Robert I of Iansisle

His Imperial Majesty High King Robert I of the Grand Empire of the Shield and King Robert III of Shadoran is an often forgotten monarch who reigned between the long-lived and important Queen Alice I and King Ian V. Robert's reign is best remembered for the loose morals of his court and his even looser handling of the Imperial Parliament.

Early life

Robert was born to the seventeen-year-old Princess Alice, by her husband and first cousin the Prince Lawrence of Vesshampton, in August 1829, during the reign of his great-grandfather James II. He grew up enjoying the liberal court atmosphere of the early nineteenth century, interupted only by the Second Effitian Invasion, and quickly developed a taste for fine wine and fine women. Robert's affairs quickly became the talk of the Ianapalis social newspapers, even after his marriage in 1855 to Alice of Vesshampton, a cousin on his father's side. However, Robert and Alice failed to produce a single pregnancy, as did all of his storied affairs. Historians now suspect that Robert may have been impotent or had another reproductive disability.

Ascension to the throne and reign

Robert succeeded his mother in early 1880 at the age of fifty-one. He proceeded to spend an uneventful three years on the throne, keeping his hands off Parliament, much to the disgust of his brother Ian, and his bedroom open, also much to his brother's disgust. 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 body first experienced 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.

In January 1883, Robert developed pneumonia and died, less than three years after assuming the throne.