James I (Prince of Caledon)
| James I | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office -371 | |
| Preceded by | none |
|---|---|
| Succeeded by | Robert I |
| Born | -401 |
| Died | -323 |
Born James Douglass in -401, by age 30 he was leader of Clan Douglass, one of dozens of clans vying for control of Caledon.
Through canny negotiation - including the granting of major concessions to clans Campbell, McIntyre and McMurdo - James was crowned James I in -371. As his first act, he proclaimed the Principality of Caledon, and became the first Sovereign Prince of the principality.
Reign[edit]
James was a brilliant negotiator and politician. He was also something of a visionary - in part due to the influence of his wife, Princess Alice of Dunbrough, the daughter of Duncan Bruce, a fairly distinguished physicist and engineer.
Bruce - with funding from equity pools from Clans Douglass, McMurdo, Dunbrough and Campbell - continued and accelerated the task of implementing the theoretical idea of the Jump Drive. The first Caledonian jump drone launched in -360; a second launched and returned successfully later that year; the first Caledonian expedition to Stuart followed in four years. (The first drone - victim of the then-misunderstood phenomenon of "Misjump" - was found sailing through the Annan system by a Caledonian scout ship nearly 700 years later during a freak pre-jump sensor test. It was plotted recovered, and brought back to Caledon, where it sits in the Royal Caledonian Museum.
In addition to being the first Sovereign Prince of Caledon, James I was also the father of Caledonian interstellar exploration and colonization.