House of Kalākaua
The House of Kalākaua, or Kalākaua Dynasty, also known as the Keawe-a-Heulu line, was the reigning family of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi under King Kalākaua and Queen Liliʻuokalani. They assumed power after the last king of the House of Kamehameha, Lunalilo, died without designating an heir, leading to the election of Kalākaua and provoking the Honolulu Courthouse riot. The dynasty lost power with the overthrow of Liliʻuokalani and the end of the Kingdom in 1893. Liliʻuokalani died in 1917, leaving only cousins as heirs.
House of Kalākaua
House of Piʻilani, House of 'I-Kanaka, House of Keawe
1874
King/ Queen of Hawaii, High Chief, Ali'i
ʻIolani Palace (seat)
1917
1893 (deposed by a coup d'état)
House of Kawānanakoa, House of Unauna
The House of Kalākaua was descended from chiefs on the islands of Hawaiʻi, Maui, and Kauaʻi. The torch that burns at midday symbolizes the dynasty, based on the sacred kapu Kalākaua's ancestor High Chief Iwikauikaua.
Origin[edit]
The dynasty was founded by Kalākaua when he ascended the Hawaiian Kingdom throne in 1874 and included his brothers and sisters who were children of Analea Keohokālole (1816–1869) and Caesar Kaluaiku Kapaʻakea (1815–1866). The family was of the aliʻi class of the Hawaiian nobility and were collateral relations of the House of Kamehameha, sharing common descent from the early 18th-century aliʻi nui (supreme monarch) Keaweʻīkekahialiʻiokamoku. The family traces their descent from Keaweaheulu and Kameʻeiamoku, two of the five royal counselors of King Kamehameha I during his conquest of the Hawaiian Kingdom. Kameʻeiamoku, the grandfather of both Keohokālole and Kapaʻakea, was depicted, along with his royal twin Kamanawa, on the Hawaiian coat of arms.[1] Liliʻuokalani, in her memoir, referred to her family line as the "Keawe-a-Heulu line" after her mother's side of the family.[2]
Fall of the House of Kalākaua[edit]
With the deposition of Queen Liliʻuokalani in 1893 the House of Kalākaua ceased to reign, and the death of the Princess Victoria Kaʻiulani in 1899 meant the loss of the last direct heir of the siblings of the reigning monarchs of House of Kalākaua. The main line of the dynasty thus ended when the deposed Queen Liliʻuokalani (who had abdicated and renounced) died in 1917. Their cousins came to be known as the House of Kawānanakoa, a branch of the House of Kalākaua, since they are relatives of King Kalākaua, descended from Prince David Kawānanakoa, eldest son of the princess Kūhiō Kinoike Kekaulike, who had died in 1908. The House of Kawānanakoa survives to modern times and at least two of its members have claims to the throne should the Hawaiian monarchy be revived.