Edward Fitzroy, Titular Duke of Huntington. Nicknamed “The Gold Spun Angel” or “The Sweetest Devil” by his contemporaries, Edward is the illegitimate son of Robert III, 40th and Late King of Albion and Former Head of House Lyonheart through a union with a tanner’s daughter. Half Brother to Edmund IV, 41st and Reigning King of Albion and Current Head of House Lyonheart and Princess Kaitlin Lyonheart, Duchess of Kingswood. Following King Robert’s defeat and subsequent capture at The Battle of Tourangeau at the hands of Prince Tancred Williamson, Duc de Chambord, House Lyonheart and The Kingdom of Albion was pressed into a humiliating and disadvantageous peace treaty with House Williamson and The Kingdom of Aquitaine. As a compromise for ransoming King Robert back to his homeland at half price, King Robert agreed to offer his only son at the time as a lifetime hostage in the hands of House Williamson of Aquitaine. The infant boy taken into their custody would grow up to be Edward Fitzroy, The Titular Duke of Huntington. Edward would grow up as a Royal Hostage in the lavish and prestigious court of William XXI, King of Aquitaine and Current Head of House Williamson. Edward’s education was as militaristic as it was academic, being drilled in lessons on military strategy, fencing, jousting, and grappling while being tutored in more intellectual pursuits such as grammar, statecraft, classics, and theology. Edward was raised and tutored alongside The King of Aquitaine’s granddaughters through his firstborn son and heir, The Dauphin de Viennois: Princess Melaina Williamsdottir, Duchesse d’Orleans, Princess Erika Williamsdottir, Duchesse de Valois, and Princess Emily Williamsdottir, Duchesse de Bourbon. Growing up in the opulence and splendour of The Court of The Kings of Aquitaine, the princesses Melaina and Erika naturally developed an adoration for the handsome young man growing up in their residence. Edward’s heart, however, belonged to the youngest of these princesses, Princess Emily Williamsdottir, Duchesse de Bourbon. Her heart at the time belonged to the young and dashing Jean-Baptiste Lorieux, Duc de Logresse. Upon hearing the news that her first love was betrothed to an older and fairer lady of House Perrault of Caenesse, Princess Emily became devastated that her love was promised to another woman. In the spirit of vengeance and spitefulness, Princess Emily Williamsdottir eloped with Edward into the woods on the outskirts of her family’s favoured country estate of Chateau Lefleur. In the months that followed their return to the primary Williamson residence of Le Palais de Fontainebleau in the capital city of Couronne, Princess Emily Williamsdottir announced that she was pregnant with Edward’s unborn child, and “that it made her a little happy to be pregnant with his child.” This statement of apparent weakness and fragility by the princess only did much to arouse the hatred and disgust of The Great Houses of Aquitainian Nobility against Edward, who saw him as a selfish opportunist who cruelly violated the person of their King’s youngest granddaughter that had barely reached the age of maturity. This atmosphere of bitter disgust and hatred for Edward amongst the nobles at The Court of Fontainebleau was only fueled even more by the invalidation of Edward’s political importance as a royal hostage with the coronation of a legitimate male heir to House Lyonheart and The Crown of Albion. In a show of rare mercy and compassion for the young man raised in his court, King William XXI of Aquitaine exiled Edward to the court of House Buchenauer of Solingen in The Empire of Mankind Proper, where Edward currently spends his days attaining his knighthood as a squire for Duke Conrad Von Buchenauer, or the reigning Duke of Solingen and the current head of House Buchenauer. The suit of armour featured in this artwork was a gift by Emperor Alexius VI to Edward Fitzroy as a present for his 18th Birthday.
