1804: Hans Jakob Willi, Bockenkrieger
April 25th, 2019 Headsman
“We are free Swiss, completely equal citizens. That government that will not hear the voice of the people is a tyranny.”
–Hans Jakob Willi, leader of the Bockenkrieg, who was executed on 25 April 1804.
The defeat of the Old Swiss Confederacy by Napoleon had shaken up political arrangements in Switzerland, creating the successor Helvetic Republic. As Napoleonic revolutions were wont to do, this new state aimed to centralize, universalize, and rationalize, having done with archaic redoubts of canton authority and ancient feudal privileges.
This new Republic was a short-lived affair, held up only by French bayonets; upon their withdrawal in 1802, it succumbed quickly to civil strife which necessitated the Corsican’s mediation — and a new political order which restored some powers of the prostrated cantons.
It was the consequent flex of Zurich upon its former provincial domains that brought about the Bockenkrieg insurgency — a rural rebellion near Horgen requiring Zurich to impose its will by means of a very picturesque suppression.
The Bocken estate after the battle for the manor during the Bockenkrieg, 28 March 1804 by Johann Jakob Aschmann (c. 1804)
Hans Jakob Willi, a cobbler turned soldier who gave the insurgency a veteran military man at its fore, was injured in battle, resulting in the speedy collapse of the rising. A court martial declared his death, despite Napoleon’s attempted intercession on Willi’s behalf.
German speakers might enjoy this public domain history on the rebellion.
On this day..
- 1328: Pierre de Remi, royal treasurer - 2020
- 1827: Blue Jimmy - 2018
- 1859: Oscar Jackson lynched, precipitating the Wright County War - 2017
- 1952: Lloyd Edison Sampsell, the Yacht Bandit - 2016
- 1864: Thomas Dawson, manhood sealed - 2015
- 1683: Yaoya Oshichi, fire horse - 2014
- 1900: Bill Brown, Sonnie Crain and John Watson - 2013
- 1945: Ewald Ehlers lynched - 2012
- 1938: Yakov Peters, Siege of Sidney Street survivor - 2011
- 1644: Looters in conquered Beijing - 2010
- 1649: John Poyer, the lucky winner - 2009
- 1792: Nicolas Pelletier, Madame Guillotine's first kiss - 2008
Entry Filed under: 19th Century,Beheaded,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Execution,History,Power,Soldiers,Switzerland,Treason
Tags: 1800s, 1804, april 25, bockenkrieg, hans jakob willi, zurich
