by JoHarrington

When all of the world seems to be pressurizing you to choose between two unwelcome outcomes, it takes great intelligence to think outside the box.

Most take as their only options those presented as such by authority figures and other powerful people. Mostly there are no choices apparent in the process, particularly when a nation is at war.

You do as your government directs, even if that way seems deadly, demanding sacrifice as standard. All history, tradition and peer pressure colludes against your right to survive. Media, clerics and other sources of information encourage your assent; justifications shifting according to epoch and location.

It requires tremendous wit to see past such an onslaught and discern further choices beyond the given. Then great courage and self-possession to follow through, selecting one of them instead.

That's true today. For peasants in the Middle Ages, the psychological shift seemed to rail against all reality; endangering immortal souls through lack of obedience to their ruler's will, when social class was viewed as divinely ordained.

Yet, a whole town once did just that - thwarting the will of not one, but two monarchs, and an heir apparent too. These erstwhile serfs were supposed to stand and die as cannon fodder in somebody else's war. Selecting only which side for which they might declare.

The beleaguered population of Llanrwst chose self-preservation instead. Then engineered acceptance for their decision so brilliantly, that even said royals were forced to comply.