The kingdom of Rohan in The Lord of the Rings: TheTwo Towers' ending is Rohan solidified as one of the most powerful nations in the land and a great ally of Gondor during The War of the Ring.

While The Lord of the Rings' timeline, the film tells the story of one of Rohan's most prominent kings as the history of the land is divulged. Both before and after War of the Rohirrim, Rohan's many kings led the country to become a renowned ally in the world of Men, begging the question of whom each of its leaders was across Middle-earth's four Ages.

19 Eorl the Young

Ruled Between TA 2510 - TA 2545

The first king of Rohan was named Eorl the Young, leader of a people called the Éothéod. The Éothéod lived to the north of Middle-earth, beneath the Gray Mountains, but grew too large for their small landmass. Eventually, a rider from Gondor arrived with a message for Eorl, begging for help in a conflict with men from the Middle-earth land of Rhûn.

Eorl also started the tradition of the Rohirrim by taming a horse named Mansbane that killed his father. From then on, horses became synonymous with the Éothéod.

Eorl and 7000 horsemen rode south, winning the Battle of the Field of Celebrant. As thanks for their aid, the Steward of Gondor at the time provided Eorl and his people with the vast land of Calenardhon, renamed the Mark by Eorl and Rohan by Gondor. As such, Eorl became the first king of Rohan and the founder of the House of Eorl. From then on, the people of Rohan were known as Eorlingas, the sons of Eorl, and a long-lasting alliance between the kingdoms of Men was formed.

18 Brego

Ruled Between TA 2545 - TA 2570

Brego was the first son of Eorl and succeeded the founder of Rohan. Brego's reign was mostly uneventful, with the young king simply solidifying Rohan as a new kingdom of Middle-earth. Although this was a mostly peaceful reign, it was not short of significant developments for the fledgling nation. Edoras was named Rohan's capital, and it was Brego who oversaw the building of the Golden Hall, which would house future kings for generations. After the death of his first son, Baldor, Brego lost the will to live and ed the kingship of Rohan to his second son, Aldor.

Aragorn's horse in the Lord of the Rings trilogy was also named Brego, likely after the Rohan king.

17 Aldor

Ruled Between TA 2570 - TA 2645

Aldor ruled Rohan after his father for 75 years, making him the longest-reigning king in Rohan's history. His long-lasting rule saw Aldor dubbed "the Old" by the people of Rohan, bolstered by his age of 101. During this century, Aldor oversaw a prosperous time for the kingdom that involved solidifying what his forebears had built for Rohan as a leading kingdom of Men.

During Aldor's reign, small clashes broke out against the enemies of Rohan, the wild men known as the Dunlendings. These men were driven past the Gap of Rohan that exists between the Misty Mountains and the White Mountains, solidifying the country's borders. This allowed for various areas of Rohan to be colonized by the Eorlingas, leading to a vast increase in the population of both the kingdom's regular citizens and the warriors known as the Rohirrim.

16 Fréa

Ruled Between TA 2645 - TA 2659

Given Aldor's long life, his son Fréa was already elderly himself upon taking the crown of Rohan. This meant that Fréa's rule of the horse lords was one of the shortest in the nation's history, lasting only 14 years. This reign was uneventful given the peace ushered in by Aldor and Brego before him, allowing the Rohirrim to become one of The Lord of the Rings' strongest armies and leading to the crowning of Fréa's son, Fréawine.

15 Fréawine

Ruled Between TA 2659 - TA 2680

Taking after his father, Fréawine's reign as the fifth king of Rohan was mostly unchanging regarding major developments. Fréawine was a grandfather himself when his own grandfather, Aldor, ed the crown of Rohan to Fréa. By the time he became king, Fréawine was over 60 years old. This meant his reign lasted just over two decades as another peaceful era of Rohan endured.

14 Goldwine

Ruled Between TA 2680 - TA 2699

Goldwine was the sixth king of Rohan and, like his two immediate ancestors, presided over a peaceful Rohan thanks to the successful reign of Aldor the Old. Goldwine was also in his 60s before becoming king due to the long lives of Aldor and his descendants, overseeing another era of continued tranquility in Rohan. Given Goldwine's name, it can be assumed that this was a period of wealth for Rohan too, likely due to the lack of war that lasted generations.

