Manono II (died 1819) was a Hawaiian chiefess and member of the royal family during the

Kingdom of Hawaii The Hawaiian Kingdom, or Kingdom of Hawaiʻi ( Hawaiian: ''Ko Hawaiʻi Pae ʻĀina''), was a sovereign state located in the Hawaiian Islands. The country was formed in 1795, when the warrior chief Kamehameha the Great, of the independent island ...

. She along with her second husband Keaoua Kekuaokalani died fighting for the Hawaiian religion after

Kamehameha II Kamehameha II (November 1797 – July 14, 1824) was the second king of the Kingdom of Hawaii. His birth name was Liholiho and full name was Kalaninui kua Liholiho i ke kapu ʻIolani. It was lengthened to Kalani Kaleiʻaimoku o Kaiwikapu o Laʻ ...

abolished the

kapu Kapu may refer to: * Kapu (Hawaiian culture), a Hawaiian code of conduct * Kapu (caste), a social group of India * Kapu, Karnataka, a town in Karnataka, India ** Kapu Assembly constituency * Kapu, Arunachal Pradesh, a settlement in Tirap district, A ...

system.

Biography

Manono's father was Kekuamanoha, and her mother was Kalola-a-Kumukoʻa, the wife of Kamehameha before his victory at the Battle of Mokuʻōhai. Through her father she was a granddaughter of Kekaulike, the King or Moʻi of Maui. From her mother's side, she was the great-granddaughter of King Keaweʻīkekahialiʻiokamoku of Hawaiʻi. Her half-siblings from her father's first marriage were Kalanimoku, Boki, and

Wahinepio Kahakuhaʻakoi Wahinepio (died 1826) was a Hawaiian chiefess and member of the royal family during the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi. Wahinepio means ''captive women'' in Hawaiian. Sometimes she is called Wahineopiʻo, or an extra ʻokina is added, ca ...

. She was the cousin of

Kaʻahumanu Kaahumanu (March 17, 1768 – June 5, 1832) (''"the feathered mantle"'') was queen consort and acted as regent of the Kingdom of Hawaii as Kuhina Nui. She was the favorite wife of King Kamehameha I and also the most politically powerful, ...

Kalākua Kaheiheimālie Kalākua Kaheiheimālie, later known as Hoapili Wahine (–1842) was a member of Hawaiian royalty who was one of the Queen consorts at the founding of the Kingdom of Hawaii. She was mother of another Queen consort, and grandmother of two future ki ...

, and

Namahana Piʻia Lydia Nāmāhāna Kekuaipiʻia (c. 1787 – 1829
) was a wife of King

Kuakini John Adams Kiiapalaoku Kuakini (1789–1844) was an important adviser to Kamehameha I in the early stages of the Kingdom of Hawaii. He was responsible for contributing to the infrastructure among other changes in the Kona District during this era. ...

, Governor of Hawaiʻi; and Keʻeaumoku II. Around 1809, while still in her youth, Manono was chosen along with her cousin

Kekāuluohi Miriam Auhea Kalani Kui Kawakiu o Kekāuluohi Kealiʻiuhiwaihanau o Kalani Makahonua Ahilapalapa Kai Wikapu o Kaleilei a Kalakua also known as Kaahumanu III (July 27, 1794 – June 7, 1845), was Kuhina Nui of the Kingdom of Hawaii, a queen consor ...

by Kamehameha I "to warm his old age" thus becoming the old king's last two wives. The two young chiefesses were deemed his ''wahine pālama'', a term that denote their special status and rank which required them to live in a sacred enclosure of lama wood. "Lama" was the Hawaiian name for endemic ebony trees of genus ''

Diospyros sandwicensis ''Diospyros sandwicensis'' is a species of flowering tree in the ebony family, Ebenaceae, that is endemic to Hawaii. It belongs to the same genus as both persimmons and ebony. Its common name, ''lama'', also means enlightenment in Hawaiian. ...

