History of Navasse

The earliest record of Navasse comes from 1504 when Christopher Columbus inadvertently discovered the island. Lacking drinkable water, his men named the island Navaza or plain and avoided the island for centuries.

With the signing of the Treaty of Ryswick in 1697, the island was transferred to France. It would remain part of the French territory of Saint-Domingue until the proclamation of Haïti on January 1, 1804. Several months after his coronation, revolutionary hero Emperor Jean-Jacques Dessalines rewarded the title Duc de la Navasse to Henry Christophe - at least, according to family legend. But after the assassination of Jean-Jacques I in 1806, Christophe and his followers traveled to the northern part of Haïti and established a separate government. In 1807, Henry was proclaimed President & Generalissimo of the State (northern) of Haïti. Four years later, he proclaimed himself King of Haïti and was crowned by Corneille Brelle, who had previously crowned Dessalines himself. Though Haïti was divided between the royal north and republican south, Henry I proclaimed himself ruler “of Tortuga, Gonâve, and other adjacent islands” - including Navasse.

King Henry sought to create a royal court on par with his European counterparts. From his Sans-Souci Palace in Milot, near the royal capital of Cap-Henry - now Cap-Haïtien - Henry was an ardent supporter of science and the arts. He established a cabinet government and nobility modeled after the British and ordered regalia from London to reinforce his majesty. Henry later created a codified constitution, the Code Henry, which promoted education and freedoms - though the King held most of the power.

A stroke in the summer of 1820, added to growing discontent fuelled by instigators from the republican South, brought the fall of King Henry’s reign that year. His family relocated to the Citadelle Laferrière, a fortification built to protect the kingdom from a purported French invasion. Refusing to see himself fall into the hands of his enemies, Henry shot himself on October 8, 1820. His son, the Prince Royal Victor-Henry - briefly recognized as King Henry II - was stabbed by insurgents ten days later. Henry I’s wife, Queen Marie-Louise, and daughters Princess Françoise-Améthyste and Princess Anne-Athénaïre left in exile to Europe, where they died in Italy.

Navasse changed hands but remained forever under the flag of Haïti. That is, until the mid-1800s. The U.S. Guano Islands Act of 1856 gave American citizens the right to take possession of uninhabited islands containing guano deposits. A year later, American sea captain Peter Duncan claimed the island - despite its longstanding claim by Haïti. Two years later, President James Buchanan issued an Executive Order upholding the claim - a decree still in effect today.

It is believed Henry I bequeathed the title of Princesse de la Navasse to his legitimized daughter, S.A.S. Princess Blésine Georges Christophe, who married Count Nord Alexis in 1819. Her son, Pierre Nord Alexis, was born in Cap-Henry in 1820. Eventually becoming the 2nd Prince de la Navasse, Pierre spent his life in public service, serving as a provincial governor under Emperor Faustin I, who recognized the title, followed by a stint as a war minister and a provisional government member in the country's northern part in 1869-70. Finally, in 1902, Pierre was elected President of Haïti. Remembering the stories of his late grandfather, he, too, dreamt of the days of the return of the Monarchy. He proclaimed himself President for Life in January 1908 and proposed a constitutional monarchy but was greatly opposed and forced into exile by the end of the year.

After Pierre died in 1910, the title fell into abeyance until Pierre’s great-great-great-granddaughter, Marie-Adélina, assumed the title and throne of Navasse on September 13, 2017. Claiming the uninhabited islands of Navassa, Serranilla Bank and Bajo Nuevo Bank, the three islands would form the basis of this small but proud micronation.