Wallenstein

wol'en-stin (1583-1634), a German soldier. He was a native of Bohemia, the heir of a Protestant family of high rank. He studied with the Jesuits and was converted to Catholicism. He attended the universities of Altdorf, Bologna, and Padua. In a war with Venice he was made a count and given the rank of colonel in the Austrian army. At the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, he was first and foremost in putting down the revolt of the Protestant Bohemians. As a reward he was permitted to enrich himself enormously with the confiscated estates of the Bohemian nobility. As the war progressed he became field-marshal of the empire and cooperated with the renowned Tilly. He overran Silesia, drove the Danes out of Germany, and fought the battle of Lutzen in which Gustavus Adolphus fell. His soldiers are said to have plundered or destroyed $400,000,000 worth of property. In the meantime, so signal had been his success, he had incurred the jealousy of the Austrian nobility and had been deprived of command temporarily. The facts appear to be that his own party, the Catholics, feared his wealth, his capacity for affairs, military skill, energy, and ambition. He was suspected of designs to make himself emperor. It was suspected that he aimed to make himself master of Europe, an early Napoleon Bonaparte as it were. He was known to be in correspondence with the Protestant forces, some aver to betray them; others claim to betray the Catholic cause. At all events the emperor was induced to make proclamation removing him from command and forbidding all forces to obey his orders. Wallenstein retired haughtily to the fortress of Eger, Bohemia. Here he was assassinated by a quartette of scoundrels, two Scotchmen and two Irishmen, on the night of February 25, 1634. The emperor rewarded them publicly. Wallenstein's fidelity or otherwise to the Catholic cause is one of the fiercely disputed questions of history. Schiller made him the subject of a series of three noted plays, Wallenstein's Camp, The Piccolomini, and Wallenstein's Death.