Q: Who Ruled Minas Tirith When Aragorn Became King?
ANSWER: The full question I was asked reads: “Who ruled Minas Tirith when Aragorn became king? (since he had his seat in Annúminas and Faramir went to Emyn Arnen)”. I think this question can be read in one of two ways. First, is there an underlying assumption that some sort of prince or other noble must have been in charge of every town or city in some vaguely feudal way? Second, how were the cities and towns governed if neither the King nor his Steward resided in them?
If the question (which was submitted more than a year ago) is founded upon a belief that every town or city must have had a feudal lord ruling over it, then I must point out that is not how European feudalism worked. Technically, European feudalism worked in several ways. There was no one single system for feudalism. But in general the feudal vassals were given responsibility for governing territories and those territories usually included at least one town. And in a hierarchical feudal society the larger territories could be subdivided into smaller territories as each feudal lord appointed his own vassals.
Somewhere in this midst of the textbook-style feudal subdivisions towns and cities usually ruled themselves through elected or appointed officials which eventually gave rise to the Mayor and Council forms of government most of us are familiar with. Many towns were founded by feudal lords, who granted charters to merchants and craftsmen to settle in their territories. These towns might have been located near or around the feudal lords’ castles and supported the local garrisons, or they might have developed critical resources such as mines.
And there were ancient towns and cities which had already been established before the various kingdoms adopted feudalism. While many of these towns and cities may have turned to powerful barons, dukes, and counts for protection they did not always have to do that. Sometimes they simply remained loyal to national monarchs or in a few cases remained independent until feudalism broke down and nationalism began to develop.
Tolkien did not clearly describe the forms of government used in Arnor and Gondor. They had kings (monarchs) and the kings had stewards, and the kings had advisory councils. The royal council of Gondor assumed some authority in the king’s absence or upon his death, and the council of Arnor may have as well. But there is very little evidence of feudalism in either Arnor or Gondor. The only specifically feudal relationship Tolkien described or mentioned was that between the King of Arthedain (Arnor) and the Hobbits of the Shire.
Many readers wrongly assume that Tolkien’s references to chain armor, swords, and bows and various “knights” must mean he had based Middle-earth’s realms on medieval Europe. In fact, all of these things predated both feudal Europe and medieval Europe. Chain armor, for example, was first developed by the ancient Celts and adopted by the Romans in the 1st century BCE. And the word knight is used to translate various pre-Germanic words used of special noble classes of warriors and families associated with mounted troops found in Rome, Persia, and elsewhere. Knight is itself derived from Old English cniht, meaning simply “boy” or “servant”. The military sense of the word, according to Etymology Online, is first noted around the year 1100 and was widely applied during the Hundred Years’ War (1337 to 1453). It would not be until the 1500s that the term was applied to a rank of nobility. So knight is not exactly a classic European feudalistic title.
Tolkien adapted words to fit the needs of his fiction, and he often used words we associate with specific ideas in rather unique but subtly primitive ways. If you want to know what Tolkien really had in mind, don’t assume it had anything to do with feudalism or medieval Europe. Instead, look at how he described these institutions in detail (when he did). Take, for example, the Riders of Rohan. You don’t learn much about their organization or management from The Lord of the Rings but there is a detailed essay in Unfinished Tales of Numenor and Middle-earth, and there we learn that they were a professional army led by three Marshals, of whom the King of Rohan was usually the first, and that each Marshal had a specific territory for which he was responsible, that his forces were organized into companies, and that there were local forces upon which he might call. So the Riders of Rohan were a national army, not a feudal army, and never mind the fact that Tolkien wrote about “the knights of [Theoden’s house]”. He had something not-quite-medieval or feudal in mind, something both simpler and yet which entailed oaths of personal loyalty between soldier and king.
The Princes of Dol Amroth were another interesting and confusing example. In one passage Tolkien says they were independent of the Stewards and yet Imrahil was deferential to Denethor.
But back to the question at hand: who ruled Minas Tirith when neither the King nor his Steward were residing in the city? I have no idea. I could suppose all sorts of things. It is true that Denethor was called “lord of the city” with respect to Minas Tirith. While we could extrapolate all sorts of euphemistic applications from such usage I think it’s fair to assume that Tolkien literally meant Denethor was directly and personally ruling Minas Tirith, either as a result of the city’s being converted into a wartime fortress (most of the city’s women and children had been evacuated by the time Gandalf and Pippin arrived) or because the Stewards (and the Kings before them) always ruled the chief city directly.
