his family's blood relation to the Kamakahelei and Kamehameha Royal Dynasties.
High Ali'i Julia Kapi'olani, who later became Queen Consort to King David Kalākaua, was also Prince Robert's second cousin by blood, and a direct descendant (great-granddaughter) of Queen Kamakahelei.
Prince Colonel Robert Hoapili Baker was also marked in history as having been King Kalākaua's trusted advisor and is notable for legislating the king's progressive vision of the Hawaiian Youths Abroad Program, and the only family member with King Kalākaua during the voyage which accompanied the king's body back to Honolulu. Prince Robert Hoapili Baker was honored with the place of leading the procession and carrying King Kalākaua's crown and scepter from the 'Iolani Palace to Mauna 'Ala (the Royal Mausoleum) during the funeral march, indicating his familial status and importance to the Crown. His rank in the Royal Family of the last sovereign dynasty of Hawai'i, as following the line of his cousin, the Primary Sovereign, King Kalākaua, was most publicly explicit when he honored international Royal ceremonial protocol by carrying the king's crown.
Along with many historical pre-unification ali'i lineages across the islands, the Hoapili Baker Family also have multiple royal ancestral lineages. The Hoapili Baker Family's multiple lineages of the rank of Royal heritage include:
• the last reigning sovereign dynasty of the unified Kingdom of Hawai'i, the Royal Kalākaua dynasty, by which the High Ali'i Hoapili Baker Family are legitimately of contemporary Royal rank, as Prince Robert Hoapili Baker I was cousin to the Primary Sovereign, King David Kalākaua, and his sister Queen Lydia Lili'uokalani, and the highest ranking Royal Ali'i in his time after the Primary Sovereign.
• the longest reigning independent sovereign kingdom of Kaua'i and Ni'ihau, the royal dynasty of the court of Queen Kamakahelei.
H.R.H. Prince Robert Hoapili Baker died on April 4, 1900, at his residence in Pawaʻa, Honolulu.