Federal Charter of 1291

The Federal Charter of 1291 is the Latin pact in which the people of the valley of Uri, the community of the valley of Schwiz and the mountaineers of the Lower Valley, later Unterwalden, bound themselves to mutual aid in the early days of August 1291. The historian W. D. McCrackan dates it seventeen days after the death of Rudolf of Habsburg on 15 July 1291 and calls it the first federal constitution of the Swiss Confederation. The communities promise help with person and goods against anyone who harms one of them, renew an older league, and accept the authority of each man's overlord. They agree to take no judge who bought his office or who is not a native or resident, to settle internal disputes through the most prudent among them, to punish deliberate killing with death and arson with permanent loss of standing, to limit seizure of goods for debt, and to bring those who defy a verdict to heel. The parchment survives in the archives of Schwiz, and the pact is declared to endure forever.