403 



WALLENSTEIN. 



WALLER, EDMUND. 



491 



numerous secret enemies changed their calumnies and intrigues into 

 open accusations. The Duke of Bavaria, Maximilian, was Waldstein'e 

 declared enemy. By the extraordinary success of the imperial arms, 

 the power and influence of the Ligue, of which Maximilian was the 

 head, had become secondary. Tilly hated Waldstein as his greatest 

 rival. The pride of the princes of the empire was hurt by the eleva- 

 tion of a general who, though a lord in Bohemia, was only a nobleman 

 of lower rank with respect to the nobility of the empire, and yet had 

 been raised to the dignity of duke of Mecklenburg ; and they re- 

 proached him with dispossessing the former dukes of Mecklenburg of 

 their estates, au act of injustice however for which the emperor was 

 perhaps more blameable than Waldstein. The despotic character of 

 Waldateiu, the haughtiness with which he treated both friends and 

 enemies, his rapacity in the provinces either conquered or merely 

 occupied by him, and the greediness of his officers and soldiers, were 

 the cause of many charges. Waldsteiu often endeavoured to stop the 

 rapacity of his lieutenants, and he severely punished several Italian 

 and Spanish officers, who in revenge called him ' il tiranno ' (the 

 tyrant). To this was added the aversion which Waldsteiu showed to 

 all foreigners, especially Italians and Spaniards, who crowded to the 

 court and the army; and his hatred of priests, and principally the/ 

 Jesuits, who were powerful at the imperial court. Maximilian of 

 Bavaria, at the head of all the enemies of Waldstein, declared to the 

 emperor that he and all Germany would be ruined if the " dictator 

 imperil" remained louger at the head of the imperial armies. Fer- 

 dinand, after long hesitation, dismissed Waldstein from his command 

 in 1630, at the very moment when Gustavus Adolphus left the coast 

 of Sweden for the invasion of Germany. 



Waldstein, without making any complaints, retired to Bohemia, and 

 resided alternately at Prague and at Gitschin. He lived with such 

 splendour as to make the emperor himself jealous. 



The invasion of Gustavus Adolphus, the defeat of the imperial 

 armies at Leipzig, the conquest of Bavaria by the Swedes, and the 

 death of Tilly, followed. The empire was on the brink of ruin, and 

 there was only one man who could save it. This man was Waldsteiu. 

 When the emperor requested and at last implored him to resume the 

 command, he showed that he felt all his importance. After having 

 declined the proposition several times, he at last agreed to it on the 

 following conditions : that Waldsteiu should have the sole control of 

 the army, which he promised to raise ; and there should be no imperial 

 authority within his camp ; no peace should be concluded without his 

 consent ; he, as duke of Mecklenburg, being one of the belligerent 

 parties ; he should have full power to manoeuvre and to take up his 

 quarters however and wherever he should find it convenient ; that he 

 should have the sovereignty of the provinces that he might conquer ; 

 and that the emperor should give him as reward one of his hereditary 

 states (Bohemia ?), of which he should be the sovereign, though as a 

 vassal of the emperor. 



The campaign of Waldstein against Gustavus Adolphus has been 

 noticed in the article GUSTAVUS ADOLPHUS. It would require the 

 knowledge of a consummate general to decide whether Waldsteiu or 

 Gustavus was the greater captain. But from the moment that Wald- 

 stein resumed the command, he directed all its operations, and 

 Gustavus Adolphus acted under the impressions which he received 

 from the plans of Waldstein. Waldstein's defence of the lines near 

 Niirnberg can only be compared with the defence of the lines of 

 Torres Vedras by the Duke of Wellington. The march of the King 

 of Sweden towards Bavaria, after his fruitless attempt on the lines 

 near Niirnberg, was a great fault ; and although the king soon per- 

 ceived his error, and changed his plan by rapidly following Waldstein, 

 this circumstance is another proof of what we have just said. It is 

 true that Waldstein lost the battle of Liitzen (6th November 1632), 

 but able judges have given it as their opinion that on this occasion 

 Waldstein showed his superiority to the king in the choice of the 

 battle-field, while the king is said to have showed greater ability in 

 the direction of his attacks. But the successful part of these attacks 

 was the merit of Duke Bernhard of Saxe- Weimar, the king having 

 fallen in the beginning of the battle, while engaged in rallying his 

 troops, which were disorganised in consequence of those fruitless 

 attacks which he directed. 



As to the military conduct of Waldstein after the battle of Liitzen, 

 we shall only add that he punished with death many generals, 

 colonels, and inferior officers who had not behaved well in that battle. 

 He soon repaired his losses, and his arms were victorious in Saxony 

 and Silesia. But his haughtiness became insupportable, and he openly 

 manifested his design to make himself a powerful member of the 

 empire. This design had been sanctioned by the emperor, as already 

 explained. The Jesuits and foreign generals at the court of the 

 emperor availed themselves of the inactivity of Waldstein after the 

 battle of Liitzen to calumniate him to the emperor ; and Waldstein 

 having refused to relieve the Duke of Bavaria, preferring a campaign 

 in Silesia, this prince, his old enemy, joined the secret enemies of 

 Waldstein. They represented him as designing to overthrow Ferdi- 

 nand's power in Germany, and the emperor was the more ready to 

 believe the accusation, as it transpired that France had offered to 

 Waldstein to aid him in obtaining the crown of Bohemia ; but Wald 

 stein rejected these propositions, and continued to show his earnest 

 desire to drive all foreigners out of Germany, enemies as well as 



friends. The emperor ordered him to withdraw from Bohemia and 

 Moravia, and to take up his winter-quarters in Lower Saxony (Decem- 

 ber 1633); but Waldstein neither would nor could obey this order, 

 which he regarded as a violation of the conditions on which he had 

 resumed the command. Upon this Maximilian of Bavaria urged the 

 emperor to dismiss his disobedient general; and Waldstein, having 

 been informed that the emperor had resolved to do it, declared that he 

 would resign his command. His faithful lieutenants urged him not 

 to abandon them, for they were all creditors of the emperor, who paid 

 them very irregularly, and they were sure that they would never be 

 paid at all if their commander should resign. In order to prove their 

 invariable attachment, they signed a declaration at Pilsen, on the 12th 

 of January 1 634, in which they promised to stay with Waldstein as 

 long as he would be their commander. This is the famous declaration 

 which has always been represented as a plot against the emperor. 

