Warwick the Kingmaker
To most modern readers little more than a resounding name, the Kingmaker is here described by Paul Kendall as an “early exemplar of that Western European energy” which was presently to transform the civilized world.
Richard Neville, earl of Warwick, called the Kingmaker, has a famous name in history, but only a name. There are few men in England’s past so well known by repute and so little known in character. The sparse chronicles of the fifteenth century duly record his deeds and suggest something of the impact he made upon his times.
But though Warwick was the chief instrument in overthrowing the medieval kingship which came to an end with the deposition of Henry VI and in establishing a new monarchy that was to endure, under three dynasties, until 1488, he turned against his own handiwork and struck out in a direction that history did not take. In consequence, after his defeat and death at Barnet Field in April 1471, the intimate records of his life and character—letters, portraits, accounts—were soon lost to view.
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