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27-565: The Rütli Oath is first mentioned in the White Book of Sarnen (written 1470, based on a source dated c. 1420). The account in the White Book of Sarnen mentions how Beringer von Landenberg, the reeve of Unterwalden, ordered the confiscation of oxen from the farmer at Melchi ( Sachseln ). The farmer's son attacked the reeve's servants and escaped to Uri, so that the father was blinded in retaliation. A little later, reeve Wolfenschiessen

54-667: A federal state in the first half of the 19th century (1803–1848) revived symbols of the period of growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the Late Middle Ages, including the legends of William Tell and Arnold Winkelried and the Rütli oath. Patriotic songs such as the Sempacherlied as well as Schiller's play had an important position, and shooting competitions or tirs became an important symbol of

81-567: A key paleways with double wards counterchanged ) as the coat of arms of the united canton. In Early Modern Switzerland , Unterwalden counted as a single state in "foreign relations" with the other member states of the Swiss Confederacy, but it consisted of two separate states internally, with separate governments, jurisdictions and separate flags. Martin Zeiller in 1642 reports Unterwalden as divided in two separate Talschaften

108-399: A promise to meet again on 1 August on the Rütli meadow and to bring with them leading and brave men of the three cantons to decide upon a common action plan. Most notably, among the representatives of Unterwalden was Konrad Baumgarten , a free and wealthy man who killed, in his own residence, the local Habsburg sheriff Wolfenschiessen with an axe in defence of his wife Itta Baumgarten against

135-598: A single People of brethren, Never to part in danger nor distress. We want to be free, as our fathers were, And rather die than live in slavery. We want to trust in the one highest God And never be afraid of human power. The three Landamänner (canton chiefs) of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden represented in Schiller's Tell as taking the oath are those who have historically held office in 1291, Werner von Attinghausen for Uri, Konrad ab Yberg for Schwyz, and Konrad Baumgarten for Unterwalden. The building of Switzerland as

162-508: A single vote in the Confederacy. The flag of Unterwalden in the 14th and 15th centuries was divided horizontally into equal parts red over white, identical with the flag of Solothurn. After the accession of Solothurn to the Confederacy in 1481, there were two cantons with identical flags, sometimes disambiguated by modifying the design of Solothurn's flag. By 1600, Nidwalden was known as Unterwalden proper or Subsylvania , while Obwalden

189-401: Is first recorded in 1304, as the translation of Latin inter silvas , which together with in intramontanis was the name for monastery possessions in the area. In 1291, Rudolf I of Germany purchased the estates at Stans , Alpnach and Giswil . From 1304, the local bailiffs used their own seal. In 1309, Henry VII confirmed the imperial immediacy of the territory of Unterwalden as part of

216-637: The Swiss Confederation canton Obwalden . This volume, 258 pages in length, was given its name because of the white parchment in which it is bound. The White Book of Sarnen contains the earliest surviving reference to the Swiss national hero William Tell . The White Book of Sarnen was composed in 1474 by a country scribe called Hans Schriber . Schriber’s book consists of two parts. The longer first part contains seventy-seven different documents that Schriber copied from original documents stored in

243-706: The Zürich guild revolution of 1336. The larger context is that of the communal movement in medieval Europe , which was countered by the imperial Golden Bull of 1356 . This conflict escalated, in the Swiss case, in the Battle of Sempach of 1386. In Friedrich Schiller 's play William Tell , written in 1804, this oath of the mentioned three men takes place in Walter Fürst 's house in Altdorf and basically consists of

270-561: The imperial bailiwick of Waldstätte (but not as a political entity in its own right). The Federal Charter , internally dated 1291, is thought to originate at this time. In the text, Unterwalden figures as communitas hominum Intramontanorum Vallis Inferioris "community of the men between the mountains of the Lower Valley"; this is usually rendered as "the community of the Lower Valley of Unterwalden" in modern translations, and interpreted as Nidwalden or "Unterwalden proper". Unterwalden

297-477: The Confederacy was celebrated again in 1907, this time in Altdorf . It was only after the celebration of the 650th anniversary in 1941, seen as an important symbol of Swiss independence in times of war , that the date of 1291 became universally associated with the Rütli oath. The Swiss national holiday on 1 August marks the date of the Federal Charter (dated to "the beginning of August, 1291), and thus

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324-481: The Rütli Oath itself, taken by Walter Fürst of Uri, Werner Stauffacher of Schwyz and Arnold von Melchtal of Unterwalden. The Tellenlied (c. 1477) names Wilhelm Tell as the "first oath-taker" ( der erste Eydgnoss ). The Tellenspiel of Uri (1512) replaces Fürst with Tell in the role of the oath-taker on behalf of Uri. Jacob Stampfer depicted the oath scene on his Bundestaler (c. 1546). The coin legend dates

351-536: The Rütli oath. Following a public vote on 26 September 1993, 1 August has been an official national holiday since 1994. The name of the Swiss Confederation, "Eidgenossenschaft", harks back to the legendary comrades of the oath. White Book of Sarnen The White Book of Sarnen ( German : Weisses Buch von Sarnen ) is a collection of medieval manuscripts compiled in the late 15th century by Hans Schriber, state secretary ( Landschreiber ) in

