book for older children, set in unspecified medieval town, young boy sent to castle to be servant to spoilt young prince who eats food dipped in gold - also, people who are being unjustly persecuted and if found they are fed to alligators?

[Anna]

I read this book about 13/14 years ago when I was an older child. It is set in medieval times in a classic medieval fairytale kingdom and follows a boy who is taken from his family and sent to be a servant to a very spoilt young prince who likes to eat a lot - I seem to remember something about all of his food had to be dipped in gold? There is also a visiting princess with red hair who the prince makes fun of - I remember a specific chant the prince sang that made her upset: 'hair like fire to match her ire'
I think the main plot is that the kingdom is hunting down a certain community of people (just based on their ethnicity/religion/something like that, so it's unjust) and when they find one they feed them to the alligators in the moat around the castle, but it turns out that the alligators have actually saved all these people and they live in a cave underneath the moat. That's all I can remember currently but I'll add more when it comes to me!

[Rainbowheart]

Were the characters teenagers or younger children?

The description reminded me of The Whipping Boy, but I don't think it matches closely enough.

[Anna]

Rainbowheart wrote: "Were the characters teenagers or younger children?

The description reminded me of The Whipping Boy, but I don't think it matches closely enough."

They were younger children. Thanks for the suggestion, I looked up The Whipping Boy and it sounds very similar but it isn't the same