ʻElisiva Fusipala Taukiʻonetuku (18 May 1850 – September 1889) was the mother of King

George Tupou II George Tupou II (; 18 June 1874 – 5 April 1918) was the King of Tonga from 18 February 1893 until his death. He was officially crowned at Nukuʻalofa, on 17 March 1893. He was also the 20th Tuʻi Kanokupolu. Life Siaosi (George) Tupou II ...

Tonga Tonga, officially the Kingdom of Tonga, is an island country in Polynesia, part of Oceania. The country has 171 islands, of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in the southern Pacific Ocean. accordin ...

Biography

Born to

Tēvita ʻUnga Tēvita ʻUnga ( 1824 – 18 December 1879) was the first Crown Prince of Tonga, Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Tonga, Prime Minister of Tonga. Life Born in 1824 to Tuʻi Haʻapai George Tupou I, Tāufaʻāhau and one of his secondary wi ...

and his first wife Fifita Vavaʻu, her father was, according to newly adopted Christian law, an illegitimate son of King

George Tupou I George Tupou I (4 December 1797 – 18 February 1893), originally known as Tāufaʻāhau I, was the first List of monarchs of Tonga, king of modern Tonga. He adopted the name Siaosi (originally Jiaoji), the Tongan language, Tongan equivalent o ...

because his mother was a secondary wife of the king. Her family's luck changed when the king's only legitimate son, Prince Vuna Takitakimālohi, died, leaving her father as King Tupou's heir. She married her paternal first cousin Prince Siaʻosi Fatafehi Toutaitokotaha (1842–1912), the fourth Tuʻi Pelehake, grandson of Tupou I through his mother Princess Salote Pilolevu Mafileʻo, her aunt. They had one son, the future King

. Her father died 1879, her elder brother

ʻUelingatoni Ngū ʻUiliamu ʻUelingatoni Ngū Tupoumālohi (3 August 1854 – 11 March 1885) was the second Crown Prince of Tonga from 1879 to 1885. He is also commonly referred by his Anglicized name as "Wellington Ngu". Life Born in 1854, he was the second c ...

died childless in 1885 and the same fate befell her younger brother Nalesoni Laifone 1889. She became the heir to the throne after her last brother's death in 1889 and held the status of heir apparent for two months before her own death. Her son succeeded his great-grandfather in 1893. Thus the royal lineage passed through her. Her son's second daughter Princess ʻElisiva Fusipala Taukiʻonetuku was named after her. In July 1865, English explorer Julius Brenchley visited Vavaʻu for five days and met governor ʻUnga and his family including Fusipala. Brenchley noted that she was "twelve years old, is strongly built, and has her breasts perfectly developed, as is usual in a country where the women are generally mothers before they are thirteen. However, Fusipala was actually fifteen at the time, being born in 1850, and not twelve as Brenchley claimed.

Family tree

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tauki'onetuku, Elisiva Fusipala 1850 births 1889 deaths Heirs apparent who never acceded Tongan royalty Tongan princesses 19th-century Tongan people 19th-century Tongan women Mothers of Tongan monarchs Children of prime ministers of Tonga