kingmakern.
/ˈkɪŋmeɪkə/, U.S. /ˈkɪŋˌmeɪkər/ A person who uses political influence to control the appointment of a king or (in later extended use) other person of authority; (originally) spec. (an epithet for) Richard Neville, Earl of Warwick (1428–71), who was instrumental in the appointment and deposition of both Henry VI and Edward IV, kings of England (now historical).Warwick was instrumental in deposing Henry VI and appointing Edward IV in 1461 and in deposing Edward IV and reappointing Henry VI in 1470.
ΘΚΠ
society > authority > power > influence > [noun] > one who or that which influences > influential person > behind the scenes > king- or queen-maker
kingmaker1595
whip-king1610
make-king1612
make-queen1655
1595 S. Daniel First Fowre Bks. Ciuile Warres iv. xvi. sig. Aa3v That great King-maker Warwick, so far growne In grace with Fortune, that he gouerns it, And Monarchs makes.
1603 in T. G. Law Archpriest Controv. (1898) II. 236 The kingmakers designes will come, as is the old prouerbe, from a wyndmill post to be pudding pricke.
1695 C. Leslie Remarks Some Late Serm. 38 One Man's End might be to get a Throne, another's to gratify his Revenge..and of some, perhaps, the Ambition of being King-makers.
1710 True Church-man & Loyal Subj. 69 Those King-makers, however averse they were to Popish Idolatry, would have brought Idolatry into the State.
1796 J. Farington Diary 24 Apr. (1923) I. xliii. 147 Beechey is inveterate against me, and calls me ‘Warwick, the King Maker’.
1816 J. T. James Jrnl. Tour ii. 148 He was the last person on whom the king-maker would willingly have wished to confer this dignity.
1878 W. Stubbs Constit. Hist. (ed. 2) III. xviii. 212 Warwick..filled..a place which never before or after was filled by a subject, and his title of Kingmaker was not given without reason.
1887 Dict. National Biogr. IX. 67/1 William Thompson, the great Maori chief and ‘king-maker’.
1949 Sun (Baltimore) 10 Aug. 1/6 Hunt boasted of responsibility for getting so many Government officials their jobs that he was known ‘socially’ as ‘the kingmaker’.
1986 J. M. Wasson Rec. Early Eng. Drama: Devon p. xxiv At Barnstaple during the reign of Edward IV, there are early payments to minstrels of the kingmaker, Warwick.
2014 Scotsman (Nexis) 25 Oct. Welsh nationalist leader Leanne Wood insists her party, the SNP and the Greens could be kingmakers at the next general election.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2017; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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n.1595