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Princess Ka'iulani was born in Honolulu in 1875. (Library of Congress)

Ka’iulani: Hawaii’s Island Rose

In a brief life filled with loss, Princess Ka’iulani established her legacy



Victoria Ka’iulani Cleghorn was born in Honolulu in 1875, the daughter of Princess Miriam Likelike (sister of the reigning King Kalakaua) and Archibald Scott Cleghorn, a prominent Scottish businessman. Since both King Kalakaua and Lili’uokalani, the sister who was to succeed him, were childless, the birth of Ka’iulani (meaning “royal sacred one”) assured the future of the dynasty.

As a child, Ka’iulani led a charmed life. She lived at Ainahau, a sprawling estate in Waikiki, a then-pristine rural area east of Honolulu. Her mother was a wonderful entertainer who welcomed many people into their home, including the poet and author Robert Louis Stevenson, who befriended the young Ka’iulani. It was Stevenson who first referred to Ka’iulani as “the island rose” in a poem he wrote for her and inscribed in her autograph book.

But the Princess’s life was also filled with loss at an early age. She was just six when both her beloved governess and her godmother died, and eleven when her mother died of a mysterious illness, purportedly leaving the child with a frightening deathbed prediction that Ka’iulani’s life would be filled with loneliness and loss, and that she would never fulfill her destiny as Hawaii’s queen.

At the age of 13 Ka’iulani was sent to boarding school in England. “Her father wanted her to have the best education possible, to be educated like a proper young lady” Brown explains, “especially since she was royalty and it was anticipated that she would have important responsibilities in connection with her position.” It would be nine years before she would see her native land again; and when she finally returned, Hawaii was no longer an independent nation.

In January 1893, Ka’iulani’s aunt, Queen Lili’uokalani, was forced from her throne by a group of local businessmen of American and British descent, backed by the U.S. Marines. Calling themselves the Committee of Safety, they sought to overthrow the queen and annex Hawaii to the United States. The Queen yielded her power and appealed to the American people to restore Hawaii’s constitutional monarchy as the legitimate government of the people.

At the time of these events, Ka’iulani was still in England. Just 17 years old, she sailed to New York to make her own direct appeal to the American people for the restoration of the government to her people. She made an immediate impression on the reporters who met her ship when it docked. A reporter from the San Francisco Examiner countered earlier disparaging reports about the Hawaiian royal family and described her as "...the very flower...of civilization," and added, "The Princess Kaiulani is a charming, fascinating individual."

Speaking clearly and calmly, Ka’iulani addressed the press, “Seventy years ago, Christian America sent over Christian men and women to give religion and civilization to Hawaii. Today three of the sons of those missionaries are at your capitol, asking you to undo their fathers’ work… I, a poor, weak girl, with not one of my people near me and all of these statesmen against me, have the strength to stand up for the rights of my people. Even now I can hear their wail in my heart, and it gives me strength.”

From New York, she proceeded to Washington D.C “She was invited to the White House and met with the President and his wife,” says Sharon Linnea, author of Princess Ka’iulani: Hope of a Nation, Heart of a People. “No one else had been able to accomplish that.” The story of Kaiulani’s advocacy for her people was also widely covered in women’s magazines of the time. “I think that was the way she won the hearts and minds of the American people,” says Linnea. “She made [readers] understand the situation, and what was at stake in the Hawaiian Islands that they hadn’t understood before.”


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