Prince Frederic Goethal of Brus is an Alamans Prince of Procer and Named with the Name Kingfisher Prince.
Biography[]
Background[]
Prince Frederic is roughly of age with Catherine ("barely twenty" in 1327/28,[1] and "a few years" younger than Rozala Malanza;[2] but also said to have been 15 when Cordelia entered the civil war ca 1319[2]) and born as the nephew of the previous Prince of Brus, Amaury Goethal. He was adopted by him as his heir as Amaury's two sons were considered unsuitable.[3] At the age of fourteen, an offer of marriage to Rozala Malanza – heiress to Aequitan and likely to follow her mother as First Princess if their side won the civil war – was extended, but Amaury, who was allied with Prince Dagobert Griffeu of Lange, refused it in favor of setting him up with Dagobert's oldest daughter Perenelle. When Cordelia the next year entered the war, Amaury was killed in battle with her forces, at which point his son Nathanael seized power; however, his plan to avoid outright fratricide by handing Frederic to the Lycaonese failed, since he was deep in debt to the Pravus Bank, and Cordelia instead reinstated Frederic to power. She noted that he had but a single debt – not to her, as he had expected, but to his people and to Procer – and that she expected him to pay that debt in full.[2]
He fought well in the Battle of Aisne and the rest of the civil war, not merely commanding his army but bloodying himself with the ranks, and won the trust of his men as well as the praise of Klaus Papenheim and other great military minds, but he never did grow to like it and remembered little of the actual fighting. After Cordelia's coronation he offered her his hand in marriage – without much hope that she would accept it – and since he didn't bring up his wartime support as an argument in his favor, she considered his the best proposal she had had; yet, she explained, she had no intention to wed. In turn, he turned down Amadis Milenan's offer of alliance and the hand of his second oldest daughter.[2]
Book 4[]
As the Tenth Crusade was called, Frederic did not like the rumors he heard of plans to turn Callow into new Principalities and he sent only a small contingent, which he made sure to put under the command of Klaus Papenheim. He still readied the rest of his troops and prepared his heiress, his cousin Henriette, to take his place if he needed to march east as well, but before he had the chance a letter came from the north: The Dead King marches. Hannoven has fallen. All soldiers make for Twilight’s Pass. Ready yourself. The armies of Hannoven and Neustria, and the Lycaonese's greatest general, were in the south fighting Praes and Callow. And so, Frederic Goethal marched his army north, to fight in their stead.[2]
Book 5[]
When the Dead King attacked and the Lycaonese principalities sent out the call for aid, Frederic of Brus was the only one who answered; he marched on Twilight's Pass with almost his whole army, and together with Otto Reitzenberg of Bremen he fought a slow retreat through the pass. After the fall of Volsaga Fortress halfway through the pass, he became the first Alamans ruler ever to add a spike to the Farewell Stones; after the ceremony, he led his cavalry in a charge down a sheer cliffside, taking out the bone dragon that had been the main cause of the loss of the fortress, and thus ensured the safe retreat of half the defending force to Graueletter.[1]
From there they had been forced to retreat further until they reached the Morgentor, the last fortress of the pass, and while it held other avenues through the mountains did not. Prince Otto, fearing that his forces would be cut off, asked Frederic to lead forty thousand and all the horse south, to set up a new line of defence in the marshlands of northern Brus and prevent the total annihilation of the Lycaonese peoples. Frederic, however, refused to leave the front, and at that very moment the Black Queen's bargain managed to gain them a three-month truce.[4] At its end they were better prepared, although it helped them little; they soon lost the eastern peak, then the western, but as the defenders of the center were slowly forced down Frederic led his riders in a last charge up the stairs and somehow managed to break through. And thus he gained his Name, Kingfisher Prince.[2]
Appearance[]
He has blue eyes, blond hair and fair skin. He is always clad ostentatiously.[1] During the war, he has taken up the habit to tie his hair with ribbons made from conquered enemy banners.[4]
Miscellaneous[]
He is politically aligned with Cordelia Hasenbach. He once slept with Catherine Foundling.[5] He is as good as her with the sword.[6]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Extra: Inexorable
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Extra: Kingfisher II
- ↑ Extra: Kingfisher I
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Extra: Miraculous
- ↑ Book 6, Chapter 31: Pursuits
- ↑ Book 6, Chapter 28: Contend