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I would not call what Sauron did to Denethor and Saruman to Theoden "attempt at assasination" as a matter of fact JeffF hit the nail in the head, they were controling them~Farael
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Hmm...interesting, I'm not sure though if you could rule out assassination (or killing the King/Steward) as the end goal though for Sauron and Saruman. Both were trying to use pawns to further their own gains, but when those pawns became useless, they would be taken out.
At least The Mouth thinks so when he rides out to meet Aragorn and co. He seems to think he will be placed in a mighty position, as Saruman has proven untrustworthy and of no more use to Sauron, and in time Saruman was going to be dealt with. Would killing Saruman and inserting The Mouth as the new ruler of Isengard be assassination?
Unfinished Tales has some interesting stuff about Saruman, Grima, Theoden and Rohan. I don't know if you would want to count it as 'canon' but still interesting stuff considering this topic. Now, you are correct that what Saruman and Grima were doing to Theoden was about control, not killing him. In UT it says Grima was slipping Theoden subtle poisons to make his mind weaker, so if Saruman wanted him assassinated it could have been easy. However, there was a problem, and that is exactly what
Farael points out, if Theoden is dead, you just place in Theodred...that doesn't help Saruman.
But here's where the UT gets interesting, because Saruman knew that Theodred and Eomer were going to be his biggest thorns for controlling Rohan. Theodred and Eomer did not like Grima one bit, and Grima's initial role was to become the King's favourite in a way, this meant Eomer and Theodred had to be out of the picture. Theodred winds up dead (in a battle, however the UT mentions this was of Saruman and Grima's making) and Eomer is jailed up. So,
Farael, you are correct that Grima simply couldn't have assassinated Theoden, because of his opponents in Rohan, however the end goal was control of Rohan, which meant Theoden would have had to of been taken care of eventually. For Saruman and Grima it was a little more difficult as Theodred and Eomer were getting in the way. It's a good story.
I think the same can be said about Sauron and Denethor. Sauron was going to use Denethor in whatever way he could, until Denethor was no more use. Unfinished Tales has some interesting stuff too about Denethor. It states that Sauron had no servant with the mental 'will' capable of matching Saruman or Denethor. Denethor had a strong mind, so of course Sauron wanted to control it. Now Saruman eventually took to wanting the same thing as Sauron, Denethor always (until his death) opposed Sauron, foolish pride was Denethor's downfall. Sauron may have realized Denethor (nor would Gondor his most hated enemy) would never bow down to him, so he chose to break Denethor in other ways. Though, you can't really call it an assassination, for Denethor willingly challenged Sauron, as he lost all hope (after his sons were dead) and believed the only chance left for victory would be to challenge Sauron himself.