| Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV | |
|---|---|
 Tāufaʻāhau Tupou in 1985 | |
| King of Tonga | |
| Reign | 16 December 1965 – 10 September 2006 |
| Coronation | 4 July 1967 |
| Predecessor | Sālote Tupou III |
| Successor | George Tupou V |
| Prime Ministers | |
| Prime Minister of Tonga | |
| In office 12 December 1949 – 16 December 1965 | |
| Monarch | Sālote Tupou III |
| Preceded by | Solomone Ula Ata |
| Succeeded by | Prince Fatafehi Tuʻipelehake |
| Born | (1918-07-04)4 July 1918 Royal Palace,Nukuʻalofa,Kingdom of Tonga |
| Died | 10 September 2006(2006-09-10) (aged 88) Auckland, New Zealand |
| Burial | 19 September 2006 Malaʻekula, Tonga |
| Spouse | |
| Issue | |
| House | Tupou |
| Father | Viliami Tungī Mailefihi |
| Mother | Sālote Tupou III |
| Religion | Free Wesleyan Church |
Tāufaʻāhau Tupou IV (Siaosi Tāufaʻāhau Tupoulahi; 4 July 1918 – 10 September 2006) wasKing 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).
He was born toViliami Tungī Mailefihi andQueen Sālote Tupou III.[1] His full baptismal name was Siaosi (George) Tāufaʻāhau Tupoulahi, but he became better known by the noble titleTupoutoʻa, which was bestowed upon him in 1935 and was subsequently reserved forcrown princes of Tonga.[2] This title was supplemented by the one he inherited from his father, Tungī (or using both: Tupoutoʻa Tungī; archaic spelling: 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 theTuʻi Haʻatakalaua, but he was also, on becoming king, the 22ndTuʻi Kanokupolu. The link with theTuʻi 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 grandmotherLavinia Veiongo (wife ofGeorge Tupou II) was the great-granddaughter ofLaufilitonga, 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, theTamahā (sister of the Tuʻi Tonga). By consequence, his children all descended from the bloodlines of the three major historical royal dynasties of Tonga.
He was educated first atTupou College,[3] then continued his studies atNewington College in Australia.[4] He thereafter studied law atSydney University while residing atWesley College. His graduation from Sydney University was described as the first of any Tongan.[5][6]
In 1943, the crown prince was appointed minister of education by Queen Sālote. He was made minister of health in 1944, and ultimatelyprime minister in 1949, while also serving as minister of agriculture, communications and foreign affairs.[7][8][9] During his tenure as education minister, he initiated reforms to standardise theTongan alphabet and in 1959, his government approved the publication of a bilingual Tongan-English dictionary.[5][10] He also supervised the establishment of theTonga Chronicle and theTonga Broadcasting Commission.[11]
In 1964, Tungī visited the United Kingdom for negotiations regarding the future independence of Tonga. He requested that theColonial Office grant Tonga permission to appoint its own diplomats to Britain and the United States. The British government declined, citing cost concerns.[11]
Tungī ascended the throne on 16 December 1965, following the death of his mother. He continued negotiating with the UK to arrange Tonga's transition to a sovereign state within theCommonwealth.[11] His coronation took place on 4 July 1967, his 49th birthday, at the royal chapel inNukuʻalofa, in a service that combined Methodist and traditional Tongan customs.[3] The coronation was attended by international dignitaries including theDuke of Kent and New Zealand Prime MinisterKeith Holyoake.[13][5]
On 4 June 1970, he presided over a ceremony marking the end of theBritish protectorate over Tonga and its transition to a sovereign state.[14] He visited many far-flung countries during his reign and modernised Tonga's contact with the outside world.[15][16]
The king adopted a tone of appeasement towards France in itsPacific nuclear tests atMoruroa during the 1980s, which were publicly criticised by other Pacific countries. He visited Moruroa twice and was invited byGaston Flosse to visitTahiti. When he was questioned by a journalist on his view, he said that "if France considered [the tests] "necessary for its defence it was a choice which must be respected".[11]
Towards the end of his reign, increasing authoritarianism within Tonga's essentially aristocratic system of government, coupled with the influence of the monarchy and nobles in politics and the economy, led to the formation of a pro-democracy movement in Tonga.[3][17][18] Tāufaʻāhau himself had dismissed calls for democratisation of the political system, pointing to political crises in neighbouring Fiji.[6] His involvement in an investment scandal in 2001, involving his American financial advisorJesse Bogdonoff, attracted much media attention; the fact he had previously appointed Bogdonoff the officialcourt jester, though likely only done as a joke for Bogdonoff's birthday on 1 April (April Fools' Day), compounded the scandal's embarrassment.[19][20]
Another controversy emerged in 2003, when his government banned an independent newspaper, theTimes of Tonga published inNew Zealand, and later attempted to amend the constitution to restrictfreedom of the press in response to the country's chief justice ruling against the ban.[21][17] The following year,Reporters Without Borders named him apress freedom predator, a move which was criticised by the owner of another independent newspaper in Tonga.[22]