In the function of city ruler the King or Steward would have to be assisted by various functionaries. Tolkien left it to the reader’s imagination to fill in the details. Maybe there were councils appointed by the kings from various nobles and merchant groups or maybe the free men of the city elected councils or maybe there were no councils and the cities each had such bureacracies as they required in order to function. The small towns of the Bree-land and the Shire seem to have mostly gotten along without mayors. The Mayor of Michel Delving in the Shire was so important that he was sometimes regarded as the Mayor of the Shire and he did exercise some authority over the Shire-wide bureaucracies of the Postal Service, the Shirriffs, and the Bounders.
The free men of Lake-town also elected a Mayor (or Master) who led a town council, so Tolkien clearly meant for at least some forms of democracy to be found in Middle-earth. The various moots mentioned or described in the stories also denote methods of government other than feudalistic monarch-and-vassal models. The Shire-moot most likely consisted of the various important “clan chiefs” (heads of wealthy families) and Tolkien says it was led by the Thain (a hereditary role appointed by those clan chiefs to “hold the authority of the King”). It is hard to find a historical example of government that exactly fits Tolkien’s Shire government, which was relaxed, parochial, and primitive but effective due to the Hobbits’ generally peaceful and collaborative nature. They might speak poorly of their contemporaries from other farthings but they didn’t raid each other’s farms or raise warbands to settle feuds and disputes.
I think it’s reasonable to say that each large city in Arnor and Gondor would have required some type of leading authority figure. These might have begun as military commanders in some cities, such as Fornost Erain, Minas Ithil, and Minas Tirith but they need not have been the only royal officers. Pelargir and Lond Daer Ened were once royal ports of Numenor but when Elendil and his sons established their kingdoms who would have ruled over their populations directly in the names of the kings? Tolkien doesn’t say.
Tharbad is another interesting example as Tolkien speaks of both realms originally maintaining garrisons there but the entire community is described as a single city. Would it not have been more like two cities facing each other across the river, each with its own military commander? And when Gondor’s garrison withdrew after the Great Plague did anyone remain on the southern side of the river? Were they guarded and governed by the military commander on the north side of the river? Did Arthedain or Cardolan or whomever withdraw its garrison and leave the city to its own defenses? Who governed and defended Tharbad after Arnor ended in Third Age year 1975? Tolkien did not answer these questions.
It’s probably safe to assume that if there was a royal garrison in a city and the city had been established for the sake of defense then the garrison commander probably exercised some authority over the city, especially in time of war. He might have appointed someone to handle non-military matters. But that’s really something you can settle in your own mind as reader of the story. There is no definitive, authoritative answer to the question.
See also:
- Of Thegns and Kings and Rangers and Things
- Who Governed Ithilien after Isildur Left Gondor?
- Why Was Arnor Divided Into Three Kingdoms
- Is Middle-earth Medieval?
- Tolkien’s Middle-earth Doesn’t Look like Medieval Europe
- How Many Armies Did Arnor Have?
- How Many Armies Did Gondor Have?
- Were All Gondorian Soldiers Called Knights?
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Have you read our other Tolkien and Middle-earth Questions and Answers articles?
What about the office Warden of the Keys, held during War of the Ring by lord Hurin the Tall? Apparently it was a high ranking official who in absence of Steward and Prince Imrahil commanded men of Gondor. I wonder whether there is anything more about it. Maybe he was responsible for managing day to day affairs in the city both military and civil? Hurin of the Keys could possibly be the one to held administrative functions of medium level so to speak. Naturally it is said in a fragments of a letters that while king Aragorn was absent at home usually the Steward Faramir or Prince Imrahil was in charge:
“A Númenórean King was monarch, with the power of unquestioned decision in debate; but he governed the realm with the frame of ancient law, of which he was administrator (and interpreter) but not the maker. In all debatable matters of importance domestic, or external, however, even Denethor had a Council, and at least listened to what the Lords of the Fiefs and the Captains of the Forces had to say. Aragorn re-established the Great Council of Gondor, and in that Faramir, who remained by inheritance the Steward (or representative of the King during his absence abroad, or sickness, or between his death and the accession of his heir) would [be] the chief counsellor.”
