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WALLENSTEIN (properly WALDSTEIN), ALB...
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See also:WALLENSTEIN (properly WALDSTEIN), ALBRECHT See also:WENZEL See also:EUSEBIUS VON , See also:duke of See also:Friedland, See also:Sagan and See also:Mecklenburg (1583-1634), See also:German soldier and statesman, was See also:born of a See also:noble but by no means wealthy or influential See also:family at Herrmanic, Bohemia, on the 15th of See also:September 1583. His parents were See also:Lutherans, and in See also:early youth he attended the school of the See also:Brothers of the See also:Common See also:Life at Koschumberg. After the See also:death of his parents he was sent by his See also:uncle, Slawata, to the Jesuit See also:college of nobles at See also:Olmutz, after which he professed, but hardly accepted, the See also:Roman See also:Catholic faith. In 1599 he went to the university of See also:Altdorf, which he had to leave in consequence of some boyish follies. Afterwards he studied at See also:Bologna and See also:Padua, and visited many places in See also:southern and western See also:Europe. While in Padua he gave much See also:attention to See also:astrology, and during the See also:rest of his life he never wavered in the conviction that he might See also:trust to the stars for indications as to his destiny. For some See also:time Wallenstein served in the See also:army of the See also:emperor See also:Rudolph II. in See also:Hungary, which was commanded by a methodical professional soldier, Giorgio Basta. His See also:personal gallantry at the See also:siege of Gran won for him a See also:company without See also:purchase. In 16o6 he returned to Bohemia, and soon afterwards he married an elderly widow, See also:Lucretia Nikossie von See also:Landeck, whose See also:great estates in See also:Moravia he inherited after her death in 1614. His new See also:wealth enabled him to offer two See also:hundred See also:horse, splendidly equipped, to the See also:archduke See also: In the disturbances which See also:broke out in Bohemia in 1618 and proved to be the beginning of the See also:Thirty Years' War, advances
were made to Wallenstein by the revolutionary party; but he preferred to See also:associate himself with the imperial cause, and he carried off the treasure-See also:chest of the Moravian estates-to See also:Vienna, See also:part of its contents being given him for the equipment of a See also:regiment of See also:cuirassiers. At the See also:head of this regiment Wallenstein won great distinction under Buquoy in the war against See also:Mansfeld. He was not See also:present at the See also:battle of the Weisser See also:Berg, but he did brilliant service as second-in-command of the army which opposed See also:Gabriel See also:Bethlen in Moravia, and recovered his estates which the nationalists had seized. The battle of the Weisser Berg placed Bohemia at the See also:mercy of the emperor Ferdinand, and Wallenstein turned the prevailing confusion to his own See also:advantage. He secured the great estates belonging to his See also:mother's family, and the emperor sold to him on easy terms vast tracts of confiscated lands. His possessions he was allowed to See also:form into a territory called Friedland, and he was raised in 1622 to the See also:rank of an imperial count See also:palatine, in 1623 to that of a See also:prince. In 1625 he was made duke of Friedland. Meantime he fought with skill and success against Gabriel Bethlen, and so enhanced his reputation at the dark moment when Vienna was in peril and the emperor's See also:general Buquoy dead on the See also: When the war against the Bohemians had become a wide-spread conflagration, Ferdinand found he had no forces to oppose to the Danes and the See also:Northern Protestants other than the Army of the See also:League, which was not his, but the powerful and See also:independent See also:Maximilian's, See also:instrument. Wallenstein saw his opportunity and early in 1626 he offered to raise not a regiment or two, but a whole army for the imperial service. After some negotiations the offer was accepted, the understanding being that the troops were to be maintained at the cost of the countries they might occupy. Wallenstein's popularity soon brought great See also:numbers of recruits to his See also:standard. He soon found himself at the head of 30,000 (not See also:long afterwards of 50,000) men. The See also:campaigns of this army in 1625, 1626 and 1627, against Mansfeld, the Northern Protestants and Gabriel Bethlen, are described under THIRTY YEARS' WAR.
