(1583-1634)
[Illustration: Albrecht von Wallenstein. [TN]]
The declaration of the great founder of Christianity that he "came not
to bring peace, but a sword," receives its completest justification in
the history of Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Ignorant of the constitution of the human mind, and blind to the
absurdity of attempting to enforce opinion, the adherents of the old
and of the reformed faith, during these two hundred years, scarcely
sheathed their swords. The offenders, it is just to say, were
generally, but by no means invariably, the Catholics; and the
retaliation of the Protestants was seldom inferior in ferocity to the
offence received. The "Thirty Years' War" was the bloodiest, as
happily it was the last, scene in this great religious tragedy. The
greatest Catholic leader of this period was Wallenstein.
After a term of peace, consequent on the Diet of Augsburg in 1555,
which secured toleration to Protestantism in Germany, persecution
recommenced in 1578, under the weak Emperor Rudolph II. His cousin
Ferdinand, Duke of Styria, a pupil of the Jesuits, was the most deadly
foe of Protestantism, which had taken deepest root in Bohemia and
Transylvania. The incapacity and bigotry of the emperor at last
provoked his subjects to bring about his deposition, and, in 1610, he
was forced to abdicate in favor of his brother Matthias. He, though
himself tolerant, unwisely committed the government to Ferdinand,
whose tyranny in ordering the destruction of the Protestant churches
in Bohemia, led to the expulsion of his officers and the Jesuits, in
May, 1618, and the commencement of the Thirty Years' War. Matthias
died in the following year, and Ferdinand was elected emperor.
In 1619 the name of Wallenstein first became prominent. Albrecht von
Waldstein, as he was properly called, was the third son of a Bohemian
baron, of old family, and was born in September, 1583. As a boy, he
displayed signs of a singularly proud and independent temper, and
foreshowed his bent by the delight which he took in the society of
military men. His family was Protestant; but having lost his parents
when quite young, he was educated, by the wish of his guardians, at
the Jesuit college of Olmutz, and soon changed his faith. In Italy,
where he next studied, he made great advances in mathematics, law,
languages, and the delusive science of astrology, in which he was a
firm believer ever afterward. On his return to Germany, he fought in
the imperial army against the Turks, who invaded Hungary. He had
considerable estates in Bohemia, which were increased by his marriage,
in 1606, with a rich Moravian widow, who died in 1614, and left him
her property. In the peaceful occupation of farming he spent several
years, and acquired great wealth by his skill and economy. In 1617, he
took part in a campaign against the republic of Venice, with which
Ferdinand had quarreled, and, on the termination of the war in the
same year, was ennobled as Count. The lavish generosity of Wallenstein
during this war greatly endeared him to the army.
Such was his popularity that in 1619, on the Bohemian revolution
breaking out, he was offered by the insurgents the command of their
army, although a Catholic. But he steadily refused the offer, and
warmly espoused the imperial cause, upon which the Bohemians
confiscated his estates. He, however, soon retrieved his fortunes by a
second rich marriage, and the favor of the emperor. The Bohemians,
under their heroic leaders, the Counts von Mansfeldt and Thurn,
ventured to march upon Vienna, and threaten Ferdinand in his capital;
but Wallenstein, on June 10, 1619, gained a signal victory over their
army, and saved his master's throne. In the following year the
Bohemians and Hungarians formally renounced their allegiance; the
former setting up Frederick, Elector-Count Palatine of the Rhine, as
their king; and the latter, Bethlem Gabor, Prince of Transylvania.
Frederick, who was the son-in-law of James I. of England, was as unfit
to govern as his father-in-law, and spent his time in a frivolous
parade of his rank. He obtained but a doubtful support from the
Protestant princes in Germany, who were jealous of his popularity.
Ferdinand, assisted by Spain and other Catholic powers, sent a large
force into Bohemia, under the command of Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria,
and totally routed Frederick's army at Prague,--the king fleeing to
Breslau, and thence to Holland. The Palatinate was then declared
forfeited to the Empire, and was devastated by the Spanish commander,
Spinola. Wallenstein, during this campaign, spent his treasures in the
imperial cause with the utmost readiness and liberality, and obtained
as a reward the lordship of Friedland, which brought him a large
revenue. To this he added by the purchase of several forfeited estates
in Bohemia, and thus became possessed of immense wealth. In 1621-23 he
distinguished himself by defeating Bethlem Gabor, the new King of
Hungary, and forcing him to surrender his claim to the crown. For this
service Wallenstein was created Duke of Friedland.