In 2005, the government spent several weeks negotiating withstriking civil service workers before reaching a settlement. The king's nephew,ʻUluvalu (the 6thTuʻipelehake), served as mediator. A constitutional commission presented a series of recommendations for constitutional reform to the King a few weeks before his death.[23]
Tāufaʻāhau suffered from heart and age-related problems in his final years, which necessitated medical care at the Mercy Hospital inAuckland, New Zealand.[24][25] He returned to Tonga intermittently, with his last such visit being in early July 2006 for his 88th birthday.[24][26][27]
On 15 August 2006, Tongan Prime MinisterFeleti Sevele interrupted radio and television broadcasts to announce the king was gravely ill and to ask the 104,000 people of the island chain to pray for their monarch.[28][29] He died at the Mercy Hospital on 10 September at 23:34NZST,[a] with the Queen, his daughter Princess Pilolevu and other members of the royal family by his bedside.[30][31] His reign of nearly 41 years made him the fourth longest-serving head of state at the time.[32][33] He was succeeded by his eldest son,George Tupou V.[34]
Following his death, Tonga entered a month-long period ofnational mourning, with the royal family and court observing a longer mourning period of six months.[35][36] After a period oflying in state at his residence of ʻAtalanga inEpsom, his body was taken to Tonga on 13 September by aLockheed C-130 Hercules owned by theRoyal New Zealand Air Force, also carrying members of the Tongan diaspora for the funeral.[36][37]
A state funeral was held for Tāufaʻāhau on 19 September, comprising a procession through Nukuʻalofa and a burial service atMalaʻekula, the royal cemetery in Tongatapu, which blended Christian and ancient Polynesian burial rites. A crowd of around 10,000 attended the funeral, which was overseen by the royal undertaker and his men, known as thenima tapu. Mourners included foreign dignitaries from 30 countries, among them Australian governor-generalMichael Jeffery; New Zealand governor-generalDame Silvia Cartwright and prime ministerHelen Clark; Fijian vice-presidentRatu Joni Madraiwiwi and prime ministerLaisenia Qarase; Vanuatu presidentKalkot Mataskelekele; governor of American SamoaTogiola Tulafono; Niue premierYoung Vivian; president of French PolynesiaOscar Temaru; Japanese crown princeNaruhito; and theDuke of Gloucester, a cousin of Queen Elizabeth II.[38]
Tāufaʻāhau was a keen sportsman in his youth, engaging in rugby, tennis, cricket and rowing,[8] and an admirer ofOtto von Bismarck.[11] He remained alay preacher of theFree Wesleyan Church and in some circumstances, was empowered to appoint an acting church president.[9]
He married a distant relative,Halaevalu Mataʻaho ʻAhomeʻe (1926–2017), on 10 June 1947, during a double nuptial ceremony with his brother PrinceFatafehi Tuʻipelehake.[39] The couple had four children:
At one point in the 1970s, Tāufaʻāhau was the heaviest monarch in the world, weighing in at 209.5 kg (462 lb).[8] 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.[40] He was also very tall, standing at 196 cm (6 ft 5 in).[3][41] Swedish shoemaker Per-Enok Kero reported that he "weighed 180 kilos and had shoe size 47 in length and 52 in breadth."[42] In the 1990s, he took part in a national fitness campaign, losing a third of his weight.[43] By 2003, his weight had been reduced to 140 kg (310 lb).[44]
Denmark: Recipient of theRoyal Medal of Recompense[citation needed]
France: Grand Cross of theOrder of the Legion of Honour (11 January 1980)[11]
Germany: Grand Cross of theOrder of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, Special Class (2 December 1977)[48][failed verification]
French Polynesia: Grand Cross of theOrder of Tahiti Nui (4 March 1997)[49]
Japan: Knight Grand Cordon with Collar of theOrder of the Chrysanthemum[50]
Republic of China (Taiwan): Grand Cross of theOrder of Brilliant Jade[51][better source needed]
United Kingdom: Knight Grand Cross of theOrder of St Michael and St George (1977)[8]United Kingdom: Knight Grand Cross of theRoyal Victorian Order (1970)[8]United Kingdom: Knight Commander of theMost Excellent Order of the British Empire (1958)[8]United Kingdom: Bailiff Grand Cross of theVenerable Order of Saint John[52]United Kingdom: Recipient of theMedal of Merit of the Legion of Frontiersmen[citation needed]United Kingdom: Recipient of theQueen Elizabeth II Silver Jubilee Medal[citation needed]
Media from Commons
Quotations from Wikiquote
Data from WikidataTāufaʻāhau Tupou IV Born: 4 July 1918 Died: 10 September 2006 | ||
| Titles of nobility | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | 2nd Chief Tupoutoʻa[citation needed] 1936–1966 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Tonga 1949–1965 | Succeeded by |
| Regnal titles | ||
| Preceded by | King of Tonga 1965–2006 | Succeeded by |
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* acting | ||
