House of Kawānanakoa
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The House of Kawananakoa, or the Kawananakoa Dynasty in Waiting, is the historically recognized presumptive heirs to the throne of the now defunct Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.
[edit] Origins
A collateral branch of the reigning House of Kalākaua (from Kauaʻi island) and descendants of e.g chiefs of Waimea (on Hawaiʻi island), the dynastic line was established by Prince David Kawananakoa who was declared to be in the line of royal succession through a proclamation of King David Kalākaua. He was the son of Ali'i nui David Kahalepouli Pi'ikoi and Ali'i nui Victoria Kinoiki Kekaulike. Kawananakoa was allegedly affianced to Princess Victoria Kaʻiulani (a girl with a lot of alleged fiancées), who would have become a monarch in her own right upon the death of Queen Liliʻuokalani had she not predeceased her.
David Kawananakoa's paternal ancestry comes from a cadet branch of the Kauaʻi royal family. His paternal grandmother High Chiefess Kekahili was a half-sister of High Chief Caesar Kapa'akea, the father of Kalakaua, both being children of the Chiefess Kamokuiki. This making her an aunt of King Kalākaua I and Queen Liliʻuokalani, which makes the Kawananakoas the closest surviving collateral relatives of the Kalākaua reigning house. The said grandmother descended, besides from the ancient line of chiefs of Kauaʻi, also from the chief of Kaʻū, a great-uncle of King Kamehameha I.
However, the more illustrious ancestry of David Kawananakoa actually is that through his mother. His High Chiefess Kekaulike Kinoiki maternal grandmother was the daughter of the last king of Kauaʻi and Niʻihau Kaumualii. She was the granddaughter of Kaneoneo the last king of Oʻahu before being conquered by Maui. She descended from the lines of high chiefs of Niʻihau, Koloa, Oʻahu, Kauaʻi and Maui. High Chief Kuhio Kalaniana'ole the maternal grandfather, on his part, was a descendant of several moiety chiefdoms of the island of Hawaiʻi (such as Waimea, Kona and Hilo) and descended directly from the chief of Waimea, an uncle of King Kamehameha I who himself was originally a chief of Kona. Being descendants of a first cousin of that first king, the Kawananakoas are next closest of the surviving relatives of the Kamehameha dynasty after the Laanui issue who descend from the king's brother and now is headed by Owana Salazar.
The House of Kawananakoa survives today and is the only recognized royal family of the United States. Members of the family retain the titles of prince and princess, honorifics that have been bestowed upon them by the residents of Hawaiʻi as a matter of tradition and respect of their status as aliʻi or chiefs of the native Hawaiians, being lines of ancient ancestry.
The House of Kawananakoa in contemporary Hawaiian politics is closely aligned with the Hawaii Republican Party, a political party it helped organize since the creation of the Territory of Hawaiʻi. Its matriarch, Abigail Kawananakoa, became a national party leader in the early years of the twentieth century.
While many historians, individual members of the government of Hawaiʻi (as a matter of opinion and not policy), and a majority of Hawaiʻi residents have considered the House of Kawananakoa the rightful heirs to the throne, smaller factions of native Hawaiians with objections to the family's ties to the Hawaiʻi Republican Party have chosen instead to support various other branches of aliʻi lines, such as descendants of collateral branches of the extended House of Kamehameha (to which both the Kalākaua and Kawananakoa dynasties are distantly related, too) as having rights to the throne. An even smaller group would like to maintain the abolition of the monarchy and organize a democratic republic should native Hawaiians achieve independence.
[edit] Heirs Presumptive
Should the Hawaiian sovereignty movement succeed in the reinstitution of the Hawaiian monarchy, the heir presumptive would be declared monarch with the mandate of a plebiscite and constitution. The line split with the childless death of Edward D. Kawananakoa in 1953. His sisters (in birth order) Abigail Kapiolani Kawananakoa and Lydia Liliuokalani Kawananakoa each had children. Abigail Kapiolani Kawananakoa had three children (in birth order): Edward Keliʻiahonui Kawananakoa (1924-1997), Virginia Poʻomaikelani Kawananakoa (1926-1998) and Esther Kapiolani Kawananakoa (1928-present). Edward Keliʻiahonui Kawananakoa is survived by five children. Virginia Poʻomaikelani Kawananakoa died childless. Esther Kapiolani Kawananakoa married the Marchese Filippo Marignoli and has three children.
Lydia Liliʻuokalani Kawananakoa has one daughter, Abigail Kinoiki Kekaulike Kawananakoa, who has been active in various causes for the preservation of native Hawai'an culture, most especially the restoration of Iolani Palace; she created a bit of a stir when she allowed LIFE magazine to publish a photograph of herself sitting on the throne--essentially, claiming to be Queen. However, as she never married and is beyond childbearing years, her claim is hardly viable, and would pass in any case to her grand-nephew, Prince Quentin.