A cruel persecution of the Protestants in Bohemia and Silesia
dishonored the emperor's success; and the attempt of his officers in
Austria to suppress Lutheranism by force, produced a revolution in
1625. It was put down by the energy of Tilly and Pappenheim, two of
the greatest generals of their day. The Count von Mansfeldt gallantly
upheld the Protestant cause in Westphalia, and other parts of Germany,
but was defeated by Tilly, who imposed Catholicism upon all the
revolted provinces. In their despair the German Protestants applied
for aid to their northern brethren. Gustavus Adolphus, the young and
brave King of Sweden, an ardent champion of the Reformed faith, and
Christian, King of Denmark, responded to their appeal,--the latter
immediately invading the Empire. The imperial finances being
considerably reduced by the war, Ferdinand was glad to avail himself
of an offer made at this crisis by Wallenstein, to levy an army at his
own cost. This offer was abundantly fulfilled. In a few months an army
of 30,000 men was collected, as if by magic. Wallenstein was enviously
suspected of being in league with the devil, but the secret of his
sway was the fascination of his bold and generous nature. He
maintained at once thorough toleration, and strict discipline in his
ranks. These results, however, were not attained without injustice.
Contributions were levied on the most fertile districts, as yet
undesolated by war, to the extent, as it is said, of $60,000,000 in
seven years. His popularity with the army procured him the jealousy of
Tilly, who, in the campaign of 1625-26, outrivalled him, by
successfully combating the invasion of Christian and his Danish
forces, and driving them beyond the Elbe. Wallenstein, nevertheless,
in the following campaign, won his laurels, both as a statesman and a
general, by his intrigues and conquests. Displaying the greatest ardor
in the cause of the Empire, he attempted to render it an absolute
despotism. After routing Count Mansfeldt on the Elbe, he marched into
Hungary, and defeated the united armies of the count and Bethlem
Gabor. Christian of Denmark having assembled a new army in 1628,
Wallenstein marched to meet it; and, by a series of brilliant
successes, recaptured all the towns garrisoned by the Danes, and
forced the king to sue for peace. At the Congress of Lubeck, in May,
1629, this was accorded on favorable terms to Denmark. Wallenstein
during these campaigns astonished his compeers, and excited their
envy, by the wondrous rapidity of his movements, and the skill with
which he surmounted difficulties that seemed insuperable. He was
rewarded with the duchy of Mecklenburg, which was forfeited to the
Empire by the treason of its former owner.
The envious schemes of Tilly and Maximilian, Duke of Bavaria, induced
Ferdinand to remove Wallenstein from his rank of commander in 1630. He
had hardly withdrawn to his Bohemian estates, when Gustavus Adolphus,
who had been hitherto prevented from affording active assistance to
the Protestant party, landed in Pomerania with a small but highly
disciplined army. This illustrious monarch, eminent for virtue and
piety, no less than for political wisdom and military skill, was now
the sole hope of the Reformation in Germany. The princes who professed
its tenets were lukewarm and unready,--divided by jealousies among
themselves, and careless of all but their own worldly interests. He,
on the contrary, was devoted to the cause of his faith, and his solemn
disavowal of personal ambition in undertaking its championship is
stamped with sincerity.
He soon commenced a career of conquest. New Brandenburg and other
districts yielded to his arms, and he formed an alliance with France,
now under the sway of Cardinal Richelieu, which the emperor had vainly
negotiated to prevent. The rich city of Magdeburg declared for him,
and was accordingly besieged by Tilly. The selfishness of the Lutheran
leaders, the Electors of Brandenburg and Saxony, in not responding to
the appeal of the Protestants in the city, led to its fall in 1631,
before Gustavus could reach it. The most atrocious cruelties were
perpetrated by the Catholics at the sack; no consideration of age or
sex availing to prevent the massacre, which lasted for two days, and
extended to 30,000 of the inhabitants. This monstrous crime was
severely avenged by the indignant Gustavus. He forced the Electors of
Brandenburg and Saxony to render him assistance, and, with an
augmented army, hesitated not to give battle to Tilly at Leipsic, and
defeated him September 7, 1631. The Protestants took courage and
joined Gustavus in great numbers. He continued his victorious march,
defeating the enemy at Merseberg, capturing Wurzburg, then advancing
on the Rhine, and reducing on the way Frankfort-on-the-Main, Mentz,
Spires, Mannheim, and other cities. He next turned to Bavaria, where
Tilly and Maximilian entrenched themselves at Rain-on-the-Lech. The
former was killed by a cannon-ball during the siege, in 1632. Gustavus
marched through Augsburg, where the citizens did him homage, and
besieged Munich, which speedily surrendered. He now threatened to
subdue Bavaria and Austria, when his progress was stopped from an
unexpected quarter.
