Queen Sālote Tupou III – Her father’s second wedding

Princess Sālote’s mother, Lavinia, died in 1902 when Sālote was just two years old. Her parents’ marriage had been quite controversial as King George had originally been meant to marry Princess ʻOfakivavaʻu, but he had chosen Lavinia instead. With Lavinia dead and in order to appease those who had been offended by his first marriage, he now chose to marry Princess ʻOfakivavaʻu’s half-sister, Princess ʻAnaseini Takipō. Princess ʻOfakivavaʻu herself had died in 1901 of tuberculosis.

ʻAnaseini Takipō was born on 1 March 1893 as the daughter of Tēvita Ula Afuhaʻamango, Noble of Vavaʻu, and Siosiana Tongovua Tae Manusā. She was just sixteen years old when she married Salote’s father. Sālote was reportedly “devastated” to learn he was to remarry.¹ Sālote was nine years old at the time, and if her father and ʻAnaseini Takipō had a son, she would be displaced in the line of succession.

George and ʻAnaseini Takipō were married on 11 November 1909. Trying to outshine the King’s previous wedding, the bride’s family provided a wedding dress costing £100 and a trousseau worth £500. George spent £400 on the fakapapālangi wedding ceremony and breakfast.² ʻAnaseini Takipō wore an empire gown trimmed with pearls and roses.³ During the wedding, Mendelssohn’s ‘Wedding March’ was played.

In the tradition of Tonga, children from an earlier marriage were in danger of being killed. George claimed he was sending Sālote away for her education, but she was sent on the earliest possible steamer in December 1909, and she left without the customary companions. She was brought to Auckland and left with a family called Kronfeld.⁴

1. Sālote: Queen of Paradise by Margaret Hixon p.42
2. Queen Sālote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900–1965 by Elizabeth Wood-Ellem p.12
3. Sālote: Queen of Paradise by Margaret Hixon p.42
4. Queen Sālote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900–1965 by Elizabeth Wood-Ellem p.13