Pōtatau I, Māori King

Maori King Movement

The Māori King Movement or Kīngitanga is a movement that arose among some of the Māori tribes of New Zealand in the central North Island ,in the 1850s, to establish a role similar in status to that of the monarch of the colonising people, the British, as a way of halting the alienation of Māori land...

(Pōtatau Te Wherowhero) (circa 1800 – June 25, 1860) was a Māori warrior, leader of the Waikato

Waikato (iwi)

Waikato is a Māori iwi from the Waikato region of the North Island of New Zealand. Actually a confederation of smaller tribes, it is also part of the larger confederation of Tainui, consisting of tribes descended from Polynesian migrants who arrived in New Zealand on the Tainui canoe...

 tribes, the first Māori King

Maori King Movement

The Māori King Movement or Kīngitanga is a movement that arose among some of the Māori tribes of New Zealand in the central North Island ,in the 1850s, to establish a role similar in status to that of the monarch of the colonising people, the British, as a way of halting the alienation of Māori land...

 and founder of the Te Wherowhero royal dynasty. He was first known as simply Te Wherowhero and took the name Pōtatau after he became king. As disputes over land grew more severe Te Wherowhero found himself increasingly at odds with the Government and its policies.
When Pōtatau was born his father, Te Rauangaanga

Te Rauangaanga

Te Rauangaanga, , was a chief of the Ngati Mahuta hapu of the Waikato tribe and principal war chief of the tribes of the Waikato region of northern New Zealand...

 of Ngāti Mahuta

Ngati Mahuta

Ngāti Mahuta is a sub-tribe of the Waikato tribe of Māori in the North Island of New Zealand ....

, had just become the principal war chief of the Waikato tribes.