Frederick Lionell

Frederick Lionell is the younger brother of King Edward IV and the last adult prince of House Lionell. When Edward named Cedric Blackthorne Lord Protector and Regent until the young Prince Aldric came of age, Frederick alone rejected the decree. He believed the Ardent Throne could not be entrusted to a northern lord while a Lionell prince still lived.

Frederick rallied loyal members of the Royal Guard and marched north along the King’s Mile. The rebellion failed before it could become a civil war. Defeated and stripped of influence, he was imprisoned beneath Stoneburn, where years of isolation burned away the courtly prince and left behind a patient, embittered claimant.

War has returned Frederick to the world. He emerges convinced that Avalos was stolen from his bloodline and that Cedric’s regency is merely a crown worn without ceremony. To some, Frederick is the rightful heir House Lionell abandoned. To others, he is the spark that could set the kingdom against itself.

“The throne was not his to give away.”