WARWICK, RICHARD NEVILLE, EARL OF, "the king-maker," born about 1428; the eldest son of the Earl of Salisbury, and by his marriage with the heiress of the Beauchamps himself became Earl of Warwick (1449). In the Yorkist victory of St. Albans (1455), the opening action of the Wars of the Roses, he fought on the winning side, and three years later sharing in the re conciliation between the hostile parties, was appointed lord-deputy of Calais and admiral of the fleet. As such he gained a splendid success over the Spaniards, but a quarrel between his followers and the king's led to charges of his disloyalty, which he justified by taking the field at Ludlow with his cousin the Duke of York (1459). On the failure of that attempt he again with the Earls of Salisbury and March withdrew to Calais, a town devoted to his cause, and thence in the following summer recrossed to Kent, and, mastering London and capturing Henry VI. at Northampton, brought about the compromise by which Henry was to reign for life but acknowledging York for his successor.
Margaret of Anjou would not thus tamely surrender the rights of her son, and first routing and slaying York and Salisbury at Wakefield advanced to St. Albans, where a second battle ended in Warwick's defeat. Warwick, however, joined the young Earl of March (now Duke of York), and striking with him boldly on London, placed him on the throne as Edward IV., then chasing the Lancastrians back to Yorkshire, almost annihilated them on the bloody field of Towton, March 29, 1461. Possessed of
immense domains and princely wealth, with one brother rewarded for his crown ing victory at Hexham by the earldom of Northumberland, another made Pri mate and Lord Chancellor, Warwick in deed seemed able now, in Shakespeare's words, "to do and undo, as him pleased best." Edward's marriage, however, to Elizabeth 'Woodville pleased him not, especially as he was then negotiating for the king's alliance to Bona of Savoy; neither did the marriage of Edward's sister to Charles of Burgundy, the earl's great foe. In retaliation Warwick be stowed his daughter on the Duke of Clarence, and after seizing on Edward's person, executing the queen's father and brother, and seeming to accept a pardon, involved himself in the insurrection of Sir Robert Welles (1470), for making Clarence king.
Its failure drove him once more to France, where, through the mediation of Louis XL, Warwick engaged to restore the crown to Henry VI., and Margaret to wed her son to Warwick's daughter Anne. His landing in Devonshire came like a thunderclap to Edward IV., who from the north, where he was busy quelling a revolt, escaped to Burgundy, leaving Warwick master of the kingdom. The triumph was brief, for when Ed ward returned in six months' time, War wick found himself treated as he had treated others, and after fruitless over tures for a fresh desertion, he with his brother was routed and slain at Barnet, April 14, 1471.