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King Robert is the main antagonist in the Goosebumps book, ''A Night in Terror Tower'', its subsequent TV adaptation, and its sequel, Return to Terror Tower. Although presented as the main antagonist of the story, the Lord High Executioner is in fact a (brainwashed) disciple of King Robert, the treacherous usurper of Britain, and the King is a much bigger threat than the Executioner is.
Personality[]
King Robert was a cruel tyrant who would do anything to gain and keep power. He was an evil despot, subjecting his peasants to cruel and unusual punishments such as harsh taxes - exceedingly harsh for that time, the 1400s, and cruel torture in his infamous Terror Tower in the city of London. He would often drag peasants to the Tower for no reason other than being unable to pay taxes, or simply because they offended him in the smallest ways. Even his own niece Susannah of York and nephew Edward of York were not safe from his cruelty, and indeed, he had murdered their own parents, one of them being his own sibling.
Biography[]
One day, Robert was merely a governmental aide to the rightful King and Queen when he suddenly rose up and had them both executed. He then locked his niece and nephew, Susannah and Edward, in Terror Tower and cursed its entrance so anyone who tried to enter it without a key was turned to stone. Lord Worcester, a family friend, tried to save the children, but Robert had him killed and condemned him to haunt the royal palace. Using an amulet, he brainwashed the entire royal court to serve him, even dubbing one man the Lord High Executioner. However, the local wizard, named Morgred, who had faithfully served the real monarchs and who had vowed to protect the prince and princess, performed a magic spell on his white stones to send the children forward in time to the future and thus hopefully avoid the cruel tyrant. Unfortunately, the King saw what Morgred was up to, and sent his loyal ally, the Lord High Executioner, to pursue the children into the future. This interrupted the spell, and left Susannah and Edward with incomplete memories of their past.
Eventually, the Lord High Executioner found the children when they revisited Terror Tower in the future. The Executioner demanded they come back with him, but the children fled, and evaded him until he cornered them once they had begun to regain their memories. Eventually, the Executioner abducted them and sent them back in time.
When they were imprisoned in Terror Tower back in the 1400s, the children met Morgred, who explained everything. Remembering him when the spell broke, the children vowed to face their fates. Morgred explained how the cruel King Robert, their wicked uncle, had set them for execution, and expressed his deep fear of the cruel King. At the last minute, however Edward seized Morgred's magic stones from the Executioner and Morgred sent him and the children forwards in time forever, thus saving them from the merciless King Robert.
In Return to Terror Tower, more of Robert's evil is seen. York is in poverty and squalor, with hypnotized soldiers terrorizing and stealing from the peasantry and hauling suspected dissidents and anyone who cannot pay Robert's exorbitant taxes to the dungeons, where they are tortured and either beheaded or left to rot, being thrown scraps once a week. In the worst ending of Return, he steals the stones, has Susannah and Edward executed, and forces the reader to dance around avoiding blades until he has them stabbed to death. In the best ending, he is defeated, with Susannah and Edward (and the reader, who is their cousin) taking their rightful places to the throne, and the entire royal court (including the Lord High Executioner) being freed from their trance.
External Links[]
- King Robert on the Goosebumps Wiki