Having established See also:peace in Hungary, Wallenstein proceeded, in 1627, to clear See also:Silesia of some remnants of Mansfeld's army; and at this time he bought from the emperor the duchy of Sagan, his outlay in the conduct of the war being taken into See also:account in the conclusion of the bargain. He then joined See also:Tilly in the struggle with See also:Christian IV., and afterwards took See also:possession of the duchy of Mecklenburg, which was granted to him in See also:reward for his services, the hereditary See also:dukes being displaced on the ground that they had helped the Danish See also: At the same time the victory of the principles of the League involved the fall of Wallenstein's influence. By his ambitions, his high dreams of unity and the incessant exactions of his army, he had made for himself a See also:host of enemies. He was reported to havespoken of the arrogance of the princes, and it appeared probable that he would try to bring them, Catholics and Protestants alike, into rigid subjection to the See also:crown. Again and again the emperor was advised to dismiss him. Ferdinand was very unwilling to part with one who had served him so well; but the demand was pressed so urgently in 163o that he had no alter-native, and in September of that See also:year envoys were sent to Wallenstein to announce his removal. Had the emperor declined to take this course, the princes would probably have combined against him; and the result would have been a See also:civil war even more serious than that which had already brought so many disasters upon the See also:country. Wallenstein perfectly understood this, and he therefore accepted the emperor's decision calmly, gave over his army to Tilly, and retired to See also:Gitschin, the See also:capital of his duchy of Friedland. There, and at his See also:palace in See also:Prague, he lived in an See also:atmosphere of mysterious magnificence, the rumours of which penetrated all See also:Germany. The enigma of his projects was intensified, and the princes who had secured his disgrace became more suspicious than ever. But ere long the emperor was forced by events to See also:call him into the field again. Shortly before the dismissal of Wallenstein, Gustavus See also:Adolphus had landed in Germany, and it soon became obvious that he was far more formidable than the enemies with whom the emperor had yet had to contend. Tilly was defeated at See also:Breitenfeld and on the See also:Lech, where he received a mortal See also:wound, and Gustavus advanced to See also:Munich, while Bohemia was occupied by his See also:allies the See also:Saxons. The emperor entreated Wallenstein to come once more to his aid. Wallenstein at first declined; he had, indeed, been secretly negotiating with Gustavus Adolphus, in the See also:hope of destroying the League and its projects and of See also:building his new Germany without See also:French assistance. However, he accepted Ferdinand's offers, and in the See also:spring of 1632 he raised a fresh army as strong as the first within a few See also:weeks and took the field. This army was placed absolutely under his See also:control, so that he assumed the position of an independent prince rather than of a subject. His first aim was to drive the Saxons from Bohemia—an See also:object which he accomplished without serious difficulty. Then he advanced against Gustavus Adolphus, whom he opposed near See also:Nuremberg and after the battle of the Alte Veste dislodged. In See also:November came the great battle of See also:Lutzen (q.v.), in which the imperialists were defeated, but Gustavus Adolphus was killed. To the dismay of Ferdinand, Wallenstein made no use of the opportunity provided for him by the death of the See also:Swedish king, but withdrew to See also:winter quarters in Bohemia. In the See also:campaign of 1633 much astonishment was caused by his apparent unwillingness to attack the enemy. He was in fact preparing to See also:desert the emperor. In the war against the Saxons he had offered them as terms of peace the revocation of the Edict. Religious See also:toleration and the destruction of the separatist regime, as well as not inconsiderable aggrandisements for his own power, formed his See also:programme, so far as historians have been able to reconstruct it, and becoming convinced from Ferdinand's obstinacy that the Edict would never be rescinded, he began to prepare to " force a just peace on the emperor in the interests of See also:united Germany." With this object he entered into negotiations with See also:Saxony, See also:Brandenburg, See also:Sweden and See also:France. He had vast and vague schemes for the reorganization of the entire constitutional See also:system of the See also:empire, and he himself was to have supreme authority in determining the See also:political destinies of his country. But as the See