Similarly, she prefers to be addressed as "Marshal Caitlin" rather than "Princess Caitlin", although the latter is also correct. Her soldiers and those in the know refer to her as "Marshal"; only those who don't know better call her "Princess", although usually she is polite enough not to correct them. To her friends, siblings, and parents, she is "Cait". Her parents, unfortunately, sometimes refer to her as "Caitie". Others rarely try this, at least not more than once. "Princess" is one thing, but one has to have some standards.
Because of the difference in age between her and her siblings, Caitlin grew up as, effectively, an only child. In fact, she was almost literally the only child in Castle Amber during her childhood. Alone and easily bored, she was found ways to amuse herself. Generally, this involved going out of the Castle (with or without permission) and riding or playing in the forest. Tutors helped occupy her, but usually they wanted to teach her what she'd always considered "boring grown-up stuff": Court etiquette and the nuances of diplomacy and the mercantile position of Amber vis-a-vis the Golden Circle Kingdoms and other such tedium. Sneaking out of the Castle was still more fun, although sword practice also proved an interesting diversion.
As a child, Caitlin always wanted to be a Ranger, living in the forest with your friends, hunting, and keeping Amber safe from enemy armies. Once she got a little older and came to understand that Princesses of the Blood don't become Rangers, her ambition changed to becoming Steward of Arden. She'd become Dexter's loyal and trusted second and then he'd get sick of being Steward and go off into Shadow like Osric and Findo did in the Stories or else he'd be tragically killed in battle, despite her heroic efforts to save him, and then her father would make her Steward in his stead. This was also known as her "annoying suck up to Dexter phase". Fortunately for Dexter, he spent most of his time in Arden and thus didn't have to put up with her fawning over him as much as he might have. By her teenage years, Caitlin understood that stories are only stories and Dexter wasn't really going to stop being Steward. By this time, too, she was more interested in sneaking into town to meet boys than she was in slipping off to Arden to play at being a Ranger.
Still, though Caitlin had given up her dreams of being a Ranger, the arts of war continued to intrigue her. Free hours were filled with fencing or playing games of strategy with Mirabelle or Root, despite her mother's best efforts to civilize her. In a last-ditch effort, Alexandria was made her tutor from the time Caitlin was 15. Despite Alexandria's best efforts, Caitlin managed to avoid picking up much in the way of diplomatic skills, although she did learn a great deal about the arts of administration. Her dreams, however, remained strictly martial.
On her 18th birthday, Caitlin Walked the Pattern and spent most of the next sixty years travelling in Shadow teaching herself the arts of war in a way that she had never been able to in Amber. Starting as a swordswoman in a Roman-style legion, she served as everything from foot soldier and command and every rank between in armies ranging from the primitive to the magical to the technological. In the early years, she spent most of her time serving in the ranks of armies engaged in wars all across Shadow. By the end, she was commanding rag-tag forces against impossible odds. When even that ceased to be a challenge, she knew it was time to return to Amber.
After sixty years in Shadow, Reality was something of a disappointment. Once again, Caitlin was forced to come face-to-face with the fact that the Rangers were the only significant military command available...and Dexter had beaten her to that job by four hundred years. Reluctantly, she allowed her father to talk her into an apprenticeship with the Navy, serving as aide to the Master of the Seas, with the understanding that the job could be hers for the asking when the current Master retired. As she'd feared, the job was primarily protecting merchant ships and making Shadow Paths and was, she said, "better suited to an economist than a soldier". After two and a half years, she resigned, returning to Amber and asking her father for another position.
Martin granted her request and made her his personal military advisor, a position she would hold for nearly twenty years. She sat in strategy meetings and command Army groups on maneuvers in her father's stead and went on special missions in Shadow, mostly involving upgrading and maintaining Amber's Shadow armies, which had been somewhat neglected since the last war. These, in particular, interested her. Here was a relatively large military force, connected to Amber, but largely ignored. Perhaps, with enough time and care, she could mold them into a command worthy of her abilities and convince her father to assign them to her directly. She never spoke of this ambition, but she quietly began to lay the groundwork for it. However, it was not to be.
On Caitlin's 100th birthday, her father gave her the gift of a lifetime. Announcing that he wanted to devote more of his attention to matters of state, Martin announced that he was separating the office of Lord Defender of Amber from the responsibilities of the crown and naming her to fill the position. "Stunned" does not begin to describe Caitlin's reaction. It was the position that she had truly wanted for her entire life but had never dared, even in her wildest childhood moments, to imagine that it was possible to attain. And now, suddenly, it existed. And it was going not to Galen or to Dexter, but to her. Standing before the court calm and dignified while her father pinned the ivory unicorns to her collar and not running around the room grinning and shouting her joy at the top of her lungs was the hardest thing she ever did in her life.
As Lady Defender, Caitlin has one of Amber's three Trump decks (Martin and Dierdre have the other two). The deck was drawn by Dierdre and presented to Caitlin by her father when he named her Lady Defender. Its purpose is to allow the Defender to gather the forces of Amber in an emergency. Martin has made it clear that it is not to be used for personal matters or when more routine means of communication will suffice... Dierdre has better things to do than replace Trumps burned out on frivolous purposes.
Caitlin's first major test came in 620, when Amber was attacked by a huge army out of Shadow. The plan for her defense can be found here. Chief mong her other recent accomplishments is her defeat of Quentin.