Editing Lunalilo (section)

==Prospective royal brides==
[[File:Photograph of William Charles Lunalilo by Henry L. Chase (cropped).jpg|thumb|Photograph of a young Lunalilo by Henry L. Chase.]]
He was betrothed to his cousin Princess [[Victoria Kamāmalu]], a popular choice among the Hawaiian people except for Victoria's brothers. They both refused to have her marry him. Their children would outrank the [[House of Kamehameha]] in family rank (''[[Mana (Oceanian mythology)|mana]]''). There were two failed attempts of marriage between the two. Lunalilo composed the Hawaiian song ''ʻAlekoki'' for his unrequited love. After Victoria, he briefly courted the hand of Liliʻuokalani, but she broke off the engagement on the advice of Kamehameha IV. Liliʻuokalani would eventually marry American [[John Owen Dominis]] and Victoria Kamāmalu would die unmarried and childless at the age of 27 in 1866.{{sfn|Liliuokalani|1898|pages=10–15}}{{sfn|Charlot|1982|pages=435-444}}<ref name="KaleinamanuSilva">{{cite web|last=de Silva|first=Kīhei|title=ʻAlekoki Revisited|work=Kaleinamanu Library Archives, Kamehameha Schools|url=http://apps.ksbe.edu/kaiwakiloumoku/kaleinamanu/essays/alekoki_revisited|access-date=September 3, 2011}}</ref> Another alleged prospective bride was a maternal cousin [[Miriam Auhea Kekāuluohi Crowningburg]], who married a German-American settler instead.<ref name="NamahanaIII">{{Hawaiian Dictionaries|Namahana III Assumes Commemorative Title|dic=royal|id=D0.4.92|accessdate=June 5, 2014}}</ref>

During his reign as king, it was proposed that he marry [[Queen Emma of Hawaii|Queen Emma]], the widow of Kamehameha IV, but this proposal came to nothing due to Queen Emma's devotion to her late husband. They remained friends and it was said he considered naming her as his heir before he died. According to Emma's cousin [[Peter Kaeo|Peter Kaʻeo]], there were gossips that the King would marry a Tahitian chiefess from [[Kingdom of Bora Bora|Bora Bora]]. Although never marrying, the king took [[Eliza Meek]] (1832–1888), the ''hapa-haole'' daughter of Captain John Meek, the harbor pilot of Honolulu, and sister-in-law of his chamberlain Horace Crabbe, as his mistress.{{sfn|Kanahele|1999|pages=152, 269, 274}}