Queen of Númenor

We have little detailed information for Queens who did not play a direct part in history, and dating is therefore difficult. II 32 is the year that Elros became Tar-Minyatur, the first King of Númenor. For dating purposes we assume that he had a Queen at that point, though in fact no consort is ever explicitly identified. Elros' eldest child Vardamir was born several decades later, so conceivably he may have married after taking the throne. All we can say with absolute certainty is that there was a Queen by II 61, the year of Vardamir's birth.

Similarly, it seems unlikely that there was a completely unbroken line of Queens throughout Númenor's history. From what little we know of this aspect of Númenórean culture, the King's Heir did tend to marry before assuming the throne, and there was a nearly unbroken line of descent (on which see note 2 below) so in general there would have been a Queen throughout Númenor's history. There may have been breaks in the line due to late marriages or early deaths, though we have a record of only one such case. After the death of Ruling Queen Tar-Vanimeldë, her consort (against custom and law) held the Sceptre himself for twenty years before the true heir, his son Tar-Alcarin, succeeded. Even this is a doubtful case, since Tar-Alcarin was nonetheless the rightful King during this period; he already had a son, and therefore there was a rightful Queen, legally speaking, throughout this period.

One date we can be sure of is the end of the last Queen's reign. In the Akallabêth, the account of Númenor and its Downfall, Ar-Pharazôn's Queen Tar-Míriel is the last character we see in Númenor before it is overwhelmed by the ocean. So we can date the end of the last Queen with certainty as II 3319, the date of the Downfall of Númenor.

There were twenty-five Rulers of Númenor across its history, and of these only three were Ruling Queens (Tar-Ancalimë, Tar-Telperiën and Tar-Vanimeldë) leaving twenty-two Kings. The line of Rulers remained almost unbroken, and so we can be sure that each King had at least one Queen. We know the names of four of these remaining, non-Ruling, Queens (Almarian, Erendis, Inzilbêth and Tar-Míriel) leaving a further eighteen Kings whose Queens' names we do not know. In principle, one or more of these Kings might have remarried, so there may have been more than eighteen unnamed Queens, but if so, no suggestion of any such remarriage is recorded.

The line of Rulers was in fact broken twice. The first case was Queen Tar-Telperiën, who remained unwed and had no children, being succeeded by her nephew Tar-Minastir. In the second case, Tar-Palantir's true heir was his daughter Tar-Míriel, who would lawfully have become the fourth Ruling Queen, but her throne was usurped by her cousin Ar-Pharazôn. Neither of these cases affects the number of unnamed Queens.