Ian V of Iansisle

His Imperial Majesty High King Ian V of the Grand Empire of the Shield and King Ian VIII of Shadoran spent one dozen years on the throne at Dûn Ádien during Iansisle's greatest period of power and, ironically, its greatest dearth of interesting times. Ian was the perfect man for the times: his dominating personality was only matched by his lack of social charm and quiet piety.

Birth and Early Life

Ian was born in early May 1831, the second son of the then nineteen-year-old Princess Alice of Shadoran, daughter and heir-apparent of HIM King Toto III. Even after his mother rose to the throne following the premature death of her father, Ian appeared to be doomed to the life of a younger son. His older brother Robert was, if not the favorite of the Imperial Parliament in Jameston Place, certainly the highlight of court life on Ian’s Island. Ian grew up in his brother's shadow and, at the somewhat late age of sixteen, decided to join the clergy and spent three years in Rome.

However, just nine months after Ian had arrived in Italy, the Revolutions of 1848 and the war between Sardinia and Austria convinced Queen Alice, who had been against Ian's plan from the start, that Europe simply was not the correct place for a young Iansislean prince. Ian was recalled to Iansisle, his dreams of joining the clergy frustrated. In early 1849, he decided instead on the other career available to a young royal son and joined the Royal Iansislean Navy. Ian was put directly on the Captain's List, skipping entirely over the steps of midshipman and lieutenant. However, even in command of the sloop Jub, he would prove to be a poor seaman and was quickly shuffled off into the Admiralty Building in downtown Ianapalis, as far from a seagoing command as the First Sea Lord could get him without insulting the royal family.

With the Reaction of 1849 and the Concert of Europe seemingly in full swing once again, Ian begged Alice to be allowed to return to Rome to further his studies. However, Alice refused, citing Ian's commission in the Navy, and so he remained in Ianapalis, doing tasks worthy of a list captain and son of the queen, but never quite vital to Iansisle's interests or the maintenance of the fleet. In 1851, with every possibility of the life of a clergyman gone, Ian was married to Maria Analia, a younger daughter of the Archduke of Sentry Island. In October 1852, a son was born to the pair. Ian could never seem to find quite enough time between his prayers to either raise his son or further his prospects in the Admiralty, but did manage a somewhat passable job in both. And so it continued until, while the naval attaché in Iansisle's embassy in Walmington on Sea, Ian was recalled to Iansisle with the news that his mother was deathly ill.

The Reign of Robert I (IV)

Ian's older brother Robert, who had spent his entire youth carousing with young women (both before and after his marriage to Princess Alice of Vesshampton) ascended to the throne on the death of their mother in early 1880 at the age of fifty-one. However, Robert and Alice had never produced an heir, nor was there any reliable report of offspring from Robert's other romances, leading historians to wonder just what was taking placing in the bedrooms of Dûn Ádien. Several theories, impotence the most popular among them, have been forwarded for Robert's inability to produce an heir or even a child.

Politically, Robert's years on the throne produced nothing of import. A crisis in Dianatran was averted by quick action in the Imperial Parliament without the intervention of the High King, confirming the new powers of that bodied first experimented during the rule of Alice I. Socially, Robert's reign is seen as the release of built-up sexual tensions after the extremely moral and restricted atmosphere of Alice's court (Robert's own affairs excluded). Artistically, the great Shieldo-Noropian poet Vantier released his third collection of verse and Sir Edward Kulthin painted Sea at Dawn, generally considered one of his technically better, if less original, works.

Less than three years after assuming the throne, Robert became deathly ill. He died in early 1883, clearing the way for his brother.

Ascension to the Throne and Reign

Ian came to the throne with two major items on his agenda: to counter the liberal atmosphere of Robert's court and to reverse the sweeping powers assumed by the Imperial Parliament during the hands-off reign of his mother and the lackadaisical reign of his brother. In the first, he was notably successful, as his reign is remembered as one of the most 'moral' (if also the most repressed) periods in Iansisle's modern history. He had more mixed success in the second.

Internationally, Ian's reign, like that of his mother and brother, was one of the most peaceful times in Iansislean history: the culmination of the Pax Iansula which had dominated since the early 1860s. Shieldian merchants sailed every ocean safely under the aegis of the Royal Iansislean Navy, neighboring Effit was content not to further its designs on the Jaizar River Valley, and the only wars were small punitive campaigns in Dianatran and Gallaga. Iansislean power and prestige was at its absolute zenith.

Politically, however, Ian became locked in a quarrel with both the great lords of parliament and the commoners elected to represent the people. The Prime Minister, the Duke of Evanpass, and the East Gallaga Company objected strongly when Ian used the royal prerogative to send an expedition to temple ruins in north-central Gallaga without consulting either body. Ian argued that the men were his subjects and the territory his realm, and that he would send whom he would where he wanted. He also reminded the Company that they operated under a Royal Charter, which had been revoked once before and could be again. Both Evanpass and the Company backed down, a seeming victory for the King.

However, when Ian objected to Shieldian soldiers in the service of the King being used to further the Company's objectives in the Great Gallagan Game, Evanpass could point to thirty years of precedent without intervention by the monarchy. Combined with public interest in the Game, Ian was obliged to retreat, a strong and public victory for Parliament. The pattern continued for the next ten years: the Parliament would win one round, then Ian the next, and so forth. At last, in 1893 - on his deathbed - Ian was forced to admit that he had lost the battle.

At the age of sixty-three - more than eighteen years past the life expectancy of the time - Ian caught a bad cold and died in bed on 15 March 1895. The last major work of Sir Edward Kulthin, who was himself sixty-one at the time, depicted Ian surrounded by mourners and was entitled Res Monara hû Móurnara. The painting is still hanging in King Alexander's Library in Dûn Ádien.

Legacy

High King Ian V is one of the most well-known names among the post-Ian the Great and James monarchs. He was the public face of the Empire for one dozen years, providing a continuity from Alice where his brother Robert could not. Although Ian was never beloved by the people, the great man - a massive, hulking figure for a Shieldian at six foot even and two hundred and twenty pounds - was respected by all his subjects. During the rule of James III (VI), Ian's memory was honored by the naming of the third battlecruiser of the Queen Jessica class HIMS King Ian V.