page_title: Teriitaria II
section_title: Ruler of Huahine
hierarchical_section_title: Teriitaria II / Biography / Ruler of Huahine
caption_attribution_description: English: Queen Teriitaria Ariipaea-vahine and probably her adopted heir, the future Pomare V. Drawing by Henry Byam Martin &#160;(1803&#8211;1865)&#160;&#160;DescriptionBritish aquarellistDate of birth/death 25 June 1803 9 February 1865Location of birth/death Plymouth, Devon, England, United Kingdom Genoa, ItalyAuthority control : Q5718944 VIAF:&#8201;3786829 ISNI:&#8201;0000 0000 6333 7023 LCCN:&#8201;n80161181 NLA:&#8201;36149161 Open Library:&#8201;OL1040427A WorldCat creator QS:P170,Q5718944 .
context_page_description: Teriitaria II or Teri'itari'a II, later known as Pōmare Vahine and Ari'ipaea Vahine, baptized Taaroamaiturai, became Queen of Tahiti when she married King Pōmare II and later, she ruled as Queen of Huahine and Maiao in the Society Islands.
  Teriitaria was the eldest child of King Tamatoa III of Raiatea and Tura’iari’i Ehevahine, a member of the royal family of Huahine. In 1809, Tamatoa arranged for the marriage of Teriitaria and her sister, Teriʻitoʻoterai Teremoemoe, to their widowed second cousin, Pōmare II of Tahiti. Teriitaria became Queen of Huahine in 1815, but did not govern it during the first decades of her rule. In 1815, she fought in the Battle of Te Feipī, which consolidated her husband's rule. Teriitaria had no children with Pōmare II, but Pōmare fathered the next two Tahitian monarchs, Pōmare III and Pōmare IV, by Teremoemoe. Pōmare II died in 1821, and Teriitaria and Teremoemoe served as regents for Pōmare III and Pōmare IV.
  Teriitaria was removed from the regency in 1828, but continued to have an influential role in Tahiti. She led the Tahitian forces in the Taiarapu rebellion of 1832.
context_section_description: In 1815, Teriitaria became the nominal Queen of Huahine and Maiao. The previous ruler, Mahine, fought alongside her at the Battle of Te Feipī. Ellis stated that by the 1820s, Mahine had formally presented the government of the islands to her while he remained the resident chief until his death in 1838. She ruled largely as an absentee monarch while residing on Tahiti for the first few decades of her reign. Her later reign coincided with the Franco-Tahitian War. Pōmare IV was deposed in 1843 by French naval commander Abel Aubert du Petit-Thouars in an attempt to annex Tahiti. From 1844 to 1847, Teriitaria accompanied her niece into voluntary exile on Raiatea as a protest against the seizure of the Tahitian throne by the French.
  In 1845 she defeated an attempt by the French to establish a protectorate over the remaining independent states of the Leeward Islands (Bora Bora, Raiatea and Huahine). With the support of two local chiefs named Haperoa and Teraimano, the French planted a French flag on Huahune soil and threatened to retaliate against anyone who tried to remove it. While on Raiatea, Teriitaria learned of the actions of her subordinate and rallied a force of Raiatean warriors and sailed for Huahine in a whaler. She assembled the people and had them chop the flagstaff down. She then pulled it out herself before sending the flag back to Armand Joseph Bruat, the French governor of Tahiti. 
  A renewed effort to conquer Huahine was made when Commandant Louis Adolphe Bonard was ordered to go to the island and make a show of force. On 17 January 1846, he landed 400 soldiers and marines at Fare harbour. During the Battle of Maeva, Territaria’s forces, supported by around 20 Europeans, held the French off for two days, killing 18 and wounding 43, before they abandoned the attempt and sailed away. Edward Lucett, a British merchant and an island shipowner, noted, "Old Ariipae, musket in hand, and with half a dozen cartouch [sic] boxes belted round her slender waist, was there to encourage her people". This decisive defeat lifted the French naval blockade of Raiatea and forced them to evacuate Bora Bora effectively liberating the Leeward Islands. The French returned to suppress the guerrilla war still waging on Tahiti.
  Although Great Britain never intervened militarily, the British naval officer Henry Byam Martin and commander of HMS Grampus, was sent to the Society Islands to spy on the conflict. His account of the closing months of the conflict are recorded in The Polynesian Journal of Captain Henry Byam Martin, R.N. Marin had an audience with the aged warrior queen at Fare on 21 April 1847 where she told him that, "I would resist the French flag to the last." Below is an excerpt of Martin's impression of the queen:
  I landed at the dwelling of Ariipuia the Queen – for a roof resting on posts without any walls can hardly be called a house. Of this lady I had heard much – as being the most perfect type of an Amazon in the known world. Many good stories are told of her in the island wars – in which she always headed her people – and when their courage flagged – she seized a musket – denounced them as cowards, and by her own prowess & personal example retrieved the day. Ariipuia is certainly no beauty – a tough leathery old woman with a sharp quick eye and a certain look of the devil that fits her character very well. She is said to be every inch a griffon – and by Jove she looks it. She seems about 60 yrs old, but she has not yet renounced the foibles of her sex.
  Attempts to conquer the neighbouring kingdoms of the Leeward Islands ceased after the French withdrew their troops, but guerilla warfare continued between the French and Tahitians on Tahiti until 1846 when Fort Fautaua, the native stronghold, was captured by the French. In February 1847, Queen Pōmare IV returned from her exile and acquiesced to rule under the protectorate. Although victorious, the French were unable to annex the islands due to diplomatic pressure from Great Britain, so Tahiti and its dependency Moorea continued to be ruled under the French protectorate. 
caption: Drawing of Teriitaria by Henry Byam Martin, 1847
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