The Great Armament
the fleet of Ar-Pharazôn that assailed Aman
Definition
The Great Armament is the name given to the great fleet that Ar-Pharazôn, last King of Númenor, prepared for the assault upon Aman in S.A. 3319 — the breaking of the Ban of the Valar with the whole might of the realm.
History
Under the counsel of Sauron, who was held captive in seeming in Númenor, Ar-Pharazôn was persuaded to make war upon the West and wrest the deathless land from the Valar. He caused to be built an armada greater than any that Númenor had ever sent forth, and with it he sailed in the last years of his pride against Aman, landing his host upon the shores of the guarded realm, the trespass that is told in the Akallabêth. In the answer that followed, the world was changed: Númenor was swallowed by the Sea, and the Great Armament perished with its lord; of the whole host only the small ships of the Faithful, fleeing before the Downfall, came to Middle-earth.
Significance
The Great Armament is the last and greatest act of the pride of Númenor, the attempt of Men to seize the deathless land in arms; from its overthrow come both the ruin of the greatest kingdom of Men and the exile of the Elendili, whose heirs in Gondor and Arnor later form The Last Alliance against Sauron.