The Prince characters

Appears from the start

The crown prince of Illéa and the only child of King Clarkson and Queen Amberly, days away from the Selection that is meant to produce his wife. He has been raised entirely inside the palace, trained in policy, protocol, and public composure, and he has almost no experience of ordinary people or of women his own age. He is dutiful to the point of self-erasure, and he expects the Selection to be one more obligation performed to his father's specification.

Appears from the start

The king of Illéa and Maxon's father, exacting and controlling, who manages what his son is told and expects the Selection to deliver a princess who serves the throne rather than one his son happens to want. He is a very different man away from the cameras.

Appears from the start

The queen of Illéa, gentle and observant, who came to the palace as a Four and won a Selection herself. She is the only person at court who talks to Maxon about the process as something survivable rather than as a duty to be executed.

Appears from the start

The princess of France and Maxon's oldest friend, one of the very few people his own age he has ever been allowed to know. She is at the palace as the Selection is about to begin, and she is far less content with the arrangement than Maxon has assumed.

First appears in chapter 5

One of the thirty-five Selected, a Five from Carolina province, who is plainly furious about being at the palace and makes no effort to disguise it. She is the first person Maxon has met who neither flatters him nor performs for him.

First appears in chapter 5

One of the Selected, a Four with an open, warm manner that makes her immediately popular with the palace staff, the cameras, and the other girls.

First appears in chapter 5

One of the Selected, a Two and a professional model, entirely at ease in front of a camera and openly working to be noticed ahead of the others.