Konrad Grob’s painting of the 1386 Battle of Sempach shows Swiss hero Arnold von Winkel- ried sacrificially impaling himself on Austrian pikes to create a gap through which his comrades stormed and routed the enemy, killing Duke Leopold III and some 1,500 of his soldiers. While the decisive victory cemented the Old Swiss Confederacy, Winkelried’s very existence remains the subject of debate. / VBS