Gustav VII was a descendant of Gustav Anderman and Emperor of the Andermani Empire. Gustav VII was actually a woman, the oldest of three sisters of the mentally unstable Gustav VI. The latter tried to appoint his favorite rose bush as Chancellor of the Empire, and was consequently removed from the throne. Because he had no brothers or sons, a civil war over the vacated emperorship was imminent, since the Imperial Charter's mandated a male-heirs-only line of succession. To prevent what could only have been a bloody and catastrophic affair, his sister took the throne by a legal fiction: she had herself legally declared a man. She then took control of the Imperial Navy's Home Fleet, thus ensuring that her male cousins did not question her ascension to the throne.