Valacar of Gondor

Valacar was born in T.A. 1229 and lived to be Gondor's twentieth King. The eldest son of Minalcar (Romendacil II), he was a Dúnadan who spent  much of his early adulthood  in Rhovanion. There, he resided among the Northmen of Vidugavia's Kingdom and served as a symbol of his father's commitment to their safety. He arrived in Vidugavia's capital of Buhr Widu in T.A. 1250 and married his host's daughter, Vidumavi, in T.A. 1264. Eldacar,the only child of Valacar's marriage, was born ten years later. Minalcar died in T.A. 1366, and Valacar ascended the throne in Osgiliath. His stormy rule  marked a major  turning point in Gondorian history. He was the first monarch in the South Kingdom to take a non-Dúnadan wife, and his son was the first heir without purely Dúnadan blood. Many of his fearful Dúnadan subjects decried his presence and called for a new King, or at the very least a new heir. This was particularly true of those folk in the southern provinces, where the once-powerful Sea-lords believed that the Crown had neglected their needs in favor of a policy of landward expansion. Unfortunately, Valacar's unprecedented favoritism toward the Northmen aggravated the problem. Vidumavi's death in T.A. 1374 touched off further debate. The disenchanted Dúnedain feared that her realtively short life (140 years!) meant that the royal line had been weakened by the addition of poor blood. Rivals to Eldacar's accession began to appear in conversation. By T.A. 1430, as Valacar weakened and his hold on internal affairs slipped, a revolt broke out in Lebennin and southern Ithilien. This rebellion exploded into the Kin-strife two years later (T.A. 1432), when Valacar died at the age of 203.