King of Gondor

   The line of lords descended from Elendil's son Anárion.

   The title of the lords of the Dúnedain, Elendil and his descendants, who ruled the Kingdom of Gondor. The line of the Kings came to an end when Eärnur answered the challenge of the Lord of the Nazgûl and was lost in Minas Morgul. After his loss, Gondor was ruled by hereditary Stewards until the installation of Aragorn II Elessar (a direct descendant of Elendil) after the War of the Ring.

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   1- Elendil (Ruled for 121 years to II 3441): He founded both Arnor and Gondor, and ruled the two kingdoms as High King. His royal seat was in his own capital in the north, Annúminas, and during his reign, Gondor was under the direct command of his two sons, Isildur and Anárion. He formed the Last Alliance, and marched to the defeat of Sauron, but he himself was lost in that great victory.

   2- Isildur (Ruled for 2 years to III 2): He succeeded his father as High King, but before departing into the north, spent time ordering the Southkingdom.

   In the second year of the Third Age, he left Gondor in the care of his nephew Meneldil, the son of his brother Anárion, and rode away into the north. On his journey, Isildur was ambushed by Orcs and slain, and so the Kingship of Gondor passed on to Meneldil and his heirs.

   3- Meneldil (Ruled for 156 years to III 158): Isildur was lost with his three eldest sons, leaving just his fourth son Valandil, then a mere boy, as heir. At thistime Meneldil took on the full Kingship of Gondor, and its Kings through the next thirty generations would be his descendants.

   4- Cemendur (Ruled for 80 years to III 238).

   5- Eärendil (Ruled for 86 years to III 324).

   6- Anardil (Ruled for 87 years to III 411).

   7- Ostoher (Ruled for 81 years to III 492): Ostoher rebuilt and expanded Minas Anor (later Minas Tirith) and took it for his summer residence.During his reign Gondor began to suffer attacks out of the wild eastern lands.

   8- Rómendacil I (Ruled for 49 years to III 541): He defeated the Easterlings, and took the name Rómendacil - 'East-victor' - in token of this. Nonetheless he met his death in renewed attacks by the Wild Men out of the East.

   9- Turambar (Ruled for 126 years to III 667): Turambar avenged his father's death, and won wide lands for Gondor in the east.

   10- Atanatar I (Ruled for 81 years to III 748).

   11- Siriondil (Ruled for 82 years to III 830).

   12- Tarannon Falastur (Ruled for 83 years to III 913): The first of the four Ship-kings, Tarannon put his energies into the building of Gondor's navies. His Queen, Berúthiel, was sent into exile, and so he was the first of Gondor's Kings to die childless. He was succeeded by his nephew, the son ofhis brother Tarciryan.

   13- Eärnil I (Ruled for 23 years to III 936): The second Ship-king famously captured the southern Haven of Umbar for Gondor, expanding its boundaries even farther. He was lost in a storm off the very coastshe had conquered.

   14- Ciryandil (Ruled for 79 years to III 1015): In Ciryandil's time, the Haradrim came against Umbar, and the King died in its defence.

   15- Hyarmendacil I (Ruled for 134 years to III 1149): He avenged his father's death, and pressed on to capture land in the south for Gondor, extending its borders to their greatest extent in history.

   16- Atanatar II (Ruled for 77 years to III 1226): Because of the extent and wealth of his realm, he was called Alcarin, Atanatar the Glorious, though he lacked the adventuring warrior spirit of his predecessors.

   17- Narmacil I (Ruled for 68 years to III 1294): Narmacil tired of the cares of Kingship, and appointed a Regent to manage the Kingdom for him.

   This was his nephew Minalcar, who would one day rule in his own stead as Rómendacil II. He died without issue, and was succeeded instead by his younger brother.

   18- Calmacil (Ruled for 10 years to III 1304): Throughout his brief reign, his son Minalcar maintained his role as Regent.

   19- Rómendacil II (Ruled for 62 years to III 1366): After sixty-four years as Regent, Minalcar took the throne in his own right. In memory of a great victory over the Easterlings he had won in his Regency, he became King in the name Rómendacil II.He made diplomatic efforts in the east, allying himself with tribes of Northmen in Rhovanion as a bulwark against further Easterling invasions. He sent his son Valacar as an ambassador to the Northmen, and while Rómendacil still held the throne, Valacar wedded Vidumavi in the east, who bore him a son.

   20- Valacar (Ruled for 66 years to III 1432): Valacar was a controversial and disputed King, especially because his heir carried the bloodof the Northmen. In the later part of Valacar's reign, true rebellion broke out, and the southern provinces of Gondor began to break away.

   21- Eldacar (Ruled intermittently for 48 years to III 1490): After the half-Gondorian Eldacar took the throne, the rebellions of Valacar's time grew into a full civil war, and after five years as King Eldacar was deposed by Castamir the Usurper. For ten years he hid in the east, gatheringhis forces, and then challenged Castamir for his rightful Kingship, slaying theUsurper himself. After regaining his throne, he reigned for another forty-three years before his death.

