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Posted on: Sunday, July 2, 2006

King Kamehameha IV

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

Advertiser library photo

Alexander Liholiho was only 20 when he suddenly became King Kamehameha IV on the day his uncle and adoptive father, Kamehameha III (Kaui keaouli), died in December 1854.

But Liholiho, who had been raised to lead and serve, was equal to the challenge. Strongly favoring Britain's diplomatic style over America's quest of Manifest Destiny, Liholiho patterned Hawai'i's royal priorities along the lines of the British monarchy.

Within a year and a half, the young king had taken a June bride — Emma Naea Rooke, granddaughter of British seaman John Young and great-granddaughter of Keli'imaikai, brother of Kamehameha I.

As the only reigning king and queen to give birth to an heir to the throne, Prince Albert, the hopes of the kingdom rested in the royal couple.

The child, affectionately known as "The Little Prince," was born on May 20, 1858, to great jubilation. The future king, who once said he'd rather be a fireman, was granted the official title of Ka Haku o Hawai'i, the Prince of the Land.

Alexander's foreign minister, Robert Wyllie, named his Kaua'i property Princeville in Albert's honor, and Britain's Queen Victoria consented to be the child's godmother.

Meanwhile, the king focused his attention on the Native Hawaiian population, vastly reduced by the influx of foreign diseases. Alexander used his influence to gain funding for The Queen's Hospital, named for his wife, to better meet the health needs of his people.

Then, on Aug. 27, 1862, the royal family, along with the entire kingdom, was stunned to learn Albert suddenly had been stricken ill.

The king — already despondent because of a scandalous 1859 incident in which he unjustly shot and wounded his secretary in a jealous rage — sank into a deep depression after the boy died.

Overcome with grief and weakened by severe asthma, the king died on Nov. 30, 1863.