Richard Neville (1428–1471)
Born 1428 CE, died 1471 CE.
Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, 6th Earl of Salisbury (22 November 1428 – 14 April 1471), known as Warwick the Kingmaker, was an English nobleman, administrator, landowner of the House of Neville fortune and military commander. The eldest son of Richard Neville, 5th Earl of Salisbury, he became Earl of Warwick through marriage, and was the wealthiest and most powerful English peer of his age, with political connections that went beyond the country's borders. One of the principal leaders in the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487), originally on the Yorkist side but later switching to the Lancastrian side, he was instrumental in the rise of a king and the deposition of two, which led to his epithet of "Kingmaker". Through fortunes of marriage and inheritance, Warwick emerged in the 1450s at the centre of English politics. Originally, he was a supporter of King Henry VI; a territorial dispute with Edmund Beaufort, 2nd Duke of Somerset, led him to collaborate with his uncle, Richard, Duke of York, in opposing the king. From this conflict, he gained the strategically valuable post of Captain of Calais, a position that benefited him greatly in the years to come.
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