Turncoats: When commanders swap sides

Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick, known as ‘the Kingmaker’, was one of the most significant figures in medieval English political and military history. The last of the great barons whose wealth and influence outdid even the sovereigns they were supposed to serve, Warwick was born (in 1428) to wield power, and increased his birthright by judicious marital alliances and his own gift for intrigue. A member of the ancient Neville family – who divided overlordship of the far north with their dynastic rivals, the Percies – Warwick, along with his ally the Duke of York, was one of the kingdom’s richest magnates during the early reign of Henry VI. Henry’s fragile mental health pe