Kingmaker

Kingmaker is a term originally applied to the activities of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick — "Warwick the Kingmaker" — during the Wars of the Roses in England. The term has come to be applied more generally to a person or group that has great influence in a royal or political succession, without being a viable candidate. Kingmakers may use political, monetary, religious, and/or military means to interfere in the succession. They may also be assigned as Minister of State without Portfolio. Examples include:

• Chanakya in the Mauryan Empire.
• Sayyid Brothers in the Mughal Empire.
• Vidyaranya in the Vijayanagara Empire.
• Ricimer in the Late Western Roman Empire.
• Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick in the Wars of the Roses.
• Nogai, Mamai, and Edigu in the Golden Horde.
• Baron Carl Otto Mörner in the House of Bernadotte (King of Sweden).
• Godwin, Earl of Wessex in late Anglo-Saxon England.
• Wiremu Tamihana in the Māori King Movement.
• Citizens of West Africa's sub-national monarchies often use the word kingmaker to refer to the members of the electoral colleges that choose their sovereigns because they also usually officiate during the coronation rituals and rites of purification, the word in this particular case taking on a literal meaning i.e.: a Maker of the king.