Jump to content

Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV
Tāufaʻāhau Tupou in 1985
King of Tonga
Reign16 December 1965 – 10 September 2006
Coronation4 July 1967 at Nukuʻalofa
PredecessorSālote Tupou III
SuccessorGeorge Tupou V
Prime Ministers
See list
10th Prime Minister of Tonga
In office12 December 1949 – 16 December 1965
MonarchSālote Tupou III
PredecessorSolomone Ula Ata
SuccessorPrince Fatafehi Tu'ipelehake
Born(1918-07-04)4 July 1918
Royal Palace, Nuku'alofa, Tonga
Died10 September 2006(2006-09-10) (aged 88)
Auckland, New Zealand
Burial
Mala‘e Kula
SpouseHalaevalu Mataʻaho ʻAhomeʻe
IssueGeorge Tupou V
Princess Salote, Princess Royal
Prince Fatafehi 'Alaivahamama'o Tuku'aho
Tupou VI
HouseTupou
FatherViliami Tungī Mailefihi
MotherQueen Salote Tupou III of Tonga
ReligionFree Wesleyan Church

Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV (born Siaosi Tāufaʻāhau Tupoulahi; 4 July 1918 – 10 September 2006) was King of Tonga from 1965 until his death in 2006. He was the tallest and heaviest Tongan monarch, weighing 209.5 kg (462 lb) and measuring 196 cm (6 ft 5 in).

Biography

[edit]
The Crown Prince as a student at Newington College

The King's full baptismal name was Siaosi Tāufaʻāhau Tupoulahi, but he was soon better known by the traditional title reserved for crown princes: Tupoutoʻa (bestowed in 1937), later replaced by the title he inherited from his father: Tungī (or using both: Tupoutoʻa Tungī, in that time written as Tuboutoʻa Tugi). He kept the Tungī title until his death. From a traditional point of view he was not only the Tungī, which is the direct descendant from the Tuʻi Haʻatakalaua, but he was also, on becoming king, the 22nd Tuʻi Kanokupolu. The link with the Tuʻi Tonga line, however, was more indirect. He was not a Tuʻi Tonga in his own right (the office having gone over into the Kalaniuvalu line), but his grandmother Lavinia Veiongo (wife of George Tupou II) was the great-granddaughter of Laufilitonga, the last Tuʻi Tonga, and his wife Halaevalu Mataʻaho (not to be confused with the King's wife of the same name and same family), who was the daughter of Tupou ʻAhomeʻe, who was the daughter of Lātūfuipeka, the Tamahā (sister of the Tuʻi Tonga). By consequence, the King's daughter, Pilolevu, was the first Tongan woman to descend from the bloodlines of the three major royal dynasties and become the highest-ranking person ever.

Tāufaʻāhau was a keen sportsman and religious preacher in his youth. He was educated at Newington College[1] and studied law at Sydney University while resident at Wesley College in Sydney, Australia. He was appointed Minister of Education by Queen Sālote in 1943, Minister of Health in 1944, and in 1949, Premier. He remained a lay preacher of the Free Wesleyan Church until his death, and in some circumstances, was empowered to appoint an acting church president.

Reign

[edit]
Tāufaʻāhau Tupou with President of India Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, 1976[2]

Tāufaʻāhau became King of Tonga on the death of his mother in 1965. His coronation took place on 4 July 1967, his 49th birthday, with dignitaries including the Duke of Kent and New Zealand Prime Minister Keith Holyoake in attendance.[3][4]

At one point in the 1970s, he was the heaviest monarch in the world, weighing in at 209.5 kg (462 lb).[5] For his visits to Germany, the German government used to commission special chairs that could support his weight. The King used to take them home, considering them as state presents.[citation needed] He was also very tall, standing at 196 cm (6 ft 5 in).[6][7] Swedish shoemaker Per-Enok Kero reported that he "weighed 180 kilos and had shoe size 47 in length and 52 in breadth."[8] In the 1990s, he took part in a national fitness campaign, losing a third of his weight.[9]

