Queen Kamāmalu & the tragic trip to England

The future Queen Kamāmalu of Hawaiʻi was born in 1801 as the daughter of Queen Kalākua Kaheiheimālie and King Kamehameha I.¹

She was betrothed to her own half-brother, Liholiho (the future King Kamehameha II), when she was just a toddler. They were married when she was 12 years old, and he was 17 or 18 years old.² She was his first wife, and he took four more wives in addition to her. When he succeeded his father, King Kamehameha I, in 181, Kamāmalu became his principal Queen.³

After the King’s mother, Queen Keōpūolani, died in 1823, King Kamehameha decided to travel to England to meet King George IV. This was said to be both out of curiosity and out of a need for an alliance with England to protect the Kingdom, especially against the Russians.⁴

And so, King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamāmalu sailed from Honolulu on board the British whaling ship L’Aigle on 27 November 1823. The King instructed his people “to attend on the instructions of the missionaries.”⁵ Ka’ahumanu, another one of King Kamehameha I’s wives, was appointed as regent in the King’s absence.

The ship first sailed from Honolulu to Rio de Janeiro, where they were welcomed by Emperor Pedro I. They left there on 7 March and continued their journey to England.⁶ On 17 May 1824, the King and Queen arrived in Portsmouth under a 21-gun salute.

The following day, they were taken to London’s Osborn’s Hotel. Some new clothes were immediately arranged so they would be more in the London style.⁷

They undertook several engagements while in England. Their first public outing was to a Whitsunday service at Westminster Abbey on 23 May. They toured the Abbey afterwards, but the King refused to enter the King Henry VII Chapel as he believed it was too sacred, even for a fellow sovereign.⁸

After a luncheon on 28 May, the following was recorded, “… a sort of bustle and crowding round of a well-dressed mob, to look at the strange king and queen and nobles; but the laughter and the exclamations which seem to have been ready prepared for the royal strangers soon died away when it was perceived that not the slightest embarrassment or awkwardness was display by them, and that the king knew how to hold his state.”⁹

A few days later, they enjoyed a night out at the Covent Garden Theatre, where the royal box was made available for them. They also attended the horse races at Epsom and made use of the royal box at Drury Lane Theatre on 4 June. The next day, they went to Fulham and returned by boat, and they visited the Chelsea Hospital and the Royal Military Asylum. On 8 June, they were taken to the Opera House to see a French ballet.¹⁰  At the ballet, Queen Kamāmalu wore a “white silk dress of European fashion, her sash was of scarlet silk, and her head-dress was of the same colour, decorated with silver spangles and embroidery.”¹¹

Finally, an appointment was made with King George IV for 21 June, but it was not to be.

The first to become ill was a steward by the name of Manuia. He fell ill on 10 June, and a scheduled visit to a brewery was cancelled. He seemed better the following day, and several of the party went out. However, he became worse again, and on 12 June, he was diagnosed with measles by Dr Hugh Ley. King Kamehameha became ill on 13 June while on a visit to the Royal Academy Exhibition at Somerset House. By the 19th, the entire Hawaiian royal party was very ill with measles.¹²

Measles were not present in Hawaii until 1848, and thus had a devastating impact on the health of the royal party.¹³ It is most likely that they came in contact with it during the visit to the Royal Military Asylum, which was known for outbreaks of infectious diseases.¹⁴ The appointment with King George IV was cancelled.

Sir Henry Halford, the physician of King George IV,  was “called to the King and Queen of the Sandwich Islands, who lie dangerously ill of the measles.” Queen Kamāmalu developed pneumonia within days of contracting measles, and after consulting several physicians, King Kamehameha was told that there was no hope for her survival. He was brought to her in a wheelchair and embraced her for a long time. He told her, “O, Kamāmalu, my love, this I have done to you for I brought you to England.” She responded, “No, no, Liholiho, my love… do not reproach yourself for I would have been long-dead without you by my side. I insisted on coming.” He told her that if she died, he would follow her.¹⁵

Another account of their last meeting states, “On the 8th, no hope remaining of the Queen’s recovery, her husband was apprised of her danger. He caused himself to be immediately
placed in his arm-chair and wheeled to her apartment; when, being lifted upon her bed and placed by her side, he embraced her affectionately, and they both wept bitterly. He then dismissed the attendants, and they remained for some time alone together . . . . At five o’clock, he desired to be conveyed to his own bed, where he lay without speaking, and the Queen died about an hour after he left her; that is, about six o’clock in the evening of the 8th July,1824.”¹⁶

Queen Kamāmalu died on 8 July at 6.30 P.M., described as “to the last, quite sensible and composed.”¹⁷ The King’s health appeared to improve, and Queen Kamāmalu’s body was embalmed, taken to the King’s apartment and laid on a small bed near him. The physicians were worried that having her body so near would cause the King’s health to decline again, and he was finally convinced to let them take her body away.¹⁸

On 12 July, the Times of London reported that, “the King is a little better, and expresses himself perfectly satisfied with the physicians who attended the Queen…”¹⁹ He drew up a memorandum with instructions for the Queen’s burial. He had already decreed that his younger brother, Kauikeaouli, then about ten years old, would succeed him if he died.

