Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick

Lived: 1428-71 Where: England

No list of great kingmakers would be complete without Warwick, the first man to be described as such. He joined forces with Richard, Duke of York, to depose Henry VI at the start of the Wars of the Roses. When York was killed in 1460, Warwick supported the duke’s son, Edward, who was proclaimed king after their victory at the Battle of Towton, with Henry and his wife, Margaret of Anjou, fleeing to Scotland. Warwick effectively ruled the country for the new king, but tensions rose after Edward’s secret marriage to Elizabeth Woodville, at a time when Warwick had been trying to arrange Edward’s marriage as part of alliance negotiations with France. Humiliated and losing his influence to the Woodville family, Warwick married his daughter, Isabel, to Edward’s younger brother, George, Duke of Clarence, and together they launched a rebellion against the king. Edward was captured and imprisoned, but Warwick couldn’t gain the support of all the elite and was forced to release the king. Exiled in France, Warwick sought an alliance with Margaret to restore Henry to the throne. Launching another rebellion that forced Edward to flee in 1470, Warwick installed Henry as a puppet king, but Edward returned with an army and Warwick was killed at the Battle of Barnet.