# The Old English Baron — Character guide

> Key figures in The Old English Baron by Clara Reeve.

- [Edmund Twyford](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_old_english_baron_se/characters/edmund_twyford.md): Edmund grows up as a dependent in the household of Baron Fitz-Owen, where his courtesy and courage set him apart from the servants yet leave him vulnerable to the scorn of the baron's sons. His modest birth is a puzzle e
- [Sir Philip Harclay](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_old_english_baron_se/characters/sir_philip_harclay.md): Sir Philip arrives at Castle Lovel expecting to embrace the companion of his youth and instead learns that Lord Lovel has been dead fifteen years and the estate sold to another family. Childless, wealthy, and grieving, h
- [Father Oswald](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_old_english_baron_se/characters/father_oswald.md): Father Oswald serves the Fitz-Owen family as chaplain at Castle Lovel, occupying the delicate position of a churchman whose counsel is sought but not always heeded. He is drawn to Edmund's unusual gentleness and defends 
- [Old Joseph](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_old_english_baron_se/characters/old_joseph.md): Old Joseph has served at Castle Lovel long enough to recall the days of the Lovel family and the sorrows that followed their fall. Now a humble retainer under the Fitz-Owens, he watches Edmund with an attention that seem
- [Master William Fitz-Owen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_old_english_baron_se/characters/master_william_fitz_owen.md): William Fitz-Owen is heir to Castle Lovel and, unlike his siblings, treats Edmund as a companion rather than a menial. His affection for the foundling puts him at odds with the pride of his house and complicates his own 
- [John Wyatt](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_old_english_baron_se/characters/john_wyatt.md): John Wyatt is a poor but upright cottager whose family lives under the protection of the Lord Fitz-Owen. When Sir Philip Harclay arrives seeking news of the Lovels, Wyatt offers him shelter and sends his son John running
- [Lord Lovel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_old_english_baron_se/characters/lord_lovel.md): Arthur, Lord Lovel, was the friend Sir Philip Harclay crossed Europe to find, only to learn from a peasant that he died fifteen years ago in the Welsh wars, his grieving wife following him to the grave soon after. His go
- [Lord Clifford](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_old_english_baron_se/characters/lord_clifford.md): Clifford hovers at the edge of the Lovel tragedy as a man who comforted the widowed lady and was rumoured to be on the point of marrying her, a prospect she refused so utterly that she died of grief. Whether suitor or op
- [Sir Robert Fitz-Owen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_old_english_baron_se/characters/sir_robert_fitz_owen.md): As heir to the Fitz-Owen household at Castle Lovel, Robert occupies the position of young master, with all the pride and touchiness that entails. His instinctive hostility toward Edmund, the foundling whose virtues outsh
- [Baron Fitz-Owen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_old_english_baron_se/characters/baron_fitz_owen.md): Baron Fitz-Owen holds the castle through his marriage to Sir Walter Lovel's sister, a transaction that left the old family scattered and the estate in new hands. He is just enough to be troubled by the mysteries of his o
- [Andrew Twyford](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_old_english_baron_se/characters/andrew_twyford.md): John Wyatt's brother, a poor farmer who raised Edmund.
- [Margery Twyford](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_old_english_baron_se/characters/margery_twyford.md): John Wyatt's wife, a kind woman who helped raise Edmund.
- [Lady Emma](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_old_english_baron_se/characters/lady_emma.md): Emma is the daughter of Castle Lovel's new lord, sheltered, kind, and increasingly drawn to Edmund despite the contempt her brothers heap on him. Her affection is a quiet act of defiance in a house where rank is everythi
- [Sir Walter Lovel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_old_english_baron_se/characters/sir_walter_lovel.md): Sir Walter is the brother who should have protected the Lovel name and heir, yet he married his sister into the Fitz-Owen family and parted with the castle of his ancestors, retiring to Northumberland. The peasant's acco
- [Young Wenlock](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_old_english_baron_se/characters/young_wenlock.md): A younger member of the Wenlock family, a servant.
- [Edmund Lord Lovel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_old_english_baron_se/characters/edmund_lord_lovel.md): Edmund enters the world of the Castle of Lovel as a youth of mysterious origins, his true parentage concealed by the very man who profited from his father's death. His courage, humility, and uncanny likeness to the late 

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