Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick
Richard Neville put two kings on the English throne and was killed fighting the first of them. He was born a Neville, married the Beauchamp heiress at six, and came into the earldom of Warwick and the largest private income in England when her line failed - which is the whole basis of what followed. He backed his cousin Richard of York against Henry VI's government, fought at St Albans in 1455, and held Calais as captain, using it as a base and a source of plunder that made him popular in London. After York was killed at Wakefield he transferred the claim to York's son, and Edward IV was king within months - crowned on the strength of Warwick's men and Warwick's money. The break came over the marriage. Edward married Elizabeth Woodville in secret in 1464 while Warwick was negotiating a French match, and then promoted her large family into the offices and marriages Warwick expected for his own. He rebelled, held the king prisoner briefly, failed to govern in his name, and fled to France - where Louis XI reconciled him with Margaret of Anjou, the queen he had spent fifteen years fighting. He invaded in 1470 and restored Henry VI, who had spent five years in the Tower and was by then barely competent. It lasted six months. Edward landed with Burgundian money, and Warwick was killed at Barnet in April 1471 in fog so thick that one Lancastrian wing fired on another and cried treason. The nickname Kingmaker is Tudor, not contemporary.
- Lived: 1428 CE – 1471 CE
- Nationality: English
- Roles: military, noble
