Portal:Hawaii/Selected biography/3

Elizabeth Kaʻahumanu

Elizabeth Kaʻahumanu (March 17, 1768 – June 5, 1832) was queen regent of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi and a wife of Kamehameha I. She was the king's favorite wife and also the most politically powerful, and continued to wield considerable power in the kingdom as the kuhina nui or prime minister during the reigns of his successors.

Kaʻahumanu was born in a cave on the Hawaiian Island of Maui in 1768. Her parents were Keʻeaumoku, a fugitive aliʻi or noble from the Big Island, and Namahana, the wife of the late king of Maui, Kamehameha Nui. Her father became an advisor and friend to Kamehameha of Hawaiʻi, and arranged for Kaʻahumanu to marry him when she was thirteen. Kamehameha had numerous wives but Kaʻahumanu would become his favorite. It was she who encouraged her husband's war of unification of Hawaiʻi. _{For the full article, click here.}