According to the William Tell Songfacts, William Tell was a folk hero of disputed historical authenticity who is said to have lived in the canton of Uri in Switzerland in the early 14th century. After refusing to salute the Habsburg badge at Altdorf on Lake Lucerne, he was sentenced to shoot an apple from his son's head. This he did, before shooting the tyrannical Austrian ruler Gessler, thus symbolizing his people's refusal to submit to external authority.

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