Hawaiian Monarch. She was the only queen regnant and the last sovereign monarch of the Hawaiian Kingdom, ruling from January 29, 1891, until the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom by the United States on January 17, 1893. Born Lydia Lili'u Loloku Walania Wewehi Kamaka'eha on the island of Oahu, she was the third of ten children of chiefs Caesar Kapa'akea and Anale'a Keohokahole. During school, she discovered a talent for composition, and would in her lifetime, write over 150 songs, the most famous of which is "Aloha Oe," an originally penned as a love song. When Kamehameha V died, his heir refused the throne, and the kingdom's legislature elected David Kameka'eha, her brother, king in February in 1874 . He served as King Kalakuaua. Her brother named their brother William Leleiôhoku as to be heir, but in April of 1877, William's death left her heir apparent, at which time she took the name Lili'uokalani. In 1887 a consortium of non-native planters and businessmen, seeking to control the kingdom politically, as well as economically, formed a secret organization known as the Hawaiian League. Kalakaua was compelled to accept a new Cabinet composed of league members, who forced the reluctant king to sign a new constitution, later known as the Bayonet Constitution which greatly curtailed the monarch's power, and placed the executive power in the hands of the Cabinet. When King Kalakaua died in January of 1891, Lili'uokalani ascended the throne. In January of 1892, the Queen proclaimed a new constitution, which would restore power to the throne and rights to the Native Hawaiians. At the same time a group of non-native businessmen formed an Annexation Club, the goal of which was the overthrow of the queen and annex the kingdom to the United States. The Club's so-called Committee of Safety claimed that the Queen, by proposing to alter the constitution, had committed a revolutionary act. The American minister in Hawaii, sided with the Club assuring them he would not protect the queen, and that he would land troops from the "USS Boston" if necessary to further their ends. On January 15th, the Queen's Cabinet was informed that the Committee of Safety would challenge her. In an effort to quell the mounting crisis, the Queen, who wished to avoid bloodshed, issued a proclamation declaring that she would not seek to alter the constitution except by constitutional means. The Committee of Safety, however, denounced the Queen and requested troops, that afternoon, 162 armed troops from the "USS Boston" came ashore. Lili'uokalani was deposed on January 17, 1893, signing a document, which read in part: "Now to avoid any collision of armed forces, and perhaps the loss of life, I do this under protest and impelled by said force yield my authority...as the Constitutional Sovereign of the Hawaiian Islands." An appeal sent to President Grover Cleveland was stalled in the United States Congress, which led to ten days of fighting between Hawaiian Royalists and the revolutionary government. The Queen was arrested January 16, 1895, and imprisoned in the Iolani Palace, where she was presented with a document of abdication, which she was compelled to sign in order to save her loyalists from execution. After eight months of imprisonment in the palace, she was allowed to return to her home, under house arrest, until 1896 when her freedom restored. She continued diplomatic efforts on the monarchy's behalf until her death at the age of 79, thus ending Native rule on the Hawaiian Islands.