Charles de Thierry

Charles de Thierry
A photograph of Charles de Thierry, probably taken after he had returned to Auckland in 1853
Born	April 1793 Grave, Dutch Republic
Died	8 July 1864 (aged 71) Auckland, New Zealand
Resting place	Symonds Street Cemetery
Known for	Attempt to establish his own sovereign state in New Zealand in the years before British annexation

Charles Philippe Hippolyte de Thierry (April 1793 – 8 July 1864) was a nineteenth-century adventurer who attempted to establish his own sovereign state in New Zealand in the years before the Treaty of Waitangi between the British Crown and the Maori chiefs in 1840.

De Thierry was from a French family that had fled to England following the revolution. He claimed to have been born in 1793 while his parents were fleeing, probably in Grave in the Netherlands. Upon reaching England, his father Charles Antoine de Thierry, claimed the title of Baron Nasher.

De Thierry was enrolled at Magdalen College, Oxford, and claimed to have transferred to a college of the University of Cambridge. There, he met Hongi Hika, the Ngāpuhi chief who was visiting England, and the missionary Thomas Kendall. De Thierry subsequently arranged a purchase of 40,000 acres (16,000 ha) at Hokianga, in Northland, through Kendall while at Cambridge. The land was bought for the price of about 500 muskets plus powder and ball which de Thierry sent to Sydney, Australia. Hongi Hika uplifted the weapons on his return to Sydney. It was this act that ignited the inter-iwi and inter-hapu Musket Wars in New Zealand, which continued until about 1842.

After travels in North America and the Caribbean, de Thierry came to the Pacific in 1835. In the Marquesas Islands, he announced himself King of Nuku Hiva.

By 1837, de Thierry had reached Sydney, where he recruited some colonists to join him in his New Zealand possessions. Arriving at Hokianga, the local Maori rangatira (chiefs) Tāmati Wāka Nene and Eruera Maihi Patuone, rejected his claims, but he was allowed to settle. His settlement was a failure. De Thierry continued to agitate for a French colony led by himself, but this activity was curtailed by the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840.