Coronations in Oceania other French Polynesian islands, including the Leeward kingdoms of Huahine, Raiatea, and Bora Bora, and even the Austral Island of Rurutu. The ancient kings of Tonga were always crowned at Kanakubolu, near Hihifo, where they took the title of Tui Kanakubolu. The tree under which they sat was torn down in a gale in the 1890s; George Tupou II had pieces of wood from the fallen tree inlaid into the throne of Tonga. George and his successor, Sālote Tupou III, were crowned on 17 March 1893 and 11 October 1918, respectively. A European coronation ceremony had been introduced to the
George Tupou II of 18, upon the death of his great-grandfather George Tupou I, at which time he was still a bachelor. In 1896, the chiefs of the country urged him to marry and produce an heir. After her death, the chiefs suggested a new wife, ʻOfa-ki-Vavaʻu, the daughter of Māʻatu from Niuatoputapu, who was related to the Tuʻi Haʻatakalaua line. George, however, refused. Instead, on 1 June 1899, he took Lavinia Veiongo (1879–1902) as wife. She was the daughter of Kupuavanua from Vavaʻu and Tōkanga from Niuafoʻou, thus obliging these islands to the throne. Kupuavanua was also, through his mother Lavinia Veiongo