378-482: The account in the White Book of Sarnen , dated to about a century after the purported event. The historicity of the event is thus unverifiable, but it is not implausible, as the 1307 date given by Tschudi falls within a period of similar treaties between the cantons, including the Federal Charter of 1291, the pact of Brunnen of 1315, and the pact of Uri and Urseren of 1317. The traditional date of 1307 for

405-595: The archives of Sarnen . To this documentary section, Schriber added a brief report on the early history of the Old Swiss Confederacy . This second part, 25 pages in length, makes mention of the Rütli oath (German: Rütlischwur), the Burgenbruch, and William Tell’s heroic deeds. Although the White Book of Sarnen contains the earliest of any surviving William Tell tales, it did not contribute much to

432-490: The common cause and military readiness of the Confederacy. After the establishment of the federal state, the Rütli oath became associated with the Swiss Federal Charter , a document dated to 1291. This choice was not straightforward, as it went against Tschudi's date of 1307, and historians could enumerate a total of 82 similar documents of the period of 1251 to 1386. The decision was motivated pragmatically, as

459-513: The event to 1296, and the three oath-takers are named as Wilhelm Tell von Ure , Stouffacher von Schwytz and Erni von Underwalden . The report from Chronicon Helveticum by Aegidius Tschudi (c. 1570) became the canonical form in Swiss historiography . Tschudi retains the names of the three oath-takers ( Eidgenossen ) already mentioned in the White Book of Sarnen (1470), Werner Stauffacher for Schwyz , Walter Fürst for Uri and Arnold of Melchtal for Unterwalden . The figures of

486-491: The first "conspiracy" between the three founding cantons is made plausible by the suggestion due to Roger Sablonier (2008) that the Federal Charter of "1291" may have been slightly pre-dated, and should be placed in the context of the inheritance of territories in Schwyz by Wernher von Homberg in 1309. Later pacts of similar nature, reflecting the early growth of the Old Swiss Confederacy , are those with Lucerne in 1332, and

513-624: The inhabitants of which were derived from separate races, those of Obwalden from the " Romans ", those in Nidwalden from the " Cimbri " (viz. Germans ). Unterwalden was restored in the Act of Mediation (1803) with a single constitution, but with two separate capitals, Sarnen and Stans , and two separate cantonal assemblies with equal sovereignty. Unterwalden was a canton of the Restored Swiss Confederacy of 1815, and it

540-478: The modern Swiss capital of Bern in 1891 was going to celebrate the 700th anniversary of the city's foundation and it was convenient to place the 600th anniversary of the Confederacy in the same year. Especially in Central Switzerland, the opportunistic re-dating of the event was resented, and the Rütli oath continued to be dated to 1307 well into the 20th century. Accordingly, the 600th anniversary of

567-462: The popularity of the William Tell legend, as only a small number of people, such as the two chroniclers Petermann Etterlin and Aegidius Tschudi , had access to this document. The only surviving copy of the White Book of Sarnen , which was long believed to be lost, was accidentally discovered in 1856. However, researchers disagree on whether the White Book of Sarnen , which is preserved in

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594-545: The public record office of the canton of Obwalden, is merely a copy of an older manuscript written around 1426. Unterwalden Unterwalden , translated from the Latin inter silvas ("between the forests"), is the old name of a forest-canton of the Old Swiss Confederacy in central Switzerland , south of Lake Lucerne , consisting of two valleys or Talschaften , now two separate Swiss cantons (or two half-cantons ), Obwalden and Nidwalden . The name Unterwalden

621-612: The sheriff's trespass and inappropriate attempts to approach her. On the other hand, William Tell refused the invitation to come to the Rütli as he was of the opinion that the strong shall act on his own and was skeptical about any common actions. The most famous version of the oath is no doubt that found in the play: Wir wollen sein ein einzig Volk von Brüdern, in keiner Not uns trennen und Gefahr. Wir wollen frei sein, wie die Väter waren, eher den Tod, als in der Knechtschaft leben. Wir wollen trauen auf den höchsten Gott und uns nicht fürchten vor der Macht der Menschen. We want to be

648-536: The three oath takers or Eidgenossen during the 16th century merged with the legend of William Tell and became known as "the Three Tells ". Impersonations of the Three Tells in historical costume played a role during the Swiss peasant war of 1653 . Tschudi dates the event to 8 November 1307. The historicity of the oath, and more specifically the Rütli as the site of the oath, is uncorroborated outside of

675-428: Was known as "Unterwalden ob dem Wald", strictly speaking an oxymoron, as it were Subsylvania super silva . From this time, there are also two separate coats of arms for the two half-cantons, the red-and-white flag for Unterwalden proper or Nidwalden, while Obwalden had a silver key in a red field. By the 1640s, these two designs were re-combined in a white-and-red key on a red-and-white field ( per fess gules and argent,

702-459: Was one of the three participants in the foundation of the Old Swiss Confederacy , named in the Pact of Brunnen of 1315 with Uri and Schwyz . The division of Unterwalden into two separate territories, Obwalden and Nidwalden , in the early period is less than clear. Their status as two independent Talschaften appears to develop over the course of the 14th and 15th centuries, while they retain

729-463: Was slain by Konrad von Baumgarten of Altzellen for attempted rape of his wife. Werner Stauffacher of Schwyz was threatened by reeve Gessler because he had dared to build a stone house. Stauffacher also escaped to Uri, and, inspired by his wife Gertrud Stauffacher , formed a secret pact against the reeves. This account is followed by the story of William Tell and the Burgenbruch , followed by

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