?Elisiva Fusipala Tauki?onetuku
Princess Fusipala in a photograph taken by Josiah Martin, c. 1885
Born	18 May 1850 Tonga
Died	September 1889 (38-39 years) Tonga
Spouse	Sia?osi Fatafehi Toutaitokotaha (1842?1912)
Children	George Tupou II
Parents	T?vita ?Unga (father) Fifita Vava'u (mother)

?Elisiva Fusipala Tauki?onetuku (18 May 1850 ? September 1889) was the mother of King George Tupou II of Tonga .

Biography [ edit ]

Born to T?vita ?Unga and his first wife Fifita Vava'u, her father was, according to newly adopted Christian law, an illegitimate son of King George Tupou I because his mother was a secondary wife of the king. Her family's luck changed when the king's only legitimate son, Prince Vuna Takitakim?lohi , died, leaving her father as King Tupou's heir. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

She married her paternal first cousin Prince Sia?osi Fatafehi Toutaitokotaha (1842?1912), the fourth Tu?i Pelehake , grandson of Tupou I through his mother Princess Salote Pilolevu Mafile?o, her aunt. They had one son, the future King George Tupou II . ^{[ citation needed ]} Her father died 1879, her elder brother ?Uelingatoni Ng? died childless in 1885 and the same fate befell her younger brother Nalesoni Laifone 1889. She became the heir to the throne after her last brother's death in 1889 and held the status of heir apparent for two months before her own death. Her son succeeded his great-grandfather in 1893. Thus the royal lineage passed through her. ^{[4] [5] [6]} Her son's second daughter Princess ?Elisiva Fusipala Tauki?onetuku was named after her.

In July 1865, English explorer Julius Brenchley visited Vava?u for five days and met governor ?Unga and his family including Fusipala. Brenchley noted that she was "twelve years old, is strongly built, and has her breasts perfectly developed, as is usual in a country where the women are generally mothers before they are thirteen. ^[7] However, Fusipala was actually fifteen at the time, being born in 1850, and not twelve as Brenchley claimed.

Family tree [ edit ]

References [ edit ]

Bibliography [ edit ]

• Biersack, Aletta (1996). Fox, James J.; Sather, Clifford (eds.). "Rivals and Wives: Affinal Politics and the Tongan Ramage" . Origins, Ancestry and Alliance: Explorations in Austronesian Ethnography . Canberra: Department of Anthropology, Australian National University. ISBN   978-0-7315-2432-7 . OCLC   245762652 .
• Brenchley, Julius Lucius (1873). Jottings During the Cruise of H. M. S. Curac?oa Among the South Seaislands in 1865 . London: Longmans, Green. OCLC   6749498 .
• Hixon, Margaret (2000). S?lote: Queen of Paradise . Dunedin, NZ: University of Otago Press. ISBN   978-1-877133-78-7 . OCLC   247978391 .
• Rodman, Margaret (2007). House-girls Remember: Domestic Workers in Vanuatu . Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN   978-0-8248-1856-2 . OCLC   35760773 .
• Rutherford, Noel (1977). Friendly Islands: A History of Tonga . Melbourne: Oxford University Press. ISBN   978-0-19-550519-1 . OCLC   611102698 .
• Wood-Ellem, Elizabeth (1999). Queen S?lote of Tonga: The Story of an Era 1900?1965 . Auckland, N.Z: Auckland University Press. ISBN   978-0-8248-2529-4 . OCLC   262293605 .