“[To] be Prince of Ithilien, the greatest noble after Dol Amroth in the revived Númenórean state of Gondor, soon to be of imperial power and prestige, was not a ‘market-garden job’ as you term it. Until much had been done by the restored king, the P. of Ithilien would be the resident march-warden of Gondor, in its main eastward outpost — and also would have many duties in rehabilitating the lost territory, and clearing it of outlaws and orc-remnants, not to speak of the dreadful vale of Minas Ithil (Morgul). I did not, naturally, go into details about the way in which Aragorn, as King of Gondor, would govern the realm. But it was made clear that there was much fighting and in the earlier years of A.’s reign expeditions against enemies in the East. The chief commanders, under the King, would be Faramir and Imrahil; and one of these would normally remain a military commander at home in the King’s absence.”
Hurin the Tall has a very minor role, but his office Warden of the Keys implies some amount of authority.
So far as I know, “Warden of the Keys” is a title that Tolkien made up entirely. The etymology of the word “warden” doesn’t seem to help, as it is a middle English word that just means “someone who guards [something]”. It sounds like he was fulfilling the same original role as a non-Franco Seneschal or medieval Concierge (“Keeper of Keys [of the palace]”).
The thing is, if you equate the Warden of the Keys with a French Seneschal, you establish a sort of steward for the Steward relationship. Maybe Tolkien had that in mind but he didn’t incorporate many distinctly medieval French concepts into his Middle-earth fiction.
It is a grave mistake for readers to assume that everything in Middle-earth is based on medieval Europe. It’s impossible to divorce Middle-earth from medieval Europe but the same is true of Middle-earth’s relationship with classical civilization and Edwardian England. Middle-earth is a blend of many anachronisms. Hurin’s office could in some way have been modeled on the concept of Saint Peter’s role as keeper of the keys to heaven.
There is no definitive way to explain Hurin’s role. It was whatever the reader thinks it should have been.
I myself always thought so as well, that Middle-earth isn’t simply medieval, but in fact mix of many cultures and time periods, anachronisms and some purely original elements picture it in my mind as a place in some parts more progressive, in some simpler and in some wholly unique and as you pointed out the classical antiquity and other time periods. Still the role that Hurin fulfills always brought in mind some sort of…castellan almost, though the comparison is far from acurate it was simply a loose thought. Hurin the Tall is present at the crowning of Aragorn naturally (well most would be present during such historic ceremony) at the entrance where he opens the temporary barrier in place of destroyed gate, and the association with ‘keys’ as if keys to town in a way made me think that he could be the answer to originally asked question. Aragorn I suppose had his capital in Gondor still in Minas Tirith, while Annuminas were royal palace was located would be de facto capital in Arnor (though we can assume that Fornost would also be rebuild)
Scene from coronation:
“But Ioreth was not permitted to continue the instruction of her kinswoman from the country, for a single trumpet rang, and a dead silence followed. Then forth from the Gate went Faramir with Húrin of the Keys, and no others, save that behind them walked four men in the high helms and armour of the Citadel, and they bore a great casket of black lebethron bound with silver.
…
But when Aragorn arose all that beheld him gazed in silence, for it seemed to them that he was revealed to them now for the first time. Tall as the sea-kings of old, he stood above all that were near; ancient of days he seemed and yet in the flower of manhood; and wisdom sat upon his brow, and strength and healing were in his hands, and a light was about him. And then Faramir cried:
‘Behold the King!’
And in that moment all the trumpets were blown, and the King Elessar went forth and came to the barrier, and Húrin of the Keys thrust it back; and amid the music of harp and of viol and of flute and the singing of clear voices the King passed through the flower-laden streets, and came to the Citadel, and entered in; and the banner of the Tree and the Stars was unfurled upon the topmost tower, and the reign of King Elessar began, of which many songs have told.”
So he is keeper of the keys in this symbolic gesture of opening gates of the city for new king. He seems to also hold some authority in military, commanding men when there’s lack of higher ups:
“‘Is there no deed to do?’ she said. ‘Who commands in this City?’
‘I do not rightly know,’ he answered. ‘Such things are not my care. There is a marshal over the Riders of Rohan; and the Lord Húrin, I am told, commands the men of Gondor. But the Lord Faramir is by right the Steward of the City.’”