and after Aragorn became king, Faramir becamePRINCE of Ithilien,so i think its just a title for something similar to a governor(only with his own knights and vassals).

Prince imrahil was Prince of Dol Amroth. He was not living in Gondor, he was only there to aid Gondor in the war. He is related to Denethor. Denethor's deceased wife was from Dol Amroth, in Imrahil's family. Dol Amroth is very near Gondor I think, I'm check on my map tonight.

Happy to be of service!

To add a little perspective to the above, the Great Plague ocurred approximately 1600 years after Isildur's death and 1400 years before the reign of King Elessar and Queen Arwen.

Good point, Vee. I was wondering a similar thing. If Faramir had not survived the War, then Denethor's line would have ended. Who then would have ruled Gondor if Aragorn had not decided to claim his kingship? I guess that is why I wondered why a steward was ruling a city when there were princes available for the job. But Val is right, I'm probably looking at the structure of royalty from a modern perspective which doesn't seem to apply to this story.

Thanks Val for the primer on places and locations. Someday I'll get a map of ME as there must some out there that shows all these different places. It would help to visualize things better. One question though, I think you said Minis Morgal was part of Ithilien, but isn't Minis Morgal part of the dark lands (Mordor)? Just trying to get things straight in my mind.

Thanks again everyone for your help on this question.

I still cannot find the family tree I thought I had seen once (maybe something I only imagined). I did manage to find the following in UT, however.



The note goes on to add that if this is so, the family must have ruled there 2000 years before Galador ( the son of Imrazor and Mithrellas the elf-maiden) who was the first Lord of Dol Amroth. It suggests that although the family ruled there for all this time, Galador was known as the First Lord of Dol Amroth because prior to this time Dol Amroth was not known by this name (only becoming so after the Amroth, King of Lorien drowned there in TA 1981).

It would seem from this then, that if Imrahil's ancestors were kinsmen of Elendil, the two families diverged earlier than I had first thought (back in Numenor in the Second Age, rather than sometime in the Third Age). As such the Line of Princes should be seen as a second ancient noble line (again running unbroken for thousands of years) rather than an offshoot of the Line of Kings.

Scouting further into the Line of Stewards, I have found I was a little mistaken there too. The House of Stewards were from the House of Hurin ( the Steward of King Minardil (1621-34). Hurin of Emyn Arnen was a man of high Numenorian descent. After his day the kings had always chosen their Stewards from his descendants, the Stewardship becoming hereditary from father to son just as was the kingship. When King Earnur went missing, there were potentially many claimants to the throne, but the line was confused (similar to British monarchy), and no one of pure blood was available. As no one person had a strong claim, and fearing another kin-strife, Gondor put the crown in the guardianship of the Stewards until someone with a strong claim could come forward. Obviously this did not occur until Aragorn turned up. I assume that Imrahil's descendants must have been considred at this time, along with other nobles, but dismissed for fear of this kin-strife.