OKAY. This fills in a lot of the missing blanks. For starters, Graham is the 7th Hero. In other words, Louisa has four lifetimes' worth of memories unaccounted for. Probably for the best.
I'm going to assume, then, that the people that become Louisa's lovers are chosen as the hero because she subconsciously transfers her power over to them.
All in all a fascinating setup.
I mean, the king was scum, but I'm more wondering how he got the mob to kill the girl in the first place. From the sound of it, she was just murdered and nothing else, which...I mean, you know it's awful when the immediate reaction is "thank god".
@Sefferis Well, we don't know what the power balance was that long ago.