The Lamanite Kings

In the books of Mosiah and Alma in the Book of Mormon, we learn briefly about many different kings of the Lamanites. The first is Laman who allowed Zeniff and his group of Nephites to occupy their land. Zeniff recorded, “Now it was the cunning and the craftiness of king Laman, to bring my people into bondage, that he yielded up the land that we might possess it” (Mosiah 9:10). This was around 200-187 BC. This king died while Zeniff was sill occupying their land, and his unnamed son became the next king: “And it came to pass that king Laman died, and his son began to reign in his stead. And he began to stir his people up in rebellion against my people; therefore they began to prepare for war, and to come up to battle against my people” (Mosiah 10:6). Zeniff passed away under the reign of this Lamanite king, and Noah took over as king among the Nephites. Eventually he was attacked by the king of the Lamanites, presumably this same one. He spared the lives of the Nephites but put them under bondage: “And it came to pass that the king of the Lamanites made an oath unto them, that his people should not slay them…. And the king of the Lamanites set guards round about the land, that he might keep the people of Limhi in the land, that they might not depart into the wilderness” (Mosiah 19:25, 28). Limhi became the ruler over the Nephites, and after the priests Noah stole away the daughters of the Lamanites, the Lamanite king came again against the Nephites. At the end of their fight, the Nephites “found the king of the Lamanites among the number of their dead; yet he was not dead, having been wounded and left upon the ground, so speedy was the flight of his people.” This king—likely either the son of the original Laman from Mosiah 9 or perhaps his grandson if another succession had taken place—reasoned with the Nephites and helped convince his people to not destroy the Nephites. That story shows this king to be a reasonable man: “And it came to pass that they did meet the Lamanites; and the king of the Lamanites did bow himself down before them, and did plead in behalf of the people of Limhi” (Mosiah 20:12, 25). Eventually the people of King Limhi were delivered from the Lamanites through the help of Ammon and his brethren.  

                The next Lamanite king that was mentioned was the one who allowed Alma’s people to be put in bondage in the city of Helam. After they were discovered by the Lamanites, we have this description of the Lamanite king: “And now the name of the king of the Lamanites was Laman, being called after the name of his father; and therefore he was called king Laman. And he was king over a numerous people” (Mosiah 24:3). It is not clear if this is the same king of Mosiah 20 or his son, but the number of years between the Laman of Mosiah 9 and this Laman was likely about 70-80 years. So, among these kings mentioned, there likely were three individuals, and if that’s the case then all three were named Laman. They may have named all their kings Laman in the same manner as the Nephites who originally named all their kings Nephi: “And whoso should reign in his stead were called by the people, second Nephi, third Nephi, and so forth, according to the reigns of the kings; and thus they were called by the people” (Jacob 1:11). After about 30 years, a Lamanite king came to battle against the Nephites to help the Amlicites. We learn of him in this passage: “Now when Alma had said these words he contended again with Amlici; and he was strengthened, insomuch that he slew Amlici with the sword. And he also contended with the king of the Lamanites; but the king of the Lamanites fled back from before Alma and sent his guards to contend with Alma” (Alma 2:31-32). This was happening at the same time that the sons of Mosiah were teaching the Lamanites, and so we are left to wonder whether this was the same king who was ultimately converted by Aaron (i.e. the father of King Lamoni). It may have also been a minor king (similar to Lamoni) who was king over a small portion of the land but was not converted to the truth through the preaching of Ammon and his brethren. Either way, eventually the king of the whole land was converted, and his son (who was renamed Anti-Nephi-Lehi and was the brother of Lamoni) was also converted and succeeded his father as king over the whole land. Perhaps the name of Anti-Nephi-Lehi was chosen in contrast to the name of Laman which would have been his name if indeed all the kings were named Laman. Either way, he and his father were the first Lamanite kings in their hundreds of years of history to be converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. This ushered in a new era for their people which eventually led some of the Lamanites to physically join with the Nephite believers. Unfortunately, this was followed by an opposite migration of a small number of Nephites under Amalickiah who joined the Lamanites and eventually took over the kingdom.