Conquest of Minas Ithil

The conquest of Minas Ithil was a surprise attack on the city of Minas Ithil in Gondor in the year SA 3429 by the forces of Mordor. The battle was the first engagement of the War of the Last Alliance.

History

Prelude

When the island of Númenor was sunk in SA 3319, the Elendili escaped and founded the Realms in Exile in SA 3320. In the southern kingdom of Gondor, Anárion founded the city of Minas Anor and Isildur built Minas Ithil, where he planted the White Tree. Minas Ithil was a fortress-city strategically built in the Ephel Dúath to threaten Mordor. After Númenor was sunk, Sauron secretly returned to Mordor and mustered a huge army, desiring to once more go to war with the West now that Númenor was destroyed. However, he struck too soon, before his power was fully rebuilt.

The attack

In SA 3429, Sauron sent a large army from Gorgoroth in a surprise attack on Minas Ithil. Surprised and attacked with overwhelming force, the city's defenders were swiftly overrun. Sauron's forces set fire to the White Tree. Isildur, his wife, his sons, and an unknown number of soldiers escaped the citadel; and Isildur brought with him a seedling of the White Tree. His family sailed north, seeking Elendil, while Anárion organized the Defense of Osgiliath.

Aftermath

Following the capture of Minas Ithil, the Army of Mordor terrorized the province of Ithilien, then a territory of Gondor. The battle sparked the formation of the Last Alliance of Elves and Men, and led to the Western kingdoms forming an alliance to, so they hoped, stop Sauron once and for all. Minas Ithil was retaken a year later by Anárion and held by Isildur's sons for the duration of the war but following the Great Plague in the mid-Third Age, the citadel was nearly abandoned. The Witch-king and the Ringwraiths later retook the fortress for Mordor in TA 2002 after a two-year siege and the settlement was renamed to Minas Morgul.

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