A kingmaker is a person or group that has great influence in a royal or political succession, without 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.
Atossa in the Persian Empire
Chanakya in the Mauryan Empire
The Praetorian Guard in the Roman Empire
Sayyid Brothers in the Mughal Empire
Vidyaranya in the Vijayanagara Empire
Ricimer in the Late Western Roman Empire
Nogai, Mamai, and Edigu in the Golden Horde
Godwin, Earl of Wessex in late Anglo-Saxon England
Baron Carl Otto Mörner in the House of Bernadotte (King of Sweden)
Richard Neville, 16th Earl of Warwick in the Wars of the Roses
Wiremu Tamihana in the Māori King Movement
Hato Hasbún in El Salvador
In game theory, a kingmaker is a player who lacks sufficient resources or position to win at a given game, but possesses enough remaining resources to decide which of the remaining viable players will eventually win.
The term "Kingmaker", though always unofficial, has tended to gain more importance in places of power struggle—e.g., politics, sports organizations etc. Consequently, bestowal of such a title is looked upon significantly and more often as a means of indirect gratification for individuals wanting to silently dictate the affairs of the organization. The term is also occasionally used in a pejorative sense during elections, where a small number of independent political candidate(s) who hold a sizeable sway in the "vote bank", can most likely decide the course of an outcome.
Instead of referring to an individual, the term can also be applied to institutions or think tanks whose opinions are held in great regard by the interested organization. The influence of the religious orders like the Roman Catholic Church in running the affairs of the state during medieval times (through the King) is a well-known example. Kingdoms and empires in the Indian sub-continent often relied on their religious heads. Besides religious orders, even countries can fit into this terminology when they can dictate the affairs of the other country (either directly or indirectly). In current political scenarios across the world the term can expand its scope to include powerful lobbying groups, whose role is often seen as a defining factor on major issues.
Citizens of West Africa's constituent monarchies often use the word kingmaker to refer to the members of the electoral colleges that choose their sovereigns because they also usually officiate during the coronation rituals and rites of purification, the word in this particular case taking on a literal meaning i.e.: a Maker of the king.
The term "Kingmaker" is also used to describe situations in multi-player games where a player is either unable to win or has claimed an unassailable lead, but, in either case, plays a strong role in determining the outcome for other players.
Modern politicians known as "kingmaker" include:
Mohandas Karamchand 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 Sardar Vallabhai Patel
James Farley – orchestrated the gubernatorial and presidential elections of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1928–1940)
K. Kamaraj – instrumental in making Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi as Prime Ministers of India in 1964 and 1966, respectively
Dick Morris – orchestrated the gubernatorial and presidential elections of Bill Clinton
Girija Prasad Koirala – described as a kingmaker in Nepal with the election of Madhav Kumar Nepal
Fred Malek – described as a kingmaker for the Republican Party in the United States
David Axelrod – described by U.S. News and World Report as a "reporter turned kingmaker" with respect to the ascendancy of Barack Obama
Bakili Muluzi – described as a kingmaker in Malawi
Muhammad Ali Jinnah – an influential politician who became an ideological leader of All-India Muslim League and the first Governor-General of Pakistan; widely regarded as the founder of Pakistan.
Stefan Cardinal Wyszyński – was highly instrumental in the papal election in 1978 of Karol Wojtyła, Archbishop of Kraków, as John Paul II
Rupert Murdoch – a media tycoon who has consistently backed every winning United Kingdom Prime Minister since 1979
Nick Clegg – described as a kingmaker in the 2010 UK general election as the leader of the Liberal Democrats following a hung parliament
Richard J. Daley as Mayor of Chicago and Chairman of the Democratic Party of Cook County was the leading figure in the Illinois Democratic Party. As such, he controlled a large bloc of delegates at Democratic National Conventions and provided crucial support to Democratic Presidential nominees, including Adlai Stevenson, John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, and Hubert Humphrey.
Central European politicians, including Angela Merkel of Germany (2000–present), Donald Tusk of Poland (2003–present) and Viktor Orbán of Hungary (1998–present)
Kurds in Middle East especially in Southern Kurdistan
Jarosław Kaczyński, the Poland's Kingmaker according to The Financial Times on February 2016.
The character Leon Fortunato from the Left Behind series of novels is often described as a kingmaker.
Marcus Jefferson Wall, the antagonist of much of the Matador series by Steve Perry is called the Kingmaker, and controls the President of the Galactic Federation
The character Mayvar Kingmaker from the The Saga of the Exiles series of novels tests the ability of aspirants before they can be proclaimed king of the Tanu.
Ser Criston Cole, a character from George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, is commonly referred to as "the kingmaker".
Minato Yoko, a character from Kamen Rider Gaim considers herself a Kingmaker, wanting to see who has what it takes to take the Forbidden Fruit, a fruit of great power that can essentially make a person a king. Likewise, another character, Mitsuzane Kureshima, also has traits of a Kingmaker, hanging around with and manipulating events so as to put the ruler in his favor.
One of the villains in the NBC TV series, The Blacklist, went under the alias The Kingmaker.
