Keanolani (July 7, 1847 – June 30, 1902) was a Hawaiian chiefess (aliʻi) of the Kingdom of Hawaii. She was the illegitimate daughter of Abigail Maheha and King Kamehameha V, who reigned from 1863 to 1872, and was born during a liaison between the two when they were students at the Chiefs' Children's School (later renamed the Royal School), a boarding school run by American missionaries for students of Hawaiian royal descent. Keanolani was raised by her father's half-sister Keʻelikōlani. Her illegitimate birth and unacknowledged parentage prevented her from succeeding to the Hawaiian throne when her father died without naming an heir, thus ending the reign of the House of Kamehameha. In 1873, she became a mistress of her uncle by marriage William Hoapili Kaʻauwai. In 1874, she became a supporter of the newly elected House of Kalākaua. She married and left descendants. Her name is also often spelled as Keano or Keanu. In one source, she is named as Keauoʻokalau.
Birth and parentage
Keanolani was born July 7, 1847, on the island of Kauaʻi. Her birth occurred five months after her mother, thirteen-year-old Abigail Maheha, had an arranged marriage to a commoner named Keaupuni, an expelled student from Lahainaluna Seminary and servant of her hānai (informally adopted) mother, Governess Kekauʻōnohi of Kauaʻi. Through Maheha, Keanolani was the granddaughter of High Chief Namaile and High Chiefess Kuini Liliha, who was the Royal Governor of Oʻahu from 1829 to 1831 and a political adversary of Queen Kaʻahumanu, the Kuhina Nui (premier) during the reigns of Kamehameha II and Kamehameha III. Maheha was a former student at the Chiefs' Children's School, later renamed the Royal School, a boarding school run by American missionaries Amos Starr Cooke and his wife Juliette Montague Cooke for students of Hawaiian royal descent. She was declared eligible for the throne of the Kingdom of Hawaii by King Kamehameha III. However, the thirteen-year-old Maheha had left the school at the insistence of her teachers, and was married off to Keaupuni to cover an unexpected pregnancy. Keaupuni was not the biological father of the baby, as was later attested by Mele, a witness in the 1855 divorce suit between him and Maheha.
Her father was not officially identified. However, during and after her lifetime, speculation has focused on two princes of the Kamehameha dynasty: the seventeen-year-old Moses Kekūāiwa, who was the eldest boy at the Royal School, or his sixteen-year-old brother Lot Kapuāiwa, who later became King Kamehameha V. Evidence points toward Lot because Moses was expelled from the school two days before Maheha. Lot had also financially supported Maheha's husband Keaupuni. The entries from the period after September 1, 1845, were also torn out of Lot's school journal.
Upbringing and adulthood
Keanolani was raised by Princess Ruth Keʻelikōlani, her namesake (one of Keʻelikōlani's secondary name was Keanolani) and the half-sister of Kamehameha V. Kamehameha V reigned from 1863 to his death on December 11, 1872, without acknowledging his daughter or naming an heir to the throne, and was succeeded by his cousin Lunalilo. Keanolani would not have been eligible to succeed Kamehameha V since the Hawaiian constitution only permitted succession through legitimate lines. Similarly, Albert Kūnuiākea, the illegitimate son of Kamehameha III, had not been considered for the throne in 1854.
While still married to her first husband Lihilihi, Keanolani became the mistress of William Hoapili Kaʻauwai, an Anglican chaplain and a high chief of Mauian descent who had divorced her half-aunt Kiliwehi in 1872. During this period, Hoapili and Keanolani were partisans of King Kalākaua, elected as monarch in 1874 after the death of King Lunalilo. Hoapili was promised the position of Royal Chamberlain in the new ruling household. Queen Emma, the widow of Kamehameha IV and former patron of Hoapili and Kiliwehi, noted the illicit affair in her letters in 1873. Commenting on September 20, Emma wrote, "Hoapili and Keano are at David’s [Kalākaua's] Hamohamo. It is said she is with child by him again." Later, on September 26, she noted, "Keano was here last evening and appeared to be looking thick round the waist. She reports Kiliwehi recovering under Dr. Hutchison’s treatment...." Keanolani had an illegitimate son which she named William Hoapili Kaʻauwai II, born on January 31, 1874. The elder Hoapili died on March 30, 1874.