The emperor, justly mistrusting the loyalty of Maximilian, who was in
league with France, now saw himself deprived of his ablest generals,
and felt his power failing. He turned to Wallenstein as the only man
who could save the Empire. That leader was meantime living in
retirement, and secretly glad of the success of Gustavus. He refused
at first to take the command of the imperial army, and only consented
at last on condition of having sole and absolute authority, with the
right of disposing as he pleased of his conquests. These humiliating
terms were accepted by Ferdinand, and in a few months after the death
of Tilly, Wallenstein was in the field with a large and powerful army,
raised, as before, by his own exertions. He drove the Saxons from
Bohemia, and thence marched to Leipsic, which capitulated. At
Nuremberg, where Gustavus offered him battle, he wisely refused, and
for three months the two camps remained close to each other, each
general trying to exhaust the patience of his adversary, and relying
on the destructive effects of famine and pestilence. Gustavus was
forced to withdraw, after losing 20,000 men; a yet heavier loss,
nevertheless, having befallen Wallenstein, whose numbers were better
able to bear it.
Gustavus marched southward, but soon returned to attack Wallenstein,
who had moved northward, and was pillaging the neighborhood of
Leipsic. The two armies met at Lutzen on November 6, 1632. A dense fog
shrouded the movements of each side from the other, and created a
fearful confusion. Wallenstein ranged his infantry in squares, having
a ditch in front, and flanked by his cavalry. Gustavus headed his men
and charged the enemy across the ditch. But his own infantry was borne
down by the black cuirassiers of Wallenstein, and, as he turned to
attack them, the thick fog concealed their approach. His horse was
wounded, and he himself had his arm broken. In moving off the field he
was shot in the back, and falling from his saddle was dragged in the
stirrup. He fell into the hands of the cuirassiers, one of whom, as
the Swedes came up to the succor of their king, shot him through the
head. His corpse was discovered after the battle, and honorably
buried. The death of their king caused the deepest affliction to the
Swedes, but aroused instead of enfeebling their courage. A charge of
the Duke of Weimar, one of the Protestant leaders, threw Wallenstein's
infantry and cavalry into disorder. An attempt of the Imperialist
General Pappenheim, who now came up with a reserve to retrieve the
battle, was for a time successful. But as the tide of fortune seemed
turning against the Swedes, a reserve of their own army made a last
desperate charge, carried the ditch which protected Wallenstein's
infantry, and won the day; the Imperialists fleeing in all directions
and their great leader escaping into Bohemia.
This defeat was the death-blow to Wallenstein's fortunate career. The
Swedes continued to carry on the war successfully under the able
minister of Gustavus, Oxenstiern, and the valiant Duke of Weimar.
Meantime Wallenstein, after some slight victories in Saxony and
Silesia, remained inactive. He at the same time assumed an air of
extreme pride and self-sufficiency, which exasperated his enemies and
gave occasion for their slanders. He was accused to Ferdinand of
designing to seize the Empire,--a charge which seemed the more
credible, on account of an offer having been made by France to assist
him in obtaining the Bohemian crown. This proposition, however, he had
firmly refused. The emperor's intention of removing him from the
command of the army having reached his ears, he declared he would
resign, but was persuaded to remain by his officers, who at a great
banquet, all, with wild and perhaps drunken enthusiasm, signed a
promise of inviolable attachment to his person. This, too, was
interpreted by his enemies as a conspiracy against the emperor. His
destruction was resolved on by the Duke of Bavaria and others, among
whom an Italian mercenary general, named Piccolomini, was the most
perfidious and savage. A plot was formed against him by certain
traitors among his own officers,--the names of Devereaux, Butler,
Gordon, and Leslie, to the shame of their nations, appearing in the
list.
On February 25, 1634, an entertainment was given to the whole body of
officers by Gordon, who commanded the castle of Eger, where
Wallenstein was residing. He himself being indisposed, had retired
from the table to his chamber. He was roused by loud cries proceeding
from the mess-room, where his faithful officers were being murdered by
the traitors. He opened the window to inquire the cause of the
disturbance, when Devereaux entered, with thirty Irishmen at his back.
The cowards shrank at the sight of their great general, standing calm
and stern, unarmed, and at their mercy. But Devereaux, a callous and
brutal soldier, in a moment stepped forward, and cried: "Art thou the
traitor who wilt ruin the Empire?" Wallenstein did not speak, but
opened his arms, as if to accept the blow which was aimed at his
heart. He was slain at the age of fifty-one. His wealth was chiefly
shared among his enemies.
[Illustration: Wallenstein's last banquet.]
Though undoubtedly ambitious and intriguing, Wallenstein's alleged
treachery to the emperor, whom he kept informed of all his schemes,
has never been proved, and by many recent historians is disbelieved.
He fell a victim to the jealousy of his rivals, which he augmented by
his own pride. His fall, however, reflects lasting disgrace on the
character of the Emperor Ferdinand, and was justly avenged by the
subsequent humiliation of the German Empire.