Albrecht Gessler

Albrecht Gessler, also known as Hermann,[1] was a legendary 14th-century Habsburg bailiff (German: Landvogt) at Altdorf,[2] whose brutal rule led to the William Tell rebellion and the eventual independence of the Old Swiss Confederacy.

[3][4] According to the Chronicon Helveticum by Aegidius Tschudi (1505–1572), in 1307 Gessler raised a pole in the market square of Altdorf, Uri, Switzerland, placed his hat atop it, and ordered all the townsfolk to bow before it.

Gessler's cruel wrath was tempered by his curiosity to test Tell's skill, so he gave Tell the option of either being executed or shooting an apple off his son's head in one try.

A sudden fierce storm made the crew terrified and, since William Tell was a better sailor, they handed the wheel to him but, instead of heading towards the dungeon, he escaped to shore.

A Gessler family of ministeriales is documented from the 13th century onwards but at Wiggwil in the Aargau region, the original homeland of the Habsburgs and the basis for their rise after the extinction of the Swabian House of Hohenstaufen.