13 Déor

Ruled Between TA 2699 - TA 2718

The son of Goldwine, Déor, was crowned the seventh king of Rohan upon the former's death in 2718 of Middle-earth's Third Age timeline. Thanks to the long life of Aldor, Déor's great-great-grandfather, five generations of Rohan kings lived simultaneously upon Déor's birth. Eventually, Déor became king, inheriting a peaceful kingdom at the age of 55.

Déor died in TA 2718 with no choice but to accept that a threat to the west of Rohan was rising...

After generations of peace, Rohan faced some troubles during the reign of Déor. The Dunlendings, previously pushed west by Aldor the Old, began to raid Rohan once more. 11 years after Déor became king, he discovered that the Gondorian fortress of Isengard had been captured by the Dunlendings. Isengard's strength meant the Rohirrim could not mount a siege, meaning Déor died in TA 2718 with no choice but to accept that a threat to the west of Rohan was rising.

12 Gram

Ruled Between TA 2718 - TA 2741

The raids against Rohan by the Dunlendings that began in Déor's reign saw the rule of the eighth king of Rohan, Gram, be consumed by war. Gram was tasked with defending Rohan from the various attacks by the wild men, all while still unable to route them from Isengard. Gram's 23-year-long reign was one filled with bloodshed and the struggle continued into the kingship of his son, Helm Hammerhand.

11 Helm Hammerhand

Ruled Between TA 2741 - TA 2759

One of the more prominent kings of Rohan was Helm Hammerhand. Helm inherited the aforementioned struggle against the Dunlendings from his father and grandfather, with this story being outlined by the time of The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim's ending. Helm's conflict with the Dunlendings boiled over into a clash with a landowner of Rohan named Freca, who possessed the blood of both wild men and the Rohirrim. After Helm's unwitting murder of Freca during a brawl, the latter's son, Wulf, traveled to Isengard and became the leader of the Dunlendings.

This led to a period of uncertain peace as Wulf raised not only the wildman army against Rohan but also forces from the east and south, complete with war beasts like Mûmakil. Eventually, Wulf and his army laid siege to Rohan, routing Helm Hammerhand and his people from Edoras towards the fortress of the Hornburg. During the siege of Edoras, Helm's sons, Haleth and Háma, were killed. This left Helm without an heir, leaving him, his daughter Héra, and his nephew Fréaláf to defend the Hornburg from Wulf's army.

Helm Hammerhand's actions during the siege of the Hornburg saw the fortress renamed in his honor, becoming Lord of the Rings' Helm's Deep from then on.

Overall, Helm Hammerhand's status as a legendary king of Rohan comes from his legacy during the war against Wulf. Helm, driven mad by grief and rage, committed single-handed raids against Wulf's army during the siege of the Hornburg that was waged throughout the Long Winter. Helm even became viewed as a wraith by the men of Wulf's army due to his speed, skill, and ferocity. Eventually, Wulf was found outside the fortress frozen solid, standing defiantly against the oncoming army and giving his successor as Rohan’s king the courage to push back Wulf and the Dunlendings.

10 Fréaláf Hildeson

Ruled Between TA 2759 - TA 2798

After Helm Hammerhand's The War of the Rohirrim, he is succeeded by his nephew, Fréaláf. The deaths of Helm's sons meant he had no rightful heir, yet his sister, Hild, had a son. Fréaláf was a steadfast ally of Helm Hammerhand and a loyal warrior of Rohan, lifting the siege of the Hornburg after his king's death. Fréaláf, alongside a host of Rohirrim warriors, stormed Wulf's army from the Dunharrow fortress high in the mountains and freed Rohan, drawing the attention of a familiar member of the Istari Order.

Fréaláf's ascension to the throne of Rohan ushered in the second line of kings for the kingdom, considering it spawned from Hild rather than Helm himself. The remainder of Fréaláf's rule was relatively peaceful yet no less important, with the king overseeing the rebuilding of Rohan. This, alongside his alliance with Gondor and The Lord of the Rings' Saruman the White who became lord of Isengard, saw Rohan enter a new age.