Death
In August 1862, the usually serene child became restless, and his medical condition got progressively worse. The newspapers of the time reported the illness as "brain fever," now known as meningitis. Writing much later Queen Liliʻuokalani blamed the father for putting the child under a cold-water faucet as punishment for throwing a tantrum over a pair of boots. The parents did mistake a fever for sunstroke. A modern medical historian and Honolulu physician analyzed the possible causes of Albert's death. They concluded the Prince most likely died from a case of appendicitis. Both the local and British naval doctors did not know the cause nor the treatment of his illness.
As the prince's condition declined, Kamehameha IV and Queen Emma made a personal request to Queen Victoria to send a bishop from the Anglican Church to baptize the prince. They also requested Queen Victoria to be his godmother. Queen Victoria consented to both requests, and sent as a baptismal gift an elaborate silver christening cup, about three feet high. Bishop Thomas Nettleship Staley was sent but would not arrive until October. As the prince grew sicker, the American minister Ephraim W. Clark from Kawaiahaʻo Church baptized the child on August 23. The Episcopal liturgy was used with the British Commissioner William Webb Follett Synge standing in for the godparents.
The Prince died on August 27, 1862, at the palace, four days after his baptism. His parents were grief-stricken, as they knelt by the side of the Prince's bed. The Queen took her dead boy in her arms and, weeping over him, said to him, "My Baby, my own Baby and you did not know me!" Prince Albert's funeral was held on September 7, 1862. He was temporarily placed in a temporary tomb in front of the palace below a tamarind tree. Before the lid of the coffin closed, the King removed the star of diamonds from his uniform and laid it on the chest of his only son.
Afterwards, the King fell into despair, blaming himself for the loss of his son. The Queen rarely left the grave of her child and was given the name Kaleleokalani (The Flight of the Heavenly Chief), in memory of Albert, by her husband. The King then ordered the construction of the Royal Mausoleum in Nuʻuanu Valley to house his son's body, since the old mausoleum had become too full. Today, the mausoleum is burial site of most of the members of the Hawaiian royal family. The King's depression was so severe that he considered abdicating the throne. A year later, he would die as well. To express her grief, Queen Emma changed her name to Kaleleo(n)ālani "Flight of the Heavenly Chief(s)," to symbolize her double loss.
Read more about this topic: Albert Kamehameha
Famous quotes containing the word death:
“There are confessable agonies, sufferings of which one can positively be proud. Of bereavement, of parting, of the sense of sin and the fear of death the poets have eloquently spoken. They command the world’s sympathy. But there are also discreditable anguishes, no less excruciating than the others, but of which the sufferer dare not, cannot speak. The anguish of thwarted desire, for example.”
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)
“Most of the folktales dealing with the Indians are lurid and romantic. The story of the Indian lovers who were refused permission to wed and committed suicide is common to many places. Local residents point out cliffs where Indian maidens leaped to their death until it would seem that the first duty of all Indian girls was to jump off cliffs.”
—For the State of Iowa, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“The death of a dear friend, wife, brother, lover, which seemed nothing but privation, somewhat later assumes the aspect of a guide or genius; for it commonly operates revolutions in our way of life, terminates an epoch of infancy or of youth which was waiting to be closed, breaks up a wonted occupation, or a household, or style of living, and allows the formation of new ones more friendly to the growth of character.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)