Warwick, Richard Neville, Earl of, known as the Kingmaker 1428-71
English soldier and statesman

He married as a boy the daughter of the Earl of Warwick and so at 21 succeeded to the earldom. He acquired the earldom of Salisbury in his own right when his father died in 1460. Consequently he had so much land and wealth that during the Wars of the Roses he held the balance between the Yorkist and Lancastrian factions. He first supported the Yorkists and established the son of Richard, Duke of York, as Edward IV, supplanting Henry VI. But Edward resented Warwick as the 'power behind the throne' and forced him into exile in France. In 1460 he returned to England, now supporting the Lancastrian cause; he compelled Edward to leave the country so that he could reinstate Henry VI. Edward soon returned, however, and routed Warwick's forces at Barnet in March 1471. The 'kingmaker' was killed in the battle.

Bibliography: Paul Murray Kendall, Warwick the Kingmaker (1957)