Frank and Helen

King Frank and Queen Helen, also known as the "Cabby" and "Nellie", were the first rulers of Narnia in the Chronicles of Narnia. The The Magician's Nephew says little of their history, except that Frank and Helen were both country folk, and lived in London only from economic necessity. Taking place in or about 1900, Frank drove a horse-drawn carriage while Helen kept house.

The fight at the lamp-post

Frank's last fare almost proved the end of his life, for it was none other than Jadis, Empress of Charn, accompanied by her bumbling squire, Andrew Ketterley. Jadis seems to have "hired" his cab after robbing a jewellery store. Exactly what transpired in the cab is unclear, but Jadis hijacked the cab and drove the horse so hard that the cab was utterly destroyed. When Frank finally caught up with the cab, it was a total shambles, and Jadis was astride the horse and was whipping the horse into a dangerous frenzy. Frank prevailed upon the police constables at the scene to allow him to try to calm the horse, but Jadis demanded that he keep his hands off her "royal charger." Frank apparently paid her little heed, even when she wrenched off a bar from a lamp-post and started to attack three constables with it. Frank's first and only concern was for his horse—and thus he still had contact with the horse when Digory Kirke grabbed hold of Jadis and then used his yellow ring to take Jadis to the Wood between the Worlds. In this way, Digory, Polly Plummer, Jadis, Uncle Andrew, the horse, and Frank himself came into that Wood.