Kingdom of Haiti

The Kingdom of Haiti was the monarchy established by Henri Christophe in the northern part of Haiti on 28 March 1811, when he proclaimed himself King Henri I. Christophe had been a leading commander in the Haitian Revolution and had governed the northern State of Haiti as president since the country split after the assassination of Emperor Dessalines in 1806. His kingdom presented itself as a stable, ordered alternative to the southern republic, and he built an elaborate court with princes, dukes, counts and barons. He also financed ambitious public works, including the Sans-Souci Palace at Milot and the Citadelle Laferrière, a massive fortress designed to resist a French return. The kingdom's economy rested on plantation agriculture and forced labour, which made the regime unpopular. Christophe suffered a stroke in 1820; as revolt spread, he shot himself on 8 October 1820. Ten days later his son and heir, Jacques-Victor Henri, was murdered, and Jean-Pierre Boyer, president of the southern republic, reunited Haiti under a single government. Cap-Haïtien was the royal capital.