   22- Castamir (Ruled for 10 years to III 1447): The Usurper of Eldacar's throne was descended from the royal line (he was the great-grandson of Calmacil) and is considered a King of Gondor in his own right. He reigned for just ten years, as unrest among his subjects grew, after which Eldacar attacked fromthe east and reclaimed the throne of Gondor.

   23- Aldamir (Ruled for 50 years to III 1540): Aldamir was the younger son of Eldacar (his elder brother Ornendil had been put to death by Castamir). In histime there was war in Gondor with the peoples of the south, and Aldamir fell in that war.

   24- Hyarmendacil II (Ruled for 81 years to III 1621): Aldamir's son avenged his father by overcoming the Haradrim, and in token of this took the name of Hyarmendacil, 'South-victor', the second of Gondor's Kings to bear that auspicious name.

   25- Minardil (Ruled for 13 years to III 1634): Minardil's was a brief reign. He was at the port of Pelargir when it fell under attack by the Corsairs of Umbar, and he was slain in that attack.

   26- Telemnar (Ruled for 2 years to III 1636): Telemnar's reign was even shorter than that of his father. He was lost with all his children in the Dark Plague, and his line came to an end.

   27- Tarondor (Ruled for 162 years to III 1798): Tarondor came early to the Kingship, and enjoyed the longest rule of any of Gondor's Kings. His realm had been devastated by war and plague, and he worked to rebuild its power. It was Tarondor who moved the King's House from Osgiliath to Minas Anor.

   28- Telumehtar Umbardacil (Ruled for 52 years to III 1850): Telumehtar is most remembered by history as the King who reconquered Umbar to the south, and from this deed he took his name Umbardacil 'Victor over Umbar'.

   29- Narmacil II (Ruled for 6 years to III 1856): In Narmacil's time, Gondor's wars with the fierce Wainriders began; they emerged suddenly out of the east, and Narmacil's short reign came to an end in their violent assault.

   30- Calimehtar (Ruled for 80 years to III 1936): Calimehtar reversed his father's defeat, and secured a famous victory over the Wainriders on the plain of Dagorlad. Nonetheless they were not destroyed, and their threat remained on Gondor's eastern borders.

   31- Ondoher (Ruled for 8 years to III 1944): Like his father and grandfather before him, Ondoher went to war with the Wainriders. They had made alliance with the Men of Khand and of Harad, so that all of Gondor's bitterest foes attacked at one time. Under its great general Eärnil, Gondor had the victory at the Battle of the Camp, but Ondoher was lost in those wars, as were his two sons Artamir and Faramir.

   -Interregnum- (1 year to III 1945): After the loss of Ondoher and his sons, Gondor was left without a clear heir to its throne. Arvedui of Arthedainmade a claim, based on his descent from Isildur Gondor's second King, but this claim was rejected. Instead, the Crown was given to the commander who had saved the South-kingdom, Eärnil, who as a great-greatgrandson of Telumehtar was properly a member of the Royal House.

   32- Eärnil II (Ruled for 98 years to III 2043): Eärnil ruled Gondor during a time a turmoil across Middle-earth. In the north, the last kingdom of the Dúnedain was overrun by the Witch-king, and though Eärnil's son Eärnur travelled north to the aid of Arthedain, he came too late, though he did achieve the destruction of Angmar. The Lord of the Nazgûl returned to Mordor from that defeat, and later in Eärnil's reign the Nazgûl launched an assault on Minas Ithil, Gondor's great citadel on the borders of Mordor, and captured it. After that time Minas Ithil was known as MinasMorgul, and Minas Anor as Minas Tirith.

   33- Eärnur (Ruled for 7 years to III 2050): Eärnur had reigned for just seven years when he foolishly took up a challenge fromthe Lord of the Nazgûl, and rode willingly to Minas Morgul. He was never heard from again, and his loss left Gondor without a King once more.

   -Interregnum- (969 years to III 3019): For nearly a millennium after Eärnur's loss, Gondor had no King. It was ruled by the Stewards, the loyal hereditary servants of the Kings descended from Húrin of Emyn Arnen, Steward to King Minardil. There were twenty-six Ruling Stewards, from Mardil Voronwë to Denethor II, in whose time one came toGondor with a true claim to its Kingship.

   34- Aragorn Elessar (Ruled for 122 years to IV 120): Aragorn was the long-lost Heir of Isildur out of the north, the direct descendant of Gondor's first and second Kings, who came into his title at the time of the War of the Ring, and was crowned in the year of the Downfall of Barad-dûr. He reunited the North- and South- Kingdoms; his Queen was Arwen, the daughter of Elrond, and his heir was their son Eldarion.

   35- Eldarion (Ruled from IV 120): Little is known of Aragorn's son Eldarion but his name, and the fact that he succeeded his father to carry the royal line on into the Fourth Age.