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Swiss Culture: William Tell

Robert Easton

Some time during the 13th Century, the Swiss canton of Uri came to be dominated by the Austrian Habsburgs. At the beginning of the 14th Century the Habsburg bailiff for the Uri canton was an unpopular chap by the name of Hermann Gessler.

To please his egomania, Gessler had a pole erected in the centre of the town of Altdorf, put his hat on top of it, and decreed that the poor locals must bow to his cap each time they walked past it - or else.

William Tell being a proud and patriotic sort of fellow, as well as a renowned crossbowman, of course refused to bend in submission to the pesky Austrians, and strode past without bowing.

Gessler promptly had him arrested, and cunningly decided that his punishment would be trial by archery - to have to shoot an apple of the top of his son Walter's head from a distance of 80 paces, or they would both be executed. If he shot the apple, he would be set free.

Of course, with a laugh and a smile Tell split the apple in two and was about to leave when the bailiff noticed he was hiding a second arrow, and asked him what it was for. Like all great heroes, Tell was unable to think of a convenient lie, and replied that the second arrow was so that he could kill the bailiff if anything went wrong and he accidentally injured little Walter.

The bailiff had him arrested all over again, tied him up, and dragged him off to rot in the cells of the castle at Küssnacht.

To get to the castle, however, they had to cross Lake Lucerne, and during the crossing a great storm blew up. Everyone on the boat was terrified, and thought they were going to die.

None of them were good sailors. At last they remembered, gagged and bound in the bottom of the boat they had William Tell, top crossbowman, all round good bloke, and accomplished sailor too.

As soon as they unbound Tell he steadied the ship and managed to steer them closer to shore - upon which he jumped onto a rock and pushed the boat back out into the storm.

He knew Gessler would soon mobilise the whole canton to hunt him down, so he went to the castle at Küssnacht and lay in wait under a bridge (with the one arrow he had left from the shooting trial).

When the bailiff arrive with his entourage, Tell leapt out from his hiding place and killed him with a single arrow through the heart.

This single act of defiance sparked a rebellion among the downtrodden Swiss. They stood up and threw off the yoke of the domineering Austrians, leading to the foundation of the Eidgenossenschaft, (The Old Swiss Confederacy) the precursor of modern Switzerland.

At least, that's how the story goes.

The story of someone shooting an apple off their son's head is not very original, however, having also featured in Norse, German and English folk legends. Critics also point out that the first written mention of Mr Tell does not occur until about half a century after his heroics supposedly took place.

There are two early sources for the legend - one describes Tell as the major player in the struggle for Swiss independence. The other portrays Tell as only a minor player in another plot against the Habsburgs.

All this suggests that even if there was a William Tell, he probably didn't really shoot an apple off his son's head.

In spite of the paucity of evidence suggesting William Tell existed, he is still a figure that Swiss can identify with their own independence struggle - part of the shared history and beliefs that make up a nation's identity.

William Tell has been the inspiration or mascot for various Swiss national movements, and featured on the official seal of the short-lived Helvetic Republic (1798-1803).

He has been immortalised in plays, songs, music and books. Hitler was enthusiastic about Friedrich von Schiller's play, 'Wilhelm Tell', and quoted it in 'Mein Kampf', only to ban it later when a Swiss person tried to assassinate him. He is alleged to have remarked at a banquet 'Why did Schiller have to immortalise that Swiss sniper!?'

William Tell survives in music through Rossini's William Tell overture - otherwise known as the theme tune of "The Lone Ranger".

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