Keeping the Royal blood blue [1]
Saturday, November 20, 2004 - 18:30. Updated on Thursday, May 8, 2014 - 15:08.
Editor's Comment - by Pesi Fonua
As a new generation of young Tongan Royals are coming of age, it raises the question of how can Tonga keep the Royal blood blue, while the number of people who are eligible for the Royal offspring to chose their spouses from is shrinking.
There are nine Royal females to whom the King will have to give his consent over whom they should marry. Princess Latufuipeka on November 17, became the second of these to turn 21. There are also seven Royal males, including two princes who must also get the approval of the King over whom they should marry.
Traditionally, the high rank, or the 'Eikiness, of the heir to the Tongan throne of the Tu'i Kanokupolu dynasty was maintained by marrying members of the Royal Family with the descendants of the earlier royal dynasties, the Tu'i Tonga and the Tu'i Ha'a Takalaua.
That has been the practice in the past, but at the moment the 26 heirs to the Tongan throne are directly descended from the late Queen Salote, and they are the children and the grand-children of her two sons, King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV and his brother, the late Prince Tu'ipelehake.
Within the royal family, marriage traditionally elevates the rank of the offspring, but this is no longer possible, unless the current generation of young royals marry their cousins.
Marriage within the Royal Household is becoming a dilemma, because of the very close family connections, and it seems that the only choice for Tonga now is to allow the Royal children to marry outside their restricted Royal blood group.