 Piccolomini, Gallas, and several other Italian and Spanish officers 

 availed themselves of the occasion to ruin Waldstein, whose wealth 

 they were eager to divide among themselves ; and the emperor, believ- 

 ing their misstatements, signed an order by which Waldstein was 

 deprived of his command and declared a rebel (24th of January). 

 Piccolomini and Gallas were commissioned to take Waldstein, dead or 

 alive. The order was kept secret, but something transpired, and 

 Waldstein, in order to prove his loyalty, relieved his lieutenants from 

 their promise to stay with him till the last moment (20th of February). 

 On the following day he sent two officers, Colonels Mohrwald and 

 Breuner, to the emperor to declare in his name that he was ready to 

 resign, and to justify his conduct ; but Colonel Butler, an Irishman, 

 treacherously informed Piccolomiui of it, and the two officers were 

 seized and not allowed to see the emperor, who was still deceived by 

 the enemies of Waldstein. On the 20th of February the emperor 

 ordered Waldstein's estates to be confiscated; and Pallas and Piccolo- 

 mini approached Pilsen for the purpose of surprising Waldstein. 

 In this extremity Waldstein took refuge within the walls of Eger ; 

 and in order to save his life, sent Duke Franz Albrecht of Saxe-Lauen- 

 burg to Duke Bernhard of Weimar, requesting him to receive him 

 with a small body of faithful officers and soldiers. Bernhard, as well 

 as the Swedish chancellor Oxenstierna, declined the proposition, 

 thinking that it was only a trick. During this time Waldstein 

 remained in the castle of Eger. He was accompanied by his most 

 faithful officers, among whom were Terzky, Kinsky, Illo, Neumann, and 

 some traitors, such as Gordon, Butler, and Leslie, who were bribed by 

 Piccolomini, and had promised to execute the bloody order of the 

 emperor. 



On the 25th of February, Gordon, who was commandant of Eger, 

 gave a splendid entertainment to Waldstein's officers, at which the 

 duke was not present on account of his ill-health. After dinner an 

 armed band rushed in, and the friends of Waldstein fell beneath their 

 swords. Waldstein heard the cries of the murdered men. He opened 

 a window and asked a sentinel what it meant. Suddenly Captain 

 Deveroux, at the head of thirty Irishmen, rushed into his apartment ; 

 and while his men shrunk back at the sight of their great commander, 

 who stood before them defenceless and in his night-dress, Deveroux 

 advanced and cried out, " Art thou the traitor who is going to ruin 

 the emperor ? " With these words he lifted his partisan. Waldstein, 

 without uttering a word, opened his arms and received the deadly 

 blow in his breast. He was always thoughtful, and spoke little, and 

 so he was in his last moment : he fell and died silently. 



His wealth was partly divided among his enemies, each of whom 

 received a large share, for the revenue of Waldstein was estimated at 

 3,000,000 gulden (375,0002., or 1,125,0002. according to the present 

 value of money.) Part of his estates were kept by the emperor, who 

 paid for 3000 dead masses to be read for the soul of his great general. 



Almost to the present time it has generally been believed that 

 Waldstein formed those treasonable schemes of which he was accused 

 by his enemies ; but the treason of Waldstein has never been proved. 

 About thirty years ago, Dr. Friedrich Foster from Berlin discovered 

 many autograph letters of Waldstein in the family archives of the 

 Count of Arnim, at Boitzenburg, in consequence of which discovery 

 he was admitted, by order of the emperor Francis I., to the secret 

 part of the archives of the military council at Vienna, which had 

 hitherto not been used by the biographers of Waldstein and the 

 writers on the Thirty Years' War. Foster found a considerable 

 number of letters, which he published under the title ' Waldstein's 

 Briefe,' 3 vols. 8vo, Berlin, 1828-29. Having been invited by the 

 counts of Waldstein, who are descended from the brothers and uncles 

 of Albrecht, to continue his researches, he was enabled to prove the 

 complete innocence of Waldstein, and that he had fallen a victim to 

 the intrigues of Piccolomini and his party. He published his results 

 under the title ' Wallenstein, Herzog zu Mecklenburg, Friedland, und 

 Sagan, als Feldherr und Landeafurst,' &c., 1 vol. 8vo, Potsdam, 1834. 



WALLER, EDMUND, a celebrated English poet, was born on the 

 3rd of March, 1605, at Coleshill, in the county of Hertford. His 

 father, Robert Waller, Esq., of Agmondesham, or Amersham, in 

 Buckinghamshire, in which parish Coleshill is situated, represented a 

 branch of an old Essex family, and had in early life followed the pro- 

 fession of the law. Edmund was the eldest of several sons and 

 daughters, but he was still in his boyhood when his father died, 

 leaving him an estate of 35002. a-year. Waller's mother was Anne 



