Ian VI of Iansisle

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His Imperial Majesty High King Ian VI of the Grand Empire of the Shield and King Ian IX of the Kingdom of Shadoran is often called the ‘forgotten monarch’ because of the uneventful five years he spent on the throne, particularly after the long and important reigns of King Ian V and Queen Alice. Ian VI was born to Ian V and his wife the Princess Maria of Tharia on 14 October 1852 and died on 2 November 1900 from complications with his liver.

Early Life

Ian grew up in the splendid court of Queen Alice, his grandmother. Nostalgic historians have dubbed the period from 1860-1895 Pax Iansula, the Iansislean Peace. All of the Grand Empire seemed to be working perfectly: the Effitians were humbled, the Dénians destroyed, the seas roamed by the Royal Iansislean Navy alone, and all the colonies were relatively quiet and productive.

The peaceful nature of Iansisle at the time seemed at times to bore Ian, who actively sought adventure in a way that not many Iansislean royals have. In 1870, he became the first member of the House of Callahan to sail aboard a steamship when he traveled with the Argo of the Royal Gull Line from Ianapalis to Analia.

Railroads also fascinated the young prince, who backed a (failed) project to run a line from Topton to Antangaux over the Noropian Gap in 1871. The costly failure caused his grandmother to revoke most Ian’s extravagant income and force him back into a peaceful life at Dûn Ádien. The Gap would remain an unbreakable obstacle for Shieldo-Noropian commerce until Royal Mining and Manufacturing blasted and drilled a line over it in 1902.

Ian was married to Anne-Marie Palan de Sainte Justine, daughter of the influential Duc de Délivrance of Noropia, soon after being recalled to court in 1871. Ian, still little more than a boy at 19, was infatuated with his beautiful wife (who, in accordance with Iansislean traditions of early marriage, was actually a little more than two years younger than Ian) and was chivalrously eager to serve her any way he could. Ian also ignored persistent rumors of Anne-Marie’s extramarital affairs at court. In October of 1872, the couple gave birth to their first daughter, Jessica.

However, tragedy soon marred the already shaky marriage. Anne-Marie miscarried in 1876 and was accused by Maria, Ian’s mother, of terminating the pregnancy to continue her promiscuous life at court. Maria threatened her with divorce and exile. Fortunately for Anne-Marie, Délivrance, together with the Duc de Château, the Duc de Dalan, the Marquís de St Helena, the Comte d’Antangaux, and Ian himself, rose to her defense. Faced with losing all the goodwill the Grand Empire had managed to curry among the Noropian nobility, Alice commanded Maria to back down. Although the issue passed without further official comment, Anne-Marie did settle into a more matronly role.

A son, James, was born in early 1879 to the couple. Unfortunately, James caught cold almost immediately after birth and, despite the best effort of Iansisle’s doctors, died within a week. A second daughter, Alice, who was born in 1881, suffered a similar fate. Ian began to despair of ever producing another heir and spurned Anne-Marie’s bed for several years, during which his wife took a second flurry of clandestine suitors. Jessica, a bright young girl of eleven, noticed the young men taken in to her mother’s bed chambers, but never mentioned it to her inattentive and already morose father.

At last, perhaps at the behest of their daughter for a baby sibling, Ian rejoined his wife and the affairs ended seemingly overnight. It was regarded as almost a miracle when, in 1886, Anne-Marie became pregnant. A son, Ian, was born in May 1887 to rejoicing around the Shield.

Ascension to the Throne and Reign

Ian V died on 15 March 1895, leaving the throne to his forty-three year old son. Ian VI would soon prove an poor handler of the Imperial Parliament, as he allowed factions to rise up, often in opposition to the king. The strongest of these was lead by the Duke of Dorchet and focused around ending Iansislean imperialism in Dianatran.

Just a few months after Ian VI ascended to the throne, his beloved son became deathly ill. Ian, who regarded the boy as his ‘own personal miracle’ was desperate and called in doctors from across the Shield and Europe. However, none could seem to diagnose the young heir’s disease, and he became progressively more ill as the years wore on.

Ian’s preoccupation with the health of his son led to further factionalism in court and the rise of strong Dianatranian opposition to Iansisle. Anne-Marie died in 1899 and Ian’s own health began to fail soon thereafter. After doctors diagnosed him with an unhealable disease of the liver - owing perhaps to heavy drinking throughout his life - Ian became desperately obsessed with the succession and, in his will, mandated Princess Jessica as the regent for Ian VII until the latter reached the age of eighteen. However, Ian died that November before the contents of his will became known, which allowed Dorchet to seize the regency and effectively rule the country for three months.

Preceded by:
Ian V (VIII)
High King of the Shield and King of Shadoran Successor:
Ian VII (X)