kingmaker

A kingmaker is a person or group that has great influence on a royal or political succession, without themselves being a viable candidate. Kingmakers may use political, monetary, religious, and military means to influence the succession. Originally, the term applied to the activities of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick—"Warwick the Kingmaker"—during the Wars of the Roses (1455–1487) in England. Examples The prophet Samuel of the Hebrew Bible, in the transition from the period of the biblical judges to the institution of a Kingdom of Israel under Saul, and again in the transition from Saul to David Chanakya in the Maurya Empire The Praetorian Guard in the Roman Empire Yeon Gaesomun in Goguryeo Tonyukuk in the Second Turkic Khaganate Sayyid brothers in the Mughal Empire Vidyaranya in the Vijayanagara Empire Ricimer in the Late Western Roman Empire – magister militum who appointed a series of puppet emperors Nogai, Mamai, and Edigu in the Golden Horde Janissaries, Midhat Pasha in the Ottoman Empire Godwin, Earl of Wessex in late Anglo-Saxon England Baron Carl Otto Mörner in the House of Bernadotte (King of Sweden) Henry of Blois, Bishop of Winchester during The Anarchy Wiremu Tamihana in the Māori King Movement Hato Hasbún in El Salvador Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick – wealthiest peer in England during the Wars of the Roses, who overthrew King Henry VI and then restored him over his successor King Edward IV Hajji Ebrahim Shirazi – the kalantar (lord mayor) of Shiraz and later the grand vizier of Qajar Iran who enthroned four kings from two different dynasties: Jafar Khan, Lotf Ali Khan, Agha Mohammad Khan and Fath-Ali Shah. Mithqal Al-Fayez – dubbed the kingmaker of the Hashemites after inviting the then Sharif Abdullah bin Hussein to Jordan and would rebrand his tribal army of Bani Sakher to become the first Arab Army of Transjordan against rebels and Wahhabis in the 1920s. Mahatma Gandhi – a pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement under whose influence were all the major political leaders of the Indian freedom struggle including Jawaharlal Nehru and Vallabhbhai Patel James Farley – orchestrated the gubernatorial and presidential elections of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1928–1940) Che Guevara – accompanied Fidel Castro in the Revolution and later helped him attain power K.