Caldwell

Caldwell was one of Queen Meve's most faithful adviser.

Biography
At the beginnning of the Second Northern War, while Queen Meve was attending a meeting with the other monarchs of the Northern Kingdoms at Hagge, Count Caldwell was tasked with helping Villem, Meve's eldest son, to run the kingdom of Lyria and Rivia.

When Meve returned however, Count Caldwell told her that the situation got out of control as a gang of bandits known as the Strays of Spalla attacked Hawkesburn and stolen all the gold from the tax collectors' office. Meve immediately rode together with his army and with Caldwell to Hawkesburn and then to Lord Clayton's residence where he managed to defeat the Strays and to capture their leaders: Gascon. Right aftern the leader of the Strays was put in irons, a Lyrian messenger arrived, telling the queen that the Empire of Nilfgaard just crossed the Yaruga with thousands of soldiers, marching for the city of Dravograd.

Without hesitation, Meve led her army to Dravograd, already besieged by Nilfgaard, and there managed to defeat the Nilfgaardians' commander Vreemde, saving the city from the same fate of Cintra.

When Meve returned to the capital, he ordered a meeting with his son Villem and with the Council of Peers in order to discuss what to do regarding the Nilfgaardian invasion. While Meve wanted to resist at any cost, the Council and both Caldwell and Villem wanted to surrender to Nilfgaardian general Ardal aep Dahy, since they didn’t have enough men to fight a war. As Meve immediately refused this option, he was temporarily arrested by order of her own son until the treaty of submission with Nilfgaard wasn’t signed.

Confined in the castle tower, Meve in the night was visited by Count Caldwell: it turned out that the Strays of Spalla were hired by him in order to deceive Meve and to buy time in order to treat with Nilfgaard. He also revealed the Queen that, although her son Villem didn’t want her to die, before dawn his henchmen would’ve come and killed her, making it look like a suicide.

During the night however, the Queen was freed by Gascon, the leader of the Strays of Spalla and, together with them and the Lyrian soldiers who remained loyal to her, fled from Lyria to Aedirn in order to build a new army.

In the meantime, Caldwell went to Tuzla Castle in Angren with a army of Nilfgaardian soldiers and Lyrian traitors. When he heard that Meve was coming towards him, he burned the only bridge representing the only way out of the swamps, and alerted Duke Ardal aep Dahy of the queen's upcoming arrival, who sent a great number of soldiers to bring aid to Caldwell during the siege.

Meve however anticipated them and immediately started besieging the castle: in the end, Meve's troops managed to defeat Count Caldwell's men, while the latter took shelter in the castle's main tower. There, Meve finally confronted and killed him, pushing the count out of the tower's window. Although the battle was win, Meve and his troops, without a way out from the swamps, were still about to stand against the thousands of soldiers sent in aid by Ardal aep Dahy.