English: An illustration on the Amstaldenhandel, an event in the history of the canton of Lucerne, Switzerland. The picture shows in the back, under the tree, Peter Amstalden in a conspirative meeting. In the foreground, an official of the city of Lucerne already records testimonies made under oath.

Amstalden, a wealthy innkeeper in de:Schüpfheim LU in the Entlebuch valley of the canton of Lucerne, was the leader of a planned rebellion of the valley against the city of Lucerne. In a plot to limit the power of the city, officials from the neighbouring canton of Obwalden had promised their support. The conspiracy was detected before they could stage the planned coup. On August 24, 1478, Amstalden was arrested, tortured and interrogated, and finally beheaded in November 1478.

The incident furthered the distrust amongst rural and urban cantons in the en:Old Swiss Confederacy and was one of the reasons for the conclusion of the Stanser Verkommnis in 1481, an important coalition treaty of the cantons of the Old Swiss Confederacy.[1] archive copy at the Wayback Machine,[2],[3]