The Alps

William Tell
Set in the early 14th century (traditional date 1307, during the rule of Albert of Habsburg), the first written records of the legend date to the later of the 15th century, when the Swiss Confederacy was gaining military and political influence. Tell is a central figure in Swiss national historiography, along

with Arnold von Winkelried the hero of Sempach (1386). He was important as a symbol during the formative stage of modern Switzerland in the 19th century, known as the period of Restoration and Regeneration, as well as in the wider history of 18th to 19th century Europe as a symbol of resistance against aristocratic rule, especially in the Revolutions of 1848 against a House of Habsburg which still ruled Austria five hundred years later.