We’re conditioned to accept the prevailing ideas of society, and most people inculcated with an inherent moderation and deference in the way that we act towards the authorities.  As a result of that deference in actuality, legend and popular folklore often tell us as much about our understanding of justice and freedom from tyranny as actions do.  The tale of William Tell is one such story.

In the 14th century, Switzerland was a very different place to the one known to us toward.  Yes, it still had the Alpine peaks and valleys and it was still back then known for its agricultural output (although chocolate may have been pushing it).  However, it was most certainly not neutral, but held firmly under the control of the Habsburgs, then a major dynasty, although not yet the preeminents that they would become, in the Holy Roman Empire.

Three Swiss cantons had signed the Federal Charter in 1291, affirming their sovereignty and independence from external forces.  The Habsburg governor of Uri, Hermann Gessler, eager to prove his dominance of the area, raised a pole in the centre of the capital, Altdorf, crowned by his hat, and ordered that all locals bow down before it, and, by it, show allegiance to the Habsburg regime and his own arbitrary rule.

Tell had other ideas, and refused.  Angered, Gessler ordered Tell to shoot an apple off the head of his son, Walter, with a crossbow, on punishment (of refusal or failure) of both being executed.  Fortunately, as that legend records, Tell proved himself to be an expert marksman, and, on 18th November 1307, 700 years ago today, successful took the apple from his son’s head.

When Gessler asked Tell why he carried a second bolt in his quiver, when Tell was clearly so talented, Tell replied that he intended to shoot Gessler if he had accidentally killed his son.  Enraged even more, Gessler had Tell locked up in a nearby castle, but, escaping thanks to a storm during transit, Tell returned to Altdorf, and killed the governor with his remaining bolt.  This sparked the people of the three cantons to rise up, and forever cast off the shackles of the Austrian regime.

Like the tale of Prometheus and that of John Galt in Atlas Shrugged, Tell defied the illogic of his overlords, and cast off his chains through righteous action against arbitrary tyranny.  All three legends, whilst none of them historically accurate, tell a similar story.  All three heroic individuals refused to bow to the absolute and unjustified rule to which they were subjected, and fought back, using both their brains and brawn.  If we judge the people by the tales that they tell, we can tell that freedom, whether in Ancient Greece, in 14th century Switzerland, or in the 20th Century, is an eternal desire, and one that cannot be denied.