Wilhelm Tell: Famous Legendary Crossbowman And Swiss Patriot – Symbol Of Freedom And Dignity

A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - Wilhelm Tell was a Swiss national hero symbolizing the political and individual freedom struggle.

The scene depicting the hero shooting an apple off his son's head is probably known to everyone.

Monument of the Swiss Hero and Patriot with his son.

The father pulls the string, checks the wind, aims, and releases the bolt.

The arrow flew whistled only millimeters over his son's head and pierced a red autumn apple.

Tell breathes a sigh of relief but also knows he will never forgive the Austrians.

The event took place on November 18, 1307, according to a widespread urban legend mentioned in books dating back to the late fifteenth century. Tell, a famous mountaineer and crossbowman, was a resident of Bürglen in the canton of Uri, whose capital was in Altdorf, Switzerland.

The brave Swiss patriot Tell lived during the 13th and early 14th centuries when his country was not unified yet but was a conglomeration of small states under Habsburg feudal rule.

The Austrian governor and colonial overlord Hermann Gessler was an unpopular figure. He sought to humiliate the residents of Altdorf, so he ordered the erection of a tall pole in the town square, at the top of which would be displayed his hat - a symbol of the power of the Habsburg.

The Legend of Wilhelm Tell shown to the Antwerp Guild of St Sebastian. 1672; Credits: Philips A. Immenraet, W. Schubert van Ehrenberg, Charles E. Biset via Wikimedia Commons

Every Swiss man who entered the square would be obliged to pay allegiance to a cruel tyrant Gessler and the foreign imperial power he represented by bowing before his cap.

The famous crossbowman disobeyed Austrian authority; he refused to pay homage to a Habsburg liege and was forced to submit to the marksmanship test.

He had to shoot an apple from his son's head; the test was dangerous and humiliating, but Tell won it.

When the governor asked why Tell had a second bolt in the quiver, the Swiss replied, "… the second arrow was for you if the first had wounded my boy…"

The tyrannic Austrian official had Tell arrested for this insult and ordered to transport him across Lake Lucerne.

Tell with Son. Credits: E. Stückelberg (1831 - 1903) Kunstsammlung Basel

A sudden storm allowed Wilhelm Tell to escape, or perhaps he was secretly released during the transport to the fortress. Later, the patriot Tell killed Gessler, the tyrant of Altdorf, and this event began the uprising against the Habsburg power in the cantons. It was also the Swiss first to take a crucial step in its struggle toward the independent Swiss Confederation.

Several accounts of the Tell legend exist, and many of them have been compared with the stories of Palnatoke, a legendary Danish hero, and other legends of migration from Sweden to Switzerland during the Middle Ages.

However, tracing any historical source concerning the Swiss Wilhelm Tell is difficult.

In 1470, a chronicle named the "White Book of Sarnen" reports the legend for the first time, and the classic story appeared in the standard history book 'Chronicon Helveticum' (1734–36) by Aegidius Tschudi.

Wilhelm Tell remains an immortalized national hero of the Swiss people.

Written by A. Sutherland AncientPages.com Staff Writer

Updated on December 4, 2023

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