Arnold von Winkelried

Swiss patriot, knight of Unterwalden. At the Battle of Sempach (1386), when the Swiss failed to break the compact line of Austrian spears, he is said to have grasped as many pikes as he could reach, buried them in his bosom and bore them by his weight to the earth. His comrades rushed into the breach, slaughtered the Austrians, and gained a decisive victory.

Arnold von Winkelried or Arnold Winkelried is a legendary hero of Swiss history, who allegedly saved the victory of the confederate forces of the Old Swiss Confederacy in the Battle of Sempach in 1386 against an army of the Habsburg duke Leopold III of Austria. The first written report of such a deed dates from 1538, and the name "Arnold Winkelried" is connected to the story only in the Chronicles of Tschudi, which writes about "a man of Unterwalden, of the Winkelried family" and in its final edition from 1564 about "a man of Unterwalden, Arnold von Winckelried by name, a brave knight".

Earlier, detailed accounts of the Battle of Sempach do not make any mention of such a heroic deed, nor of the name Winkelried. The genealogy of the Winkelrieds of Unterwalden has been studied meticulously, and while an "Erni Winkelried" or "Arnold Winkelried" seems to have lived at that time, he was also alive and well after the battle: he was plaintiff in a lawsuit in Stans in 1389, and acted as Landamman (head of state) of Unterwalden in 1417.