In the 1980s, his government adopted a tone of appeasement towards France in its Pacific nuclear tests at Moruroa, which he visited at the invitation of Gaston Flosse. When he was questioned by a journalist on this issue, the king said that "if France considered [the tests] necessary for its defence it was a choice which must be respected".[10] Tāufaʻāhau visited many far-flung countries during his reign.[11]

He wielded great political authority and influence in Tonga's essentially aristocratic system of government, together with the country's nobles, who controlled 70% of the Legislative Assembly of Tonga at the time. His involvement in an investment scandal in 2001, involving his American financial advisor Jesse Bogdonoff, led to calls for greater government transparency and democratisation. The fact the King had previously appointed Bogdonoff, Tonga's official court jester, though likely only done as a joke for Bogdonoff's birthday which happened to fall on 1 April, compounded the scandal's embarrassment.[12][13] In 2005, the government spent several weeks negotiating with striking civil service workers before reaching a settlement. The king's nephew, ʻUluvalu (the 6th Tuʻipelehake), served as mediator. A constitutional commission presented a series of recommendations for constitutional reform to the King a few weeks before his death.[14]

Death and funeral

[edit]

On 15 August 2006, Tongan Prime Minister Feleti Sevele interrupted radio and television broadcasts to announce the King was gravely ill in the Mercy Hospital in Auckland and to ask the 104,000 people of the island chain to pray for their monarch.[15][16] He died 26 days later, at 23:34 NZST on 10 September 2006 (it was just after midnight on 11 September in Tongan time).[17] He was 88 and had reigned for nearly 41 years.[18][19]

Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV was buried on 19 September 2006 at Malaʻekula, the royal cemetery in Tongatapu. Thousands of Tongans watched the funeral, which blended Christian and ancient Polynesian burial rites. The funeral was overseen by the royal undertaker Lauaki and his men of the Haʻatufunga (clan), also known as the nima tapu (sacred hands). Mourners included many foreign dignitaries, including Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito, New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, Fijian Vice President Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi and Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, Vanuatu president Kalkot Mataskelekele, American Samoan Governor Togiola Tulafono, Niue Premier Vivian Young, and the Duke of Gloucester, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II.[20][21][22]

According to the International Herald Tribune, "Tupou IV's 41-year reign made him one of the world's longest-serving sovereigns", after Thailand's King Bhumibol Adulyadej; Elizabeth II in her capacity as monarch of Australia, Barbados, Canada, Jamaica, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom; and Samoa's head of state, Malietoa Tanumafili II.[23]

Marriage and children

[edit]

He was married to Queen Halaevalu Mataʻaho ʻAhomeʻe[24] (1926–2017) and the couple had four children:

  • King George Tupou V (born Prince Siaosi Tāufaʻāhau Manumataongo Tukuʻaho Tupou; 1948–2012), better known during his tenure as heir by the hereditary title Tupoutoʻa (once his father did not need it any longer). He succeeded him on his death in 2006.
  • Princess Royal Salote Mafileʻo Pilolevu Tuita (born Tukuʻaho in 1951). Lady Tuita by marriage.
  • Prince Fatafehi 'Alaivahamama'o Tuku'aho (1954–2004), stripped of his title after marrying a commoner, later bestowed with the hereditary title of Māʻatu.
  • King Tupou VI (born Prince ʻAhoʻeitu ʻUnuakiʻotonga Tukuʻaho in 1959). Prior to his ascension to the throne, he was better known by his traditional titles: ʻUlukālala Lavaka Ata, then after his brother's ascension, Tupoutoʻa Lavaka. As his elder brother died without legitimate issue, he became King in 2012.

Honours

[edit]
2 paʻanga coin commemorating Taufa'ahau Tupou's coronation in 1967.

