Interesting you bring up Macbeth as the Lord High Steward/High Steward is an old Scottish title - from the first to hold the title descended the Stewart family and eventually the royal families of Scotland and the UK; the title Lord High Steward is now one held by each Prince of Wales. There was also a Lord High Steward in England and Ireland, England's being merely occasional and ceremonial as time went on and Ireland's being hereditary and still in existence. Whichever way, the Lord High Steward in any of the nations was originally a powerful figure who took on a lot of responsibility from the monarch.
So I imagine that part of Denethor's role was most definitely to muster troops, and this must have been seen as part of his responsibility to act for the absent King.
Actually, this makes me think as the assorted fiefdoms/client kingdoms (what are we calling them now?) are all descended from the Faithful of Numenor, which is similar to the Scottish clans, mostly said to be descended from a handful of mythical and semi-mythical ancestors.
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Gordon's alive!
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