The Tu’i Tonga is the ancient sacred line of kings beginning with ‘Ahoeitu the first divine ruler of Tonga.  His father is said to have been the God Tangaloa ‘Eitumatupu’a and he had a mortal mother called ‘Ilaheva.

The tenth Tu’i Tonga, Momo, married the daughter of Lo’au.  Their son Tu’itatui built the stone trilithon located near Niutoua called the Ha’amonga a Maui or the ‘burden of Maui’.  This period is believed to be the height of the Tongan empire extending from parts of Fiji, westward to Samoa, northwards to Tokelau and further eastward to include Niue and the Cook Islands.

The Tu’i Tonga Takalaua was assassinated by Tamasia and Malufafa.  They were famously chased around the Pacific and caught in Uvea and Futuna.  Their teeth were pulled out and they were forced to chew kava and spit the bloody pulp into a kumete for Kau’ulufonua to drink.  This earned him the name Kau’ulufonua Fekai or ‘savage/fierce’.
 
Temporal power was from this point on, separated from the divine and sacred mana or authority of the Tu’i Tonga by Kau’ulufonua and transferred to his younger brother Mo’ungamotu’a.  The new line of kings or ‘hau’ was born, Ha’atakalaua named after the murdered Takalaua.