Age of Empire and Royalty II
Henri Christophe
King Henri I
Reign: 28 March 1811 – 8 October 1820
The first and only King of Haiti
Coronation 2 June 1811
Consort Marie Louise
Kingdom of Haiti flag (1811)
Henri Christophe was a key leader in the Haitian Revolution, winning independence from France in 1804. On
17 February 1807, after the creation of a separate nation in the
north, Christophe was elected President of the State of Haiti.
On 26 March 1811, he was proclaimed Henri I, King of Haïti. He is also known for constructing the Citadelle Laferrière.
In
1811 Henri made the northern state of Haïti a kingdom, and was
ordained Emperor by Arch Bishop of Milot Corneil Breuil. The edict of 1
April 1811 gave his full title as:
Henri,
par la grâce de Dieu et la Loi constitutionelle de l'État Roi
d'Haïti, Souverain des Îles de la Tortue, Gonâve, et autres îles
adjacentes, Destructeur de la tyrannie, Régénérateur et bienfaiteur de
la nation haïtienne, Créateur de ses institutiones morales,
politiques et guerrières, Premier monarque couronné du Nouveau-Monde,
Défenseur de la foi, Fondateur de l'ordre royal et militaire de
Saint-Henri.
Henry,
by the grace of God and constitutional law of the state, King of
Haiti, Sovereign of Tortuga, Gonâve, and other adjacent islands,
Destroyer of tyranny, Regenerator and Benefactor of the Haïtian nation,
Creator of her moral, political, and martial institutions, First
crowned monarch of the New World, Defender of the faith, Founder of the
Royal Military Order of Saint Henry.
He renamed Cap Français Cap-Henri. It is now called Cap-Haïtien.
Christophe named his legitimate son, Jacques-Victor Henry, heir apparent with the title Prince Royal of Haïti.
Even in documents written in French, the king's name was usually
given an English spelling. He had another son who was a colonel in his
army.
Prince Jacques-Victor Henry (Henri Christophe's Son)
Christophe built for his own use six châteaux, eight palaces and the massive Citadelle Laferrière,
still considered one of the wonders of the era. Nine years later, at
the end of his monarchy, he had increased the number of designated
nobility from the original 87 to 134.
Politically,
in the North, Christophe was caught between reinforcing a version of
the slave plantation system in an attempt to increase agricultural
production, or handing out the plantation land for peasant cultivation
(the approach taken by Alexandre Petion in the South). King Henri took
the route of enforcing corvee plantation
work on the population in lieu of taxes alongside his massive building
projects. As a result, Northern Haiti during his reign was despotic
but relatively wealthy.
He
preferred trading with English merchants and American merchants than
both French and Spanish merchants which did not recognize Haiti as
independent country, he ordered that extra Africans be brought to Haiti
to work on his vast projects instead of being traded to other
Caribbean countries where they would be held as slaves. As a result,
numerous Africans who were originally brought by the French as slaves
came to Haiti. He made an agreement with Britain that Haiti would not
be threat to their Caribbean colonies in return that the British Navy
would warn the Kingdom of Haiti of any imminent attack from French
troops, in 1807 the British Parliament passed the Slave Trade of 1807
which did not outlaw slavery, but abolishing the importation of African
slaves in British territory, because of this increased bilateral
trade, he had gathered an enormous sum of British pounds for his
treasury. By contrast, Petion's Southern Haiti became much poorer
because the land-share destroyed agricultural productivity.
Nobility and heraldry -
One of Christophe's first acts as king was to create a Haïtian Peerage, with four princes, seven dukes, 22 counts, 40 barons and 14 chevaliers. Christophe also founded a College of Arms to provide armorial bearings to the newly ennobled.
Christophe's kingship was modelled in part on the enlightened absolutism of Frederick the Great.
Thomas Clarkson, the English slave abolitionist, held a long written correspondence with Christophe which gives insights into his philosophy and style of government.
Thomas Clarkson
The king sought an education for his children along the lines of the princelings of Enlightenment Europe.
Predecessor: Jacques I (as Emperor of Haiti) Monarchy Abolished
Successor: Jean Pierre Boyer (as President of Haiti)
Correspondance de Henry Christophe général de brigade au citoyen Toussaint Louverture
