Have Island, Will Rebel - Page 6
© Michael Martinez
The idea that the lordships developed in part from independent chieftainships may help explain why Amandil and his predecessors could extend help to the Faithful Dunedain while retaining the good will of the Kings. The various lords must have obtained a degree of autonomy. Ar-Pharazon's reign may therefore have represented a remarkable period in which his personal charisma overcame the barriers of autonomy. That is, he established himself as a great captain in Middle-earth and thus won renown and widespread support from other Numenorean lords.
Hence, when Tar-Palantir died, Ar-Pharazon could take the sceptre and force Tar-Miriel to marry him because he already had the popular support of many of Numenor's lords. An appeal to their conservative values (only men should wield the sceptre in these dark times) or perhaps a simple declaration of "I should be the King!" might be all he required. Tar-Miriel would have found herself without sufficient support to gainsay Pharazon's ambitions. Worse, she may have lacked the personal wealth necessary to raise an army to assert her own power, or to patronize the guilds. She was the rightful Queen, and should have become the Ruler of Numenor, but precedent established in Tar-Ancalime's time required that she marry or give up the Sceptre.
Hence, Ar-Pharazon's ambition was buoyed by the ancient laws. Numenor needed a ruler who was wed, and if Tar-Miriel didn't marry him he should have become the rightful king (because his father, Gimilkhad, was Tar-Palantir's younger brother). At least as Pharazon's wife Tar-Miriel ensured that her father's line continued and she may have hoped to influence Ar-Pharazon (though in the end she didn't, and it's doubtful she even lived with him, since they had no children). That Tar-Miriel could have married someone else is only briefly dealt with in some material published in The Peoples of Middle-earth, but Ar-Pharazon seems to have been powerful enough to prevent that from happening.
If the lords of Numenor were largely autonomous then much of their later history would be easily explained. In time there would have been too few lands to bestow through inheritance or gift upon leading men in Numenor, either by the kings or the lords and chieftains. And Tar-Meneldur feared that the Guild of Venturers would encourage men to seek far lands outside of Numenor. Even when Aldarion was the Guild's chief patron and leader there were other captains who sailed to Mithlond, though these adventures seemed small by comparison with Aldarion's own voyages.
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