Sālote Lupepauʻu ( – 8 September 1889) was Queen of Tonga from 1845 to 1889 as the wife of

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 ...

. She was the namesake of the Queen Salote College.

Life

Born around 1811, Lupepauʻu was the daughter of Tamatauʻhala, ''Makamālohi'' and Halaʻevalu Moheʻofo. Her father was the son of the daughter of the Tuʻi Tonga Fefine and her mother was the daughter of Fīnau ʻUlukālala II ʻi Feletoa. Lupepauʻu was considered to be of high ''sino'i 'eiki'' rank in the traditional order. From an early age, she was married to Laufilitonga, the last holder of the title Tuʻi Tonga. Tāufaʻāhau (the future

) eloped with Lupepauʻu sometime after Laufilitonga's defeat at Battle of Velata against the forces of Tāufaʻāhau. After his adoption of Christianity, Tāufaʻāhau repudiated all his secondary consorts and their children and made Lupepauʻu his principal wife. After their conversion, Tāufaʻāhau took the name George Tupou I in honor of King

George III of the United Kingdom George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 25 October 1760 until his death in 1820. The Acts of Union 1800 unified Great Britain and Ireland into the United Kingdom of Great ...

while Lupepauʻu was named ''Sālote'' or Charlotte after Queen Charlotte of the United Kingdom. With George Tupou I, she had two sons: Tuʻuakitau (1839–1842) and Vuna Takitakimālohi (1844–1862). Their children were the only heirs of Tupou I considered legitimate and eligible to succeed to the Tonga throne under Christian law and the childless death of Vuna in 1862 left the question of succession. The succession would remain vacant for thirteen years until the promulgation of Tonga's first constitution in 1875, which legitimized Tupou's illegitimate son Tēvita ʻUnga and named him Crown Prince. In 1854, she sat for a watercolor portrait painted by British geologist James Gay Sawkins. Lupepauʻu died on 8 September 1889. In 1914, the Kolisi Fefine was renamed Queen Salote College in her honor. The name Sālote would become a recurring tradition in the Tongan royal family. Her husband's great-great granddaughter Sālote Tupou III, however, was named after her great-grandmother Sālote Mafile‘o Pilolevu.

References

Bibliography

* * * * {{Royal consorts of Tonga, state=collapsed Tongan royalty 1810s births 1889 deaths Tongan Methodists Royal consorts of Tonga 19th-century Tongan women 19th-century Tongan people Remarried royal consorts