also:mere See also:commander of mercenaries he was trusted by no one, and could only See also:play the part of See also:Cassandra to the end. Irritated by the distrust excited by his proposals, and anxious to make his power See also:felt, he at last assumed the offensive against the Swedes and Saxons, winning his last victory at Steinau on the See also:Oder in See also:October. He then resumed the negotiations. In See also:December he retired with his army to Bohemia, fixing his head-quarters at See also:Pilsen. It had soon been suspected in Vienna that Wallenstein was playing a See also:double part, and the emperor, encouraged by the Spaniards at his court, anxiously sought for means of getting rid of him. Wallenstein was well aware of the designs formed against him, but displayed little See also:energy in his attempts to thwart them. This was due in part, no doubt, to See also:ill-See also:health, in part to the fact that he trusted to the assurances of his astrologer, Battista See also:Seth. He also felt confident that when the time came for his army to decide between him and the emperor the decision would be in his own favour. His See also:principal See also:officers assembled around him at a banquet on the 12th See also:January 1634, when he submitted to them a See also:declaration to the effect that they would remain true to him. This declaration they signed. More than a See also:month later a second See also:paper was signed; but on this occasion the officers' expression of See also:loyalty to their general was associated with an equally emphatic expression of loyalty to their emperor. By this time Wallenstein had learned that he must See also:act warily. On the 24th of January the emperor had signed a See also:secret patent removing him from his command, and imperial agents had been labouring to undermine Wallenstein's influence. On the 7th two of his officers, See also:Piccolomini and See also:Aldringer, had intended to seize him at Pilsen; but finding the troops there loyal to their general, they had kept quiet. But a patent charging Wallenstein and two of his officers with high See also:treason, and naming the generals who were to assume the supreme command of the army, was signed on the See also:lath of See also:February, and published in Prague.
When Wallenstein heard of the publication of this patent and of the refusal of the See also:garrison of Prague to take his orders, he realized the full extent of his danger, and on the 23rd of February, accompanied by his most intimate See also:friends, and guarded by about moo men, he went from Pilsen to See also:Eger, hoping to meet the Swedes under Duke Bernhard, who, at last convinced of his sincerity, were marching to join him. After the arrival of the party at Eger, See also:Colonel See also:Gordon, the commandant, and Colonels See also: Wallenstein was tall, thin and See also:pale, with reddish See also:hair, and eyes of remarkable brilliancy. He was of a proud and imperious See also:temper, and was seldom seen to laugh. He worked hard and silently. In times of supreme difficulty he listened carefully to the See also:advice of his counseliors, but the final decision was always his own, and he rarely revealed his thoughts until the moment for See also:action arrived. Few generals have surpassed him in the power of quickly organizing great masses of men and of inspiring them with confidence and See also:enthusiasm. But it is as a statesman that Wallenstein is immortal. However much or little motives of personal aggrandisement influenced his schemes and his conduct, " Germany turns ever to Wallenstein as she turns to no other amongst the leaders of the Thirty Years' War. . . . Such faithfulness is not without See also:reason... . Wallenstein's wildest schemes, impossible of See also:execution by military violence, were always built upon the See also:foundation of German unity. In the way in which he walked that unity was doubtless unobtainable. . But during the long dreary years of confusion which were to follow it was something to think of the last supremely able See also:man whose life had been spent in battling against the great evils of the land, against the spirit of religious intolerance and the spirit of See also:division." See See also:Forster, Albrecht von Wallenstein (1834); Aretin, Wallenstein (1846); Helbig, Wallenstein and See also:Arnim, 1632-1634 (1850), and Kaiser Ferdinand and der See also:Herzog von Friedland, 1633-i634 (1853) Hurter, Zur Geschichte Wallensteins (1855); Fiedler, Zur Geschichte Wallensteins (186o); L. von See also:Ranke, Geschichte Wallensteins (3rd ed., 1872); See also:Gindely, Geschichte See also:des dreissigiahrigen Kriegs (1869); J. See also:Mitchell, Wallenstein (184o) ; S. R. See also:Gardiner, Thirty Years' War. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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