Green Hill

There is a green hill far away,

Without a city wall,

Where the dear Lord was crucified,

Who died to save us all.

Such is the first verse of There is a Green Hill Far Away (Hymns of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Salt Lake City, UT: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, 1985. Print. # 194). I happen to be fairly familiar with this particular hymn because it is one of the few that I could play well enough for Sacrament Meeting in Escrito.

Today as I approached the end of Falls the Shadow, I read that Edward, son of King Henry III, took up a position on Green Hill. Knowing that you cannot believe everything you read in a historical novel, I Google searched images for the Battle of Evesham and sure enough, to the north of Evesham is Green Hill. Amazing.

Summerville, J. P. "Henry III and Rebellion." Henry III and Rebellion. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 July 2013.

Simon de Montfort lost the battle for many reasons. Some might say that I’m crazy but I believe one of the reasons he did is for the same reason that the Welsh were never able to stop fighting amongst themselves long enough to offer a unified resistance against the English or the American Indians were able to offer a unified resistance against the invading Europeans: it was not meant to be. Had Wales been able to unify, the history of England would have been vastly different because Welsh laws were, to my way of thinking, much better than English laws. They were better for women and better for sons, except in the case of the sons of princes. Had Wales been able to remain a separate entity, perhaps some of their laws might have rubbed off on England; perhaps England would have been more tolerant; perhaps people might not have felt the need to leave and travel to the new world.

Had de Montfort been successful in his quest to see the king responsible to his subjects rather than just for his subjects, perhaps England would have been more tolerant. Hard to know for certain, but certainly history would have been written differently.

Had Native Americans been able to come together and fight as a unified people, the might have been successful at repelling the European invaders. That certainly would have changed the history of the American continents.

History is as it is and no amount of rewriting now will change what actually happened and it happened as it did for a reason.

Edward and his men took up a position on Green Hill and Simon de Montfort’s doom was sealed. He was killed on August 4, 1265, and Edward later was successful in claiming all of Wales for England when Llewellyn ap Gruffydd, grandson of Llewellyn Fawr and husband of Ellen, Simon’s daughter, met an untimely death not too many years after de Montfort.

Rather unrelated is the fact that Laura, Daniel, Amena, Cedric, Seth, Joseph and I were in an accident on August 2, 2011, resulting in the death of Daniel. I can understand, somewhat, the emotions that must have been felt by de Montfort’s wife and children even though my loss was that of a child and not a sibling or a spouse.

However, and this is related, because of a death on a green hill near Jerusalem, we can be with Daniel again even as Simon can be with his family. Because of the death on the green hill near Jerusalem, God needed a land where there would be religious freedom which meant that de Montfort and the Welsh princes would ultimately not be successful with what they sought and the Native Americans would not be successful in repelling the Europeans. Ultimately, there is a God and he has a plan and I believe that everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen, has done, is doing, and will do so according to that plan.