Kingmaker

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Kingmaker" is a term originally (1599) applied to the activities of Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick 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 succession, without being a viable candidate. Kingmakers may use political, monetary, religious, and/or military means to interfere in the succession. Examples include:

• Warwick, the Kingmaker.
• Nogai Khan who influenced succession in the Golden Horde.

By analogy, "Kingmaker" is also used to refer to those with the ability to influence the selection of Presidents, Governors, corporate Chief Executive Officers, and the like. Modern politicians known as "Kingmaker" include:

• Roy Vincent Harris in Georgia (U.S. state) politics.
• Kakuei Tanaka in Japanese politics.
• Karl Rove in American politics of the late 20th and early 21st centuries.

Other uses of the term include:

• Kingmaker (board game) is a 1974 game concerning the Wars of the Roses.
• Kingmaker (band) was the name of a 1990s British indie rock group.
• A "kingmaker" in a game is a lame duck (losing) player who nevertheless has the ability to select the game's winner. The situation is known as a kingmaker scenario, and the frequent appearance of one is usually regarded as a design flaw.
• Kingmaker is an expansion pack for the computer game Neverwinter Nights and is also the name of a premium module for that game.