Choosing An Heir To The Hawaiian Throne
His sister and only named Heir Apparent to the throne, Crown Princess Victoria Kamāmalu had died childless in 1866 and through the remainder of his reign, Kamehameha V did not name a successor. He died on December 11, 1872 while the preparations for his birthday celebration were underway. As Lot lay bedstricken, he answered those that came to visit him: "The Good Lord cannot take me today, today is my birthday". He was buried in the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii known as Mauna ʻAla.
He was the last ruling monarch of the House of Kamehameha. According to his Constitution of 1864, Article 24: "The Crown is hereby permanently confirmed to His Majesty Kamehameha V, and to the Heirs of His Body Lawfully Begotten, and to their Lawful Descendents in a Direct Line..." The legislature chose to use a later part of that same article to select a new king. The legislature declared an election for the office, won by Kamehameha V's cousin William Charles Lunalilo.
Read more about this topic: Kamehameha V
Famous quotes containing the words choosing, heir and/or throne:
“The angels yawning in an empty heaven;
Alternate shows of dynamite and rain;
And choosing forced on free will: fire or ice.”
—Philip Larkin (1922–1986)
“We do the same thing to parents that we do to children. We insist that they are some kind of categorical abstraction because they produced a child. They were people before that, and they’re still people in all other areas of their lives. But when it comes to the state of parenthood they are abruptly heir to a whole collection of virtues and feelings that are assigned to them with a fine arbitrary disregard for individuality.”
—Leontine Young (20th century)
“I am apt to think, if we knew what it was to be an angel for one hour, we should return to this world, though it were to sit on the brightest throne in it, with vastly more loathing and reluctance than we would now descend into a loathsome dungeon or sepulchre.”
—George Berkeley (1685–1753)