Pōtatau Te Wherowhero becomes the first Māori King

Before the 1850s there was no single Māori sovereign. Iwi and hapū were independent, each led by its own rangatira (chiefs). By the middle of that decade the independence was under strain. British settlers were arriving in growing numbers, the Crown was pressing to buy land, and Māori were divided between those willing to sell and those who were not. Sales by individuals or small groups who did not speak for all the owners set off disputes among Māori themselves, and in 1854 hui (meetings) in Taranaki and Waikato resolved to keep all land within agreed boundaries. The same year settlers gained an elected House of Representatives, which made many Māori feel the need for a leader who could unite the tribes. Some had seen British power at first hand. Piri Kawau of Te Āti Awa met Queen Victoria in 1843, and Tāmihana Te Rauparaha of Ngāti Toa met her in 1852. They concluded that Britain's strength came from having one sovereign, and that a Māori king equal to the Queen could end fighting between tribes and keep land in Māori hands.

From 1853 Mātene Te Whiwhi of Ngāti Raukawa, a cousin of Tāmihana Te Rauparaha and helped by him, travelled the central North Island looking for a rangatira willing to be king. One after another the great chiefs declined, each saying in effect that his authority belonged to his own people and place. Tōpia Tūroa of Whanganui named his mountain and his waters and turned the offer down. Te Kani a Takirau on the East Coast replied that his mountain, Hikurangi, 'is not one that easily moves from its own resting place'. The search ended with Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, the elderly leader of Waikato, whom Iwikau Te Heuheu of Ngāti Tūwharetoa proposed at a large hui at Pūkawa, beside Lake Taupō, in 1856. Te Wherowhero had been a great warrior, was related to many iwi and was on good terms with governors. In 1841 Governor William Hobson had called him the most powerful chief in New Zealand. Waikato's fertile land also mattered, because a king's people would have to feed many gatherings. The Ngāti Hauā leader Wiremu Tāmihana pressed hard for him after being kept waiting two days at the government's Native Office in Auckland while Europeans were seen at once. 'We are treated like dogs,' he told a missionary.

Te Wherowhero refused at first. He was old, and the death of a relative at the hands of Ngāti Hauā in 1825 had never been settled, so peace was made between the two peoples to clear the way. The sources date his acceptance differently. NZHistory places it at Rangiriri in April 1857. Te Ara tells of a meeting in 1857 at Haurua, among Ngāti Maniapoto, where he answered that the sun was about to set on his life and was told it would rise again in the morning, meaning his son could carry the kingship on. 'E pai ana' (it is good), he replied. In June 1858 a great gathering at Ngāruawāhia installed him as king. Iwikau Te Heuheu told him: 'You and Queen Victoria shall be bound together to be one.' Chiefs laid their lands at his feet, and mountains were named as the boundary posts of his territory. Pōtatau, as he became known, likened himself to the 'eye of the needle through which the white, black and red threads must pass', and urged his people to 'hold fast to love, to the law, and to faith in God'. Wiremu Tāmihana, called 'the kingmaker', held a Bible over his head to anoint him. NZHistory places the anointing in June 1858; Te Ara and Tāmihana's biography date it to a confirming ceremony at Ngāruawāhia in May 1859.

Pōtatau drew a line between his authority and the governor's: 'Let Maungatautari be our boundary. Do not encroach on this side. Likewise I am not to set a foot on that side.' His supporters saw the two monarchs as complementary. Not all Māori joined, though. Ngāpuhi, Te Arawa and Ngāti Porou stayed out, and some dismissed the movement as a Waikato affair. After talks with Te Wherowhero in Waikato in April 1857, Governor Thomas Gore Browne concluded that the desire for a separate nationality was basic to the movement, though he still had an official appointed to advise its leaders on new laws. Many settlers saw an anti-land-selling league that should be 'nipped in the bud'. The historian James Belich argues that the movement declared no independence that did not already exist, but raised it to a level the British found unacceptable. When fighting broke out in Taranaki in 1860 the King movement was blamed, though Pōtatau himself opposed taking part. He died at Ngāruawāhia on 25 June 1860 and was succeeded by his son Matutaera, later known as Tāwhiao, who led the movement through the Waikato War of 1863–64. The Kīngitanga survived that war. Thousands gathered at Ngāruawāhia for its 150th anniversary in 2008, and Ngā Wai Hono i te Pō became its eighth monarch in 2024.