Rütli Oath

[1] 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).

This account is followed by the story of William Tell and the Burgenbruch, followed by the Rütli Oath itself, taken by Walter Fürst of Uri, Werner Stauffacher of Schwyz and Arnold von Melchtal of Unterwalden.

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 traditional date of 1307 for 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.

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 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.

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.

[dubious – discuss] The building of Switzerland as 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.

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.