From
Wikipedia: The Rütlischwur is a legendary oath of the Old Swiss
Confederacy. The oath is notably featured in the Wilhelm Tell
drama of 1804 by Friedrich Schiller. This story about the oath
on the Rütli, a meadow above Lake Lucerne near Seelisberg, is
first mentioned in the White Book of Sarnen (1470). Its
canonical form is that of the 16th century Chronicon Helveticum
of Aegidius Tschudi. According to Tschudi, the three oath-takers
(Eidgenossen) were Werner Stauffacher for Schwyz, Walter Fürst
for Uri and Arnold of Melchtal for Unterwalden. In Friedrich
Schiller's drama, this oath of the mentioned three men takes
place in Walter Fürst's house in Altdorf and basically consists
of 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 has killed, in his own residence, the local
Habsburg sheriff Wolfenschiessen with an axe in defence of his
wife Itta Baumgarten against 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
sceptical about any common actions. Tschudi, however, dates the
event to 8 November, 1307. Its historicity is uncorroborated,
but also not implausible, the 1307 date falling in a period of a
series of similar treaties such as the Federal Charter of 1291
and the Bund von Brunnen of 1315, the pact of Uri and Urseren of
1317, the pact with Lucerne in 1332, the Zürich guild revolution
of 1336, all part of a larger communal movement finally
countered by the imperial Golden Bull of 1356 and culminating in
the Battle of Sempach of 1386.
