A rangatira, and a religious figure – a tohunga ariki – Tāwhiao amassed power and authority during a time of momentous change, to become de facto leader of the Waikato tribes.

[3][4] Unlike his unenthusiastic father, Tāwhiao embraced the kingship, and responded immediately to the challenge of ongoing Raukawa and Tainui support for Te Āti Awa during the First Taranaki War.

After the Kīngitanga suffered a heavy defeat at the Battle of Rangiriri and war crimes at the trading centre of Rangiaowhia,[5] Tāwhiao led the exodus of Tainui to the land of Ngāti Maniapoto, establishing a secessionist state called Te Rohe Pōtae (the King Country).

[8] He formally sued for peace with George Grey at Pirongia on 11 July 1881,[9] allowing the construction of the North Island Main Trunk railway line, which first opened the King Country up to the outside world.

[4] Attempts by Tāwhiao to regain personal sovereignty or establish co-governance in accordance with the Treaty of Waitangi failed, and the Kīngitanga began to lose its supporters.

[4][10][11] After the Waikato were defeated by musket-armed Ngāpuhi led by Hongi Hika in a battle at Matakitaki (Pirongia) in 1822, they retreated to Orongokoekoea Pā, in what is now the King Country, and lived there for several years.

Pōtatau replied, ‘E Tā, kua tō te rā’ (O sir, the sun is about to set), a proverb commenting on his advanced age and poor health, implying he had not much longer to live.

This referred to the possibility of introducing hereditary rule to the monarchy; Tanirau later espoused support for Tāwhiao (then known as Matutaera) or his siblings to succeed Pōtatau Te Wherowhero upon the latter's death.

Tāwhiao supported the Kīngitanga's uniting principle of opposition to the sale of Māori land, to prevent the spread of British sovereignty,[21][22] but as a pacifist he was divided over how to respond.

Having succeeded the inefficient Thomas Gore Browne as Governor, George Grey had convinced the government of a supposed invasion of Auckland by Waikato Tainui.

According to Browne, in response to his belligerence in the First Taranaki War, Kingite leaders formed plans to launch a raid on Auckland on 1 September and burn the town and slaughter most of its residents.

[26] Grey had held a grudge against the Kīngitanga since falling out with Tāwhiao's father, his old friend Pōtatau Te Wherowhero, with whom he had once had a "wonderful relationship", according to historian Rahui Papa.

With his longstanding desire to destroy the Kingitanga in mind, on 9 July 1863 Grey issued a new ultimatum, ordering that all Māori living between Auckland and the Waikato take an oath of allegiance to Queen Victoria or be expelled south of the river.

Some of you offered a safe passage through your territories to armed parties contemplating such outrages ... Those who remain peaceably at their own villages in Waikato, or move into such districts as may be pointed out by the Government, will be protected in their persons, property, and land.

He relied on his junior chiefs to help sustain the population and engineer defences and palisades to protect pā and areas of economic importance, such as flour mills.

Belgrave says that although their escape "was marked by rape and the brutal killing of the surrendered", the bravery of the last defenders of Ōrākau played no part in the myth that emerged.

Described as "Rewi's Last Stand", the battle was remembered by Pākehā historians in the coming decades as the "dying act of a doomed people pitted against.. a superior European world".

O'Malley has compared the losses for Waikato to the heavy casualties of New Zealand soldiers during the First World War, in which 5.8% of the national population of just over 1 million served, 1.7% of whom were killed.

[8] According to Belgrave, "between the battle of Ōrākau and the mid-1880s, the Rohe Pōtae remained an independent and unified state, but that unity was precarious", owing to the disunity between the iwi of Tainui and the increased resentment of monarchical rule.

This strong anti education stance started a Kingite tradition that led to increasing isolation and lower standard of living than Maori experienced elsewhere in New Zealand.

[43] The Kīngitanga was soon facing threats from the renegade chiefs it was sheltering from the Crown, including Tītokowaru and Te Kooti, who "directly threatened the King’s authority to speak for dissident Māori throughout the country".

The decline of the king's power was hastened by the lessening generosity of Ngāti Maniopoto in hosting the Kīngitanga; the iwi were increasingly impatient for Tāwhiao to return to the Waikato homeland.

[46] Although Tāwhiao saw the queen as no more than "a remote and benign figure of little relevance" – as had been the Kingitanga's position since its establishment – he believed she could shepherd in respect for the Treaty of Waitangi.

He convinced the king and his fellow rangatira Rewi Maniapoto and Te Whēoro to sign a pledge to act with the “propriety and dignity which became his position”.

This was a veiled reference to Tāwhiao's alcoholism; Grey was "determined to limit the likelihood of a drunk monarch turning up at a royal garden party", according to The Spinoff.

Tāwhiao did, however, wrangle a meeting with Lord Derby, Secretary of State for the Colonies, who said the question of Māori self-determination was an issue for the New Zealand government to resolve internally.

Sample banknotes bore the text "E whaimana ana tenei moni ki nga tangata katoa" (this money is valid for all people).

Though all North Island iwi were invited to attend, participation was confined mainly to the Waikato, Maniapoto and Hauraki people who were already part of the King Movement.

This parliament, which consisted of 96 members from the North and South Islands under Prime Minister Hāmiora Mangakāhia, was formed as part of the Kotahitanga (unification) Movement, which Tāwhiao refused to join.

The two men helped established The faith was initially called Hauhau, or Hauhauism especially by its detractors; the name "Pai Mārire" itself (good and gentle) was taken from a Waikato ritual chant.