A Year of Blogging: November 18, 2011

November 18 was 'William Tell Day'. I remember hearing about William Tell; he shot an apple off his son's head with an arrow. But why did he do this, I wondered? So I did a little research to find out more about Mr. Tell. William Tell was known as an expert marksman with a crossbow. The Hapsburg emperors of Austria were trying to dominate Uri, a state in Switzerland. Uri was also William Tell's home. Albrecht Gessler, the newly appointed overlord of Altdorf, raised a pole in the center of the village square. He put his hat on this pole and ordered everyone to bow before the hat. William Tell did not bow when he passed the hat, so he was arrested. As punishment, he was told to shoot an apple off his son's head. If he didn't, both he and his son would be executed. If he made the shot, he would be free. On November 18, 1307, Tell made the shot. However, Gessler had noticed that Tell had removed two projectiles from his crossbow when he made the shot. Gessler asked Tell about this, and Tell told him that if he had missed the shot, he was going to use the second projectile on Gessler. This angered the overlord and Tell was bound and put on a ship for Gessler's castle. A storm came up, and the crew asked him to steer. He used it as a chance to escape. He traveled by land to Gessler's castle, waited for him, and when Gessler arrived, Tell killed him. William Tell is a folk hero in Switzerland. I had no idea! I learned quite a bit today (many thanks to Wikipedia for supplementing my knowledge). I do wonder, though, how his poor son felt sitting there with the apple on his head!