Jessica I of Iansisle

Her Imperial Majesty High Queen Jessica I of the Grand Empire of the Shield and Queen Jessica III of the Kingdom of Shadoran was born to HIH Prince Ian Callahan and the Princess Anne-Marie of Noropia on 22 October 1872.

Early Life

Her great-grandmother, the extraordinarily long-lived HIM High Queen Alice I, would reign for another eight years before Jessica’s great-uncle, HIM High King Robert I, took the throne, seemingly dooming Jessica to a life as a minor cousin of the royal family. However, Robert (whom historians suspect was impotent) died without an heir in 1883, leaving the crown to Jessica’s grandfather, HIM High King Ian V and reinserting her into the succession.

Ian V died in 1895, leaving the throne to his son, HIM High King Ian VI, Jessica’s father. However, the birth of a male heir, Ian and Anne’s fourth child, in 1887 pushed Jessica, the oldest of their daughters, into the background.

Jessica was married at the age of seventeen to her first cousin, the Duc d’Enoleany, the son of Anne of Noropia’s older brother, in 1889. Early marriages were common in mid and late nineteenth century Iansisle, as the ruling Callahanian dynasty tried to connect itself further with the realms which it had conquered in the two previous centuries. Jessica never took to d’Enoleany and spurned his bed after the birth of her son, Toto, in 1890. The Duc started searching for ‘more rewarding’ opportunities, and his rumored extra-marital affairs would fill IanCorp’s tabloids until d’Enoleany’s premature death in early 1900.

Her brother Ian rose to the throne following their father’s death in late 1900 at the age of thirteen. The boy was immediately surrounded by a strong interest group with the Duke of Dorchet as regent. However, Dorchet’s dreams for Iansisle’s future were dashed when Ian VII died little more than three months later, on 19 January 1901 of dysentery. The path was cleared for Jessica.

As High Queen

Jessica, although raised in the conservative courts of Ian V and Ian VI, would prove to be one of Iansisle’s most liberal monarchs. She inherited a country gripped by revolution in its southern province of Dianatran and threatened in all of its colonial possessions. The government was almost exactly divided about whether to continue the expensive campaigns against the Dianatranian rebels or cut their losses and withdraw. Jessica proposed a different solution in 1910: Commonwealth.

Gadsan, Noropia, and Troobodia had been granted a limited form of self-governance, under Iansislean leadership, at various points throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries. Jessica proposed that the same be extended to Dianatran and Tharia, then the six governments collected into one federal entity called the ‘Iansislean Commonwealth.’ Dianatranian leaders quickly agreed, and the immediate threat of revolution was quelled. The creation of the Commonwealth remains Jessica’s greatest contribution to Iansislean history.

The last 16 years of Jessica’s reign would prove to be exceedingly peaceful. She married Sir Howard Benste, a Shadoranite landowner, in 1909 at the age of 37, which Toto always considered an affront to the memory of his dead father. However, the IanCorp rags loved the story and kept the country well updated on the royal love life. Jessica and Sir Howard produced a son, Howard Callahan, Duke of Shadoran, in 1911, to the delight of a country looking for more reasons to celebrate. Jessica forgave her son Toto his uncouth comments in 1920 and allowed him to move back to Dûn Ádien so that she could be closer to her grandchildren Jessica, Elizabeth, and James.

Jessica died after a long struggle with breast cancer on 14 September 1926 after nearly sixteen years of uninterrupted peace and prosperity. She was succeeded by her son Toto.