The Forest Cantons are the three mountain communities of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden, bound in the play by local self-government and a mutual commitment to resist oppressive rule. They are more than a regional backdrop: their inherited rights define what the communities believe they owe to higher authority, while their shared pledge turns separate valleys into a collective political force.

Identity and Setting

The play identifies the Forest Cantons as the mountain territories whose people have preserved their freedom and governed themselves under their own laws and ancient usages. The final text of the bond names the men of the Dale of Uri, the Community of Schwyz, and the men of the mountains of Unterwalden, giving the confederation a concrete basis in communities rather than in an abstract territory alone.

Their setting is repeatedly shaped by the physical force of the landscape. A stage direction marks a change in the scene: a rumbling, cracking noise comes from among the mountains as cloud shadows sweep across it. In another episode, thunder and wind accompany a rising lake, making passage an immediate danger. These natural events give the region a changing, perilous stage environment; the weather is not simply scenery but a force that bears directly on movement and safety.

Rights and Political Status

The Cantons’ claim to freedom is presented as compatible with a limited relationship to imperial authority. Their people say they sought the protection of the Holy Roman Empire freely, and that it was freely granted, as recorded in Emperor Frederick’s charter. The account distinguishes that protection from submission to a prince: the communities had not bowed the knee to princes, and continued to rule themselves in peace through their own laws and usages.

That autonomy nevertheless existed within a layered legal order. The emperor retained the right to adjudge the penalty of death and therefore appointed a powerful noble as his delegate. The arrangement makes the political conflict a dispute over the reach of authority: imperial protection and a supreme judge are acknowledged, but the authority of local law and self-government is not thereby surrendered. The Cantons’ resistance is framed as an effort to preserve established rights, not as a rejection of every form of higher jurisdiction.

Alliance and Strategy

When the prospect of Austrian rule becomes pressing, the Cantons’ leaders describe their purpose as shaking off a hated thraldom and keeping their ancient rights inviolate. The proposed limit on their action is explicit: they will do what necessity requires, but nothing further. They intend to expel the tyrants and their agents and to destroy their strongholds, presenting armed action as directed against coercive rule and its material supports.

The alliance also imposes a practical order on that plan. Rossberg Castle and Sarnen must first be secured; until then, drawing a sword in either Canton would expose the cause to danger. The sequence matters: the Cantons must address the fortified positions that shield their opponents before openly committing to wider conflict. Their shared undertaking is stated as reciprocal obligation: the three Cantons are pledged to hunt the tyrants from the land, making collective defence a promise among the communities as well as a military objective.

Landscape, Conflict, and Significance

The region’s terrain gives the political struggle its routes and chokepoints. A scene is set at the pass near Küssnacht, sloping down between rocks, where travellers are first visible on the heights before appearing onstage. Elsewhere, a traveller reports that heavy rains have flooded the streams and swept away all the bridges, disrupting the expected journey of the governor. These details show how passes, bridges, and high ground condition movement through the Cantons and can alter the timing of an encounter.

The Forest Cantons’ significance rests on the conjunction of place, law, and mutual commitment. Mountain valleys sustain distinct local usages; imperial arrangements provide a framework without erasing them; and the bond joins the communities when that balance is threatened. The play’s weather and rugged routes make their geography a real constraint, while their pledge gives that dispersed landscape a shared political direction.