people sitting around talking about politics: the fic

[elizabeth_hoot]

Basically, it's a compressed, talky version of the stuff that I was thinking through with my Lothíriel fic all those years ago. This isn't that, I just got to thinking about it when I came across a random reference, and considering where my Lothíriel might have gotten all those seditious ideas from. :)

title: princes of the city
fanverse: canon, more

Comments

[elizabeth_hoot]

I don't think it's questionable that the Stewards, claiming that they ruled only in the King's place, after a point in time did so safe in the knowledge that effectively they would rule Gondor till they died.

Okay? Yes, Mardil--the one who came to power when Eärnur disappeared--must have known that Eärnur wasn't coming back and he would be ruling in his place for the rest of his life. It was his duty to do so and, to go by his epithets, his assumption of power is in fact widely regarded as an act of faithfulness. And that's the only point I can think of where the actions of any Steward might have been considered a usurpation by Gondorians. The others simply inherited his established authority.

But how likely was it that a) there was an heir who had for some reason not appeared for centuries and b) that said heir could actually produce proof of his claim strong enough to convince Stewards who were probably very unwilling to be convinced?

It's canon that there weren't any valid heirs, thanks to the effects of the Kinstrife. So...?

Pelendur was not a Ruling Steward, Madril was the first of them; neither had not been born and bred expecting to rule Gondor all his life and then pass the office to his son.

Pelendur ruled between kings, as had become the obligation/right of any Steward, and it was with that authority that he led the Council wrt the heirs of Isildur. He's also the one who made the Stewardship a sort of sub-dynasty. I mentioned him because his tenure came when the Stewardship was gaining power, which culminated in Mardil--he could have tried for an actual usurpation, unwise as that would have been, but that is simply ... not what happened in the Stewards' history. There is no point at which they are seen to have taken power that could be regarded, by Gondorians, as rightfully belonging to someone else.

Madril never had to make any definite choice, since the heirs of Isiuldur didn't press their claim again.

They weren't really in a position to do so, tbh. The kingship in LOTR is a mix of special chosen-ness and actual political concerns and the homeless heir of a line whose claim has been formally and legally rejected could hardly just show up in Minas Tirith and expect to be taken seriously. It doesn't seem like Mardil, good steward that he was, even considered the heirs of Isildur.

But at some point during the generations of Ruling Stewards, it must have occured to somebody that the authority of the Stewards was based on the (at best) faint hope or (at worst) improbable fiction that a valid heir of Anarion existed somewhere and would one day return.

Personally, I can't imagine that Mardil himself didn't realize the ramifications. By the time it got to, idk, Denethor I, it wouldn't even be something to dwell on. Of course they all assumed their line would rule forever. Why not?