'' that were used in religious ceremonies. Oral tradition attested that Kamehameha's last child, a daughter named Kapapauai, was born from one of his ''wahine pālama'', either Manono's or Kekāuluohi's. She would later marry High Chief Keaoua Kekuaokalani, a nephew of the Kamehameha I. Kekuaokalani's maternal grandmother was her namesake

Manono I Manono I was a Hawaiian High Chiefess. She was a daughter of Alapainui and Chiefess Kamakaʻīmoku. Manono was a granddaughter of Chiefess Kalanikauleleiaiwi of Hawaiʻi and niece of chief Haae-a-Mahi. Manono married her half-brother Keōua a ...

, a daughter of Alapainui and Kamakaimoku. Kekuaokalani inherited the guardianship of the Hawaiian god of war, Kūkaʻilimoku after Kamehameha's death. After Kamehameha I's death, on May 8, 1819, Liholiho succeeded as King

. Influenced by powerful female chiefs such as

and his mother

Keōpūolani Kalanikauikaalaneo Kai Keōpūolani-Ahu-i-Kekai-Makuahine-a-Kama-Kalani-Kau-i-Kealaneo (1778–1823) was a queen consort of Hawaii and the highest ranking wife of King Kamehameha I. Early life Keōpuolani was born around 1778 at an area known as ...

, the young king abolished the

system that had governed life Hawaiian society for centuries. Henceforth, men and women could eat together, women could eat formerly forbidden foods, and official worship at the stone platform temples, or heiaus, was discontinued. This event is called the

ʻAi Noa The Ai Noa ( Hawaiian: literally ''free eating''), was a period of taboo-breaking which convulsed the Hawaiian Islands in October 1819. Women were allowed to eat forbidden food and to eat with men; the priests were no longer to offer human sacrifi ...

, or free eating. In response to Liholiho's actions, Kekuaokalani put himself forward as the defender of the ''kapu'' system and old religion, amassing a formidable force in the village of Kaʻawaloa. All attempts of reconciliation failed between the two royal cousins and war broke out between Kekuaokalani and the royal forces led by Manono's half-brother Kalanimoku. Fighting alongside her husband in the Battle of Kuamoʻo, they both perished in defense of the ''kapu'' system. Visiting Kuamoʻo a few years afterward, British missionary William Ellis of the London Missionary Society chronicled the native accounts of the battle and the death of Kekuaokalani and Manono on Ellis' tour of the island of Hawaii:

The small tumuli increased in number as we passed along, until we came to a place called Tuamoo. Here Kekuaokalani made his last stand, rallied his flying forces, and seemed, for a moment, to turn the scale of victory; but being weak with the loss of blood, from a wound he had received in the early part of the engagement, he fainted and fell. However, he soon revived, and, though unable to stand, sat on a fragment of lava, and twice loaded and fired his musket on the advancing party. He now received a ball in his left breast, and immediately covering his face with his feather cloak, expired in the midst of his friends. His wife Manono during the whole of the day fought by his side with steady and dauntless courage. A few moments after her husband's death, perceiving Karaimoku and his sister advancing, she called out for quarter; but the words had hardly escaped from her lips, when she received a ball in her left temple, fell upon the lifeless body of her husband, and instantly expired. The idolaters having lost their chief, made but feeble resistance afterwards; yet the combat, which commenced in the forenoon, continued till near sunset, when the king's troops, finding their enemies had all either fled or surrendered, returned to Kairua.

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * {{cite journal , last= Thrum , first=Thomas G. , author-link=Thomas G. Thrum , title= Was There A Lost Son of Kamehameha? , journal= Hawaiian Journal of History , hdl= 10524/96 , year= 1916 , publisher=Hawaiian Historical Society , pages=44–51 Year of birth missing 1819 deaths Hawaiian royal consorts House of Keliimaikai Women in war in Oceania Royalty of the Hawaiian Kingdom Hawaiian military personnel Military personnel killed in action Deaths by firearm in Hawaii Women in 19th-century warfare