Sālote Lupepauʻu

Queen Sālote, 1874. Portrait of Frederick Hodgeson, the Challenger Expedition photographer .

Sālote Lupepauʻu (* ~ 1811 ; † September 8, 1889 ) was the Queen Mother of Tonga from 1845 to 1889. She was the wife of George Tupou I. and namesake of Queen Salote College .

Life

Lupepauʻu was born around 1811. She was the daughter of Tamatauʻhala , the Makamālohi (father), and of Halaʻevalu Moheʻofo (mother). Her father, in turn, was the grandson of Tuʻi Tonga Fefine and her mother was the daughter of Fīnau ʻUlukālala II ʻi Feletoa . According to tradition, Lupepauʻu was counted among the highest nobility ( sino'i 'eiki ). At a young age she was married to Laufilitonga , the last Tuʻi Tonga . Some time after Laufilitonga's defeat in the battle of Velata against Tāufaʻāhau (later George Tupou I ), Tāufaʻāhau ran away with Lupepauʻu. After his conversion to Christianity, Tāufaʻāhau dismissed all his concubines and their children and made Lupepauʻu his only main wife. During this time Tāufaʻāhau also took the name George Tupou I in honor of King George III. , while Lupepauʻu took the name Sālote ( Charlotte ) in honor of Queen Sophie Charlotte .

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 who were recognized as legitimate and eligible children and were entitled to succession to the throne of Tonga under Christian law. The death of Vuna, who died childless in 1862, called the succession into question. The throne therefore remained vacant for thirteen years until the promulgation of the first constitution of Tonga in 1875, in which Tupou’s illegitimate son Tēvita ʻUnga was legitimized and named as crown prince.

Lupepauʻu died on September 8, 1889. In 1914 the Kolisi Fefine was renamed Queen Salote College . The name Sālote subsequently became a traditional name of the royal family of Tonga. Her husband's great-great-granddaughter, Sālote Tupou III. , however, got its name from the great-grandmother Sālote Mafile'o Pilolevu .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Royal Ark
2. ↑ Wood-Ellem 1999: 312.
3. ↑ Marcus 1978: 39.
4. ↑ Wood-Ellem 1999: 312.
5. ↑ Marcus 1978: 39; Ledyard 1982: 54
6. ↑ Wood-Ellem 1999: 318M.
7. ↑ Spurway 2015: 155.
8. ↑ Wood-Ellem 1999: 312.
9. ↑ Wood-Ellem 1999: 8, 19

literature

• Patricia Ledyard: The Tongan Past . Distributed by Matheson, Vava'u, Tonga 1982. oclc = 13112650
• George E. Marcus: The Nobility and the Chiefly Tradition in the Modern Kingdom of Tonga. In: The Journal of the Polynesian Society. vol. 42, 1978, The Polynesian Society, Wellington . oclc = 240852997
• John Spurway: Ma'afu, Prince of Tonga, Chief of Fiji: A Life of Fiji's First Tui Lau . Australian National University Press, Canberra 2015, ISBN 978-1-925021-18-9 . oclc = 879538614
• Elizabeth Wood-Ellem : Queen Sālote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900-1965 . Auckland University Press, Auckland, NZ 1999, ISBN 978-0-8248-2529-4 . oclc = 262293605

Web links

Commons : Sālote Lupepauʻu  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

predecessor	Office	successor
-	Queen of Tonga 1845–1889	Lavinia Veiongo