Queen Kamāmalu’s coffin lay in state in the bedchamber of a High Chief, covered with a black satin pall and a red and yellow ahuula (feather cloak), and a chaplet of yellow feathers. A kahili (a symbol for the Hawaiian chief and nobles) was placed at the foot of the coffin.²⁰ After three days, it was taken by horse-drawn hearse to the vault under the Church of St. Martin in the Field.

On 13 July, the press reported that, “it is said that his (the King’s) illness has assumed an alarming character.” He had been moved from the hotel to a nearby house facing the river, but this did not improve his health.²¹

King Kamehameha II died on 14 July at 4.00 A.M., just six days after his wife. Shortly before, he had declared that his body and that of his wife should be returned to Hawaii. His last words were reportedly, “Farewell to you all, I am dead, I am happy.”²² His body lay in state from the 16th until the 18th before he was also placed in the vault under the Church of St. Martin in the Field.

The survivors of the royal party had an audience with King George IV on 11 September 1824 at Windsor Castle, and left with his promise to protect the Hawaiian Kingdom. By then, the bodies of the King and Queen had placed on board HMS Blonde. The party left Portsmouth on the HMS Blonde on 26 September.

On 6 May 1825, the HMS Blonde arrived in Honolulu, and news of the King and Queen’s death had only reached the Hawaiians two months earlier. A funeral was held for them, and they were interred in the Mauna ʻAla Royal Mausoleum.

Some fifty years later, American missionary wife Lucy Thurston wrote, “O Kamāmalu, Kamāmalu, thou, too, didst become a stranger in a strange land, and when there so early called to plunge into the dark, cold stream, didst thou reach a better land?”²³

1. Corley, J. Susan (2012). “Queen Kamāmalu’s Place in Hawaiian History”. Hawaiian Journal of History. 46. Hawaiian Historical Society p.40
2. Corley, J. Susan (2012). “Queen Kamāmalu’s Place in Hawaiian History”. Hawaiian Journal of History. 46. Hawaiian Historical Society p.40
3. Corley, J. Susan (2012). “Queen Kamāmalu’s Place in Hawaiian History”. Hawaiian Journal of History. 46. Hawaiian Historical Society p.41
4. Sims, R. The tragic 1824 journey of the Hawaiian King and Queen to London: History of measles in Hawaii Pediatric p.728. https://doi.org/10.1097/INF.0B013E31819C9720
5. Sims, R. The tragic 1824 journey of the Hawaiian King and Queen to London: History of measles in Hawaii Pediatric p.728 https://doi.org/10.1097/INF.0B013E31819C9720
6. Let us go: the narrative of Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands, 1819-1824 by Walter F Judd p.167
7. Let us go: the narrative of Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands, 1819-1824 by Walter F Judd p.170
8. Let us go: the narrative of Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands, 1819-1824 by Walter F Judd p.171
9. Let us go: the narrative of Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands, 1819-1824 by Walter F Judd p.172
10. Let us go: the narrative of Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands, 1819-1824 by Walter F Judd p.173
11. Let us go: the narrative of Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands, 1819-1824 by Walter F Judd p.173-174
12. Let us go: the narrative of Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands, 1819-1824 by Walter F Judd p.175
13. Sims, R. The tragic 1824 journey of the Hawaiian King and Queen to London: History of measles in Hawaii Pediatric p.728 https://doi.org/10.1097/INF.0B013E31819C9720
14. Sims, R. The tragic 1824 journey of the Hawaiian King and Queen to London: History of measles in Hawaii Pediatric p.730 https://doi.org/10.1097/INF.0B013E31819C9720
15. Let us go: the narrative of Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands, 1819-1824 by Walter F Judd p.177
16. Corley, J. Susan (2012). “Queen Kamāmalu’s Place in Hawaiian History”. Hawaiian Journal of History. 46. Hawaiian Historical Society: p.54. hdl:10524/33793.
17. Sims, R. The tragic 1824 journey of the Hawaiian King and Queen to London: History of measles in Hawaii Pediatric p.730 https://doi.org/10.1097/INF.0B013E31819C9720
18. Let us go: the narrative of Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands, 1819-1824 by Walter F Judd p.178
19. Sims, R. The tragic 1824 journey of the Hawaiian King and Queen to London: History of measles in Hawaii Pediatric p.730 https://doi.org/10.1097/INF.0B013E31819C9720
20. Let us go: the narrative of Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands, 1819-1824 by Walter F Judd p.179
21. Sims, R. The tragic 1824 journey of the Hawaiian King and Queen to London: History of measles in Hawaii Pediatric p.730 https://doi.org/10.1097/INF.0B013E31819C9720
22. Let us go: the narrative of Kamehameha II, King of the Hawaiian Islands, 1819-1824 by Walter F Judd p.179
23. Corley, J. Susan (2012). “Queen Kamāmalu’s Place in Hawaiian History”. Hawaiian Journal of History. 46. Hawaiian Historical Society: 56. hdl:10524/33793.