Queen Liliuokalani Stood Trial in Her Own Throne Room

Queen Liliʻuokalani, Hawaii's last monarch, was overthrown on 17 January 1893 by a Committee of Safety, with US sailors and marines ashore. After a failed royalist rising in 1895 she was arrested, imprisoned in ʻIolani Palace, pressured into abdicating and convicted of misprision of treason. The US annexed Hawaii in 1898. She died in Honolulu in 1917. In March 1895, in an upstairs room of ʻIolani Palace, a prisoner with no instrument wrote a hymn asking God to forgive the sins of men. At the bottom of the manuscript she named the people she blamed. Just over two years earlier, she had been Queen of Hawaii. This is what happened to Queen Liliʻuokalani and Hawaii's royal family after the 1893 overthrow. In this documentary: • "Aloha ʻOe", the sugar treaty and the Bayonet Constitution of 1887 • January 1893: the Committee of Safety, the marines at Arion Hall and the queen's surrender to Washington • Princess Kaʻiulani's journey to America and President Cleveland's "act of war" message • Rifles in the garden, the abdication of 1895 and a trial in the throne room • The Queen's Prayer, 21,269 names against annexation and the death of Kaʻiulani at 23 • The Crown Lands, the queen's trust for orphan children and the 1993 Apology Resolution 📜 SUBSCRIBE for untold stories of fallen dynasties, exiled royals and what happened after the crown was gone — new documentary every week. 📌 KEY FACTS • 29 January 1891: Liliʻuokalani takes the oath as Queen of Hawaii after the death of her brother, King Kalākaua • 17 January 1893: a Committee of Safety proclaims the monarchy abolished, a day after 162 American sailors and marines came ashore in Honolulu • 24 January 1895: after a failed royalist rising and her arrest, she signs a document of abdication; on 27 February a military commission sentences her to five years' imprisonment at hard labor • 22 March 1895: held in ʻIolani Palace, she finishes the hymn Ke Aloha o ka Haku, the Queen's Prayer • 12 August 1898: the Hawaiian flag is lowered at ʻIolani Palace after the United States annexes Hawaii • 6 March 1899: her niece and heir, Princess Kaʻiulani, dies aged 23 • 2 December 1909: Liliʻuokalani signs a deed of trust leaving her property for orphan children in Hawaii • 11 November 1917: she dies at Washington Place, aged 79; in November 1993 the United States formally apologizes for the overthrow ❓ FAQ Why was Queen Liliuokalani overthrown? In January 1893 she tried to replace the 1887 "Bayonet Constitution", which had stripped the monarchy of most of its power and shut most Native Hawaiians out of voting for the upper house. Her cabinet refused to sign. The attempt was all her opponents needed: a Committee of Safety proclaimed the monarchy abolished on 17 January, a day after US Minister John L. Stevens had sailors and marines landed from the cruiser Boston. For many sugar planters, the only lasting protection was union with the United States. Why was Queen Liliuokalani imprisoned? After a failed royalist rising against the Republic of Hawaii in January 1895, officers arrested her at Washington Place, and searches of her house and garden turned up rifles, cartridge belts and bombs. The republic said her seized papers showed she knew a rising was coming; historians still disagree about how much she knew. A military commission in her former throne room convicted her of misprision of treason, knowing of a plot and concealing it, and sentenced her to a $5,000 fine and five years at hard labor. She was never put to labor. Did Queen Liliuokalani die in prison? No. She was held in an upstairs bedroom of ʻIolani Palace until 6 September 1895, spent five more months under house arrest at Washington Place and received a full pardon in October 1896. She went on to fight annexation and the loss of the Crown Lands, and set up a trust for orphan children. She died at Washington Place on 11 November 1917, aged 79, and after a state funeral in the palace throne room was taken to the Royal Mausoleum. How did Princess Kaiulani die? Princess Kaʻiulani, Liliʻuokalani's niece and heir, travelled to Hawaii Island for a friend's wedding in December 1898, galloped through a downpour without a raincoat while out riding, and fell ill not long afterward. Her doctor described inflammatory rheumatism and an exophthalmic goiter, an old name for Graves' disease. She died at ʻĀinahau, her family's estate at Waikīkī, on 6 March 1899, aged 23. The story that she died of a broken heart is not in the medical record. 🔎 SOURCES & FURTHER READING Liliʻuokalani, "Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen" (1898) Noenoe K. Silva, "Aloha Betrayed: Native Hawaiian Resistance to American Colonialism" United States Public Law 103-150, the Apology Resolution (1993) #QueenLiliuokalani #Hawaii #HawaiianHistory --- Fallen Thrones tells what happened AFTER the fall — the exiles, the survivors and the heirs history left behind.