Bundesbriefe of the Old Swiss Confederacy. The treaty clearly established the league as a separate political entity that considered itself equal to and independent from the cities. The tax revolt had become an independence movement, based ideologically on the traditional Swiss founding legends, especially on the legend of William Tell. Legally, the peasants justified their assemblies and their union by the rights of old and in particular the Stanser Verkommnis of 1481, one of the important coalition treaties of the Old Swiss Confederacy. Though the Huttwil League was initially successful and forced Bern and Lucerne to sign peace treaties and grant concessions, on 3 June 1653 they were decisively defeated in the Battle of Wohlenschwil. Bernese troops then burned villages and crushed further resistance over the following month. Niklaus Leuenberger was beheaded and quartered at Bern on September 6, 1653; his head was nailed at the gallows together with one of the four copies of the Bundesbrief of the Huttwil League. After the war to modern times While the Swiss peasant war was unsuccessful, it forced Bernese authorities to reform the tax structure and respect the rights of the peasants. While Huttwil was the center of the revolt, it was not punished further by the authorities. Huttwil's location on the Bern-Lucerne road allowed it to continue to grow. While agriculture remained important, it became a regional market town and other industries began to develop. During the ancien regime period tensions rose between the well-off town citizens who owned much of the farming land and the poor sharecropper Tauner who worked the land and had few rights. Even the reforms of the 1798 French invasion and the Helvetic Republic failed to address the old power structure in the town. Finally in 1828, the citizens lost their special rights and the commons were divided between the former Tauner. Throughout the 19th century a number of factories and small shops opened in the town, including canvas weaving, spinning wool, horsehair spinning, knitting mills, tanneries, sawmills and furniture manufacturing. Today the manufacturing sector in Huttwil provides about one-third of all jobs in the municipality. On the night of 8/9 June 1834 much of the town was destroyed in a fire. The entire town was rebuilt according to plans from Bern's city architect, Johann Daniel Osterrieth. He planned a town center with three main roads around a central plaza with fountains. The streets were lined