National

[edit]

Foreign

[edit]

Namesakes

[edit]

Family tree

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "The Crown Prince of Tonga, Taufa'ahau". Pacific Islands Monthly. Vol. VI, no. 5. 20 December 1935. p. 9. Retrieved 17 December 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  2. ^ "India-Tonga: Old friends, new engagements". Gateway House. 29 May 2012. Retrieved 30 July 2024.
  3. ^ "The Coronation of King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV of Tonga". NZ On Screen. Retrieved 6 June 2024.
  4. ^ Cowell, Roger (19 September 2006). "King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV of Tonga". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 6 June 2024.
  5. ^ "King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV of Tonga". The Times. 12 September 2006. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  6. ^ "King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV". The Daily Telegraph. 11 September 2006. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  7. ^ "A far-sighted monarch". The New Zealand Herald. 3 July 2024. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  8. ^ "A Rather Special Order". Kero.se. Archived from the original on 17 April 2016. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  9. ^ "Tongan King Tupou IV dies at 88". BBC News. 11 September 2006. Retrieved 11 September 2006.
  10. ^ Huffer, Elise (1993). Grands hommes et petites îles: la politique extérieure de Fidji, de Tonga, et du Vanuatu. Collection Etudes et thèses (in French). Paris: ORSTOM. pp. 249–250. ISBN 978-2-7099-1125-2.
  11. ^ "In sleepy Tonga, life... ..hugs the slow lane". Papua New Guinea Post-Courier. 27 June 1980. p. 18. Retrieved 17 December 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. ^ "The Money Is All Gone in Tonga, And the Jester's Role Was No Joke". The New York Times. Agence France-Presse. 7 October 2001. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  13. ^ "Tonga's 'court jester' scandal no laughing matter". CNN. 3 October 2001. Retrieved 3 July 2024.
  14. ^ Jones, Hannah (4 November 2010). "Tongan public servants strike for higher wages, 2005". Global Nonviolent Action Database. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  15. ^ "Tongans urged to pray for dying King". Matangi Tonga. 15 August 2006. Archived from the original on 27 May 2011. Retrieved 16 August 2006.
  16. ^ Trevett, Claire; Gregory, Angela (16 August 2006). "Tongans praying for their King". The New Zealand Herald. Retrieved 29 July 2024.
  17. ^ "King's body to lie in state". The New Zealand Herald. 11 September 2006. Retrieved 11 September 2006.
  18. ^ The king's death as reported on Fijian TV on YouTube
  19. ^ Downes, Lawrence. "The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia". International Herald Tribune. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  20. ^ "Tongan royal mourning is broken". BBC News. 28 December 2006. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
  21. ^ "Funeral of Tonga's King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV". ABC. 19 September 2006. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
  22. ^ "Fiji and American Samoa representatives to attend Tongan King's funeral". RNZ. 14 September 2006. Retrieved 6 June 2024.
  23. ^ "Royalty, dignitaries in Tonga gather for king's funeral". International Herald Tribune. 18 September 2006. Retrieved 2 November 2006.
  24. ^ "DOUBLE WEDDING OF TONGAN PRINCES". Pacific Islands Monthly. Vol. XVII, no. 12. 18 July 1947. p. 13. Retrieved 18 January 2022 – via National Library of Australia.
  25. ^ to:File:Taufa Tupou 4.jpg
  26. ^ "Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip pose with members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police during a tour of Canada, October 1977. Photos and Images". Getty Images. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  27. ^ "jeanpaulleblanc Resources and Information". Jeanpaulleblanc.com. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  28. ^ "Photographic image" (JPG). Fadlmedia.s3.amazonaws.com. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  29. ^ "1979: West Germany's Generous Offer". Mic.gov.to. 27 August 2010. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  30. ^ "ORDRE DE TAHITI NUI: LISTE DES TITULAIRES". Retrieved 28 November 2022.
  31. ^ "Tonga Royalty Posing With Japanese Leaders". Getty Images. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  32. ^ "Hu Jintao Meets with Tongan King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV". Fmprc.gov.cn. 19 October 2004. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  33. ^ a b c "Photographic image" (GIF). 38.media.tumblr.com. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
  34. ^ "Photographic image" (JPG). Itre.cis.upenn.edu. Retrieved 10 January 2017.
[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV.
Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV
Born: 4 July 1918 Died: 10 September 2006
Titles of nobility
Preceded by 2nd Chief Tupoutoʻa[citation needed]
1936–1966 		Succeeded by
Regnal titles
Preceded by King of Tonga
1965–2006 		Succeeded by
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Tāufaʻāhau_Tupou_IV&oldid=1237650512"