It Happened Today: November 18th, 1307: William Tell, the woodsman, mountaineer and expert crossbowman shoots an apple off his son Walters head. In the year 1307, in Altdorf Town, Canton of Uri, the Austrian emperor had occupied the place and had installed a local Vogt or mayor. The Vogt Gessler may have been maddened with power and he installed a pole in the town square. The pole had the mayors hat hanging from it and he required people to bow to it as they passed by. One day, Tell and his son Walter were traveling through the town from Bürglen. He and his son refused to bow to the hat on the pole and was subsequently arrested by the Austrian militia. Gessler, the mayor, made up an unusually cruel punishment for Tell and the boy. William Tell was already a known marksman by this time and Gessler wanted to test his skill. The punishment for not bowing to the pole and the hat was death. Gessler publicly promised to let Tell and the boy live if Tell could shoot an apple off his sons head with his crossbow. The chain-mailed men-at-arms positioned the boy against a tree and placed an apple on his head. Tell locked and loaded his crossbow and with a single attempt, split the apple in half with a crossbow bolt. The town rejoiced and the younger and elder Tells were allowed to leave. Only, the Mayor Gessler had a question for Tell. Whilst loading the crossbow, the mayor noticed Tell pulled out two bolts instead of just one. When the mayor asked, Tell defiantly told Gessler to his face that if he had killed his son with the first bolt, he planned on using the second bolt to kill Gessler. This infuriated the Mayor and had William Tell arrested once again. The Town of Altdorf is located at the southern end of Lake Lucerne and at the northern end lies Gesslers castle. Chained up, Gessler had Tell transported via boat to the castle to be imprisoned and forgotten in the dungeon. During the sail, a storm brewed up overhead and threatened to capsize the boat. The Mayors men-at-arms untied William Tell to make him help steer the boat. Tells renown as a strongman was widespread and steering the boat required physical prowess that Tell had. Tell used this chance to escape. The guards became complacent with Tell in control of the boat. As they approached the Axen Cliffs, Tell leaped out of the boat and landed onto the rocks and ran off into the woods. The place to this day is called Tellensprung, where Tell sprung to his freedom. The guards couldnt keep up with the experienced woodsman Tell and they lost him. Sometime later, still fuming with anger and unsure of the fate of his son, Tell waited in hiding along the roads between Altdorf and Gesslers castle. He waited and waited and waited and one day, horse riders came by and Gessler was among them. William Tell, ever the marksman, let lose one shot from his crossbow and felled Mayor Gessler. The assassination of Vogt Gessler triggered an uprising by the people of Uri. They won their freedom from the Austrian Hapsburg emperor and their defiance spread to the other cantons and ultimately led to the creation of the Swiss Confederation. For his defiance of foreign occupation, William Tell is hailed as a Swiss Cultural and Patriotic hero. A museum and statues are dedicated in his honor, particularly one in the town square of present day Altdorf. He and his story is shrouded in legend, and many historical researchers conclude that he didnt actually exist. Either way, the folk hero is forever tied in with Swiss History. William Tell and his son and that apple are subjects of many childrens books and serious dissertations in and out of Switzerland. Sources: I read it somewhere, although, the original folklore from the Tellenlied features a crossbow as the weapon but current popular imagination depicts William Tell with a bow and arrow. #todayinhistory
Posted on: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 10:59:54 +0000
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