Episode 1 of 3
Refusal to Execute Keōpūolani
- When
- 1819
- Where
- Hawaiian Kingdom
Liholiho refused to kill his mother for breaking a major kapu, effectively ending the monarchy's support of the system.
Breaking a major kapu was traditionally a death penalty offense. However, King Kamehameha II refused to execute his mother, Keōpūolani, for violating this taboo. This act effectively broke the monarchy's support of the kapu system, leading to its eventual outlawing.
Sources
- Kaʻahumanu Wikipedia, revision of 2026-08-27
Machine-drafted from the cited Wikipedia passages and checked by a reviewing model, not by a human editor. Every passage cites the revision it was written from; dates and places follow those passages.