The election of William Charles Lunalilo to the Hawaiian throne on the first day of 1872 was intended to mark the beginning of a new royal dynasty, one that would replace the Kamehameha dynasty.
Instead, it lasted one year and 25 days, and led to the beginning of the 17-year Kalakaua dynasty.
King Lunalilo's predecessor, Kamehameha V (Lot, older brother of Kamehameha IV) — last of the Kamehameha kings — had died without naming a heir. And so, in accordance with the Constitution, the succession was determined by a legislative plebiscite.
The candidates were Prince Lunalilo, a handsome, hard-drinking, good-natured high chief, and Prince David Kalakaua, a portly, articulate attorney-in-training whose ancestors were prominent chiefs.
The popular Lunalilo won by a wide margin. A huge throng cheered wildly as he took the oath, barefoot, in a week later at Kawaiaha'o Church. The 38-year-old monarch soon came to be known as "The Citizen King" because of his identification with the common person and his democratic leanings.
But Lunalilo's brief reign was hampered by his rapidly deteriorating health. In September, an extremely ill Lunalilo successfully mediated a mutiny in the ranks of the Royal Household Troops, who were in rebellion against their officers.
Suffering from severe tuberculosis, made worse by years of alcoholism and overindulgence, the king didn't have long to live, and he knew it. Still, he refused to name an heir.
Lunalilo held on until Feb. 3, 1874. He left his estate to charity, and asked that he not be buried in the Royal Mausoleum. Instead, he was laid to rest in a tomb on the grounds of Kawaiaha'o Church on Punchbowl Street — where thousands had cheered him a year before.
