At the Parting of the Ways 109and warning of widespread opposition in the Empire.^10 These reser-
vations were accentuated by the thought that the beneficiary was to
be the Bohemian upstart Wallenstein rather than, as had been the case
with Frederick of the Palatinate, the ancient and prestigious line of the
duke of Bavaria, but when all was said and done financial realities pre-
vailed, so the general acquired the duchy.
Why did Wallenstein want Mecklenburg? The most pressing reason
was his need of money. Trying to drum up cash, whether from contribu-
tions or elsewhere, was a permanent struggle as he juggled with expend-
iture priorities, loans and repayments. In part this was his own fault,
as he was spending increasingly extravagantly on his large retinue and
ambitious building plans at Friedland, but personal expenditure was
very much secondary to the burden of funding a vast army with little
help from the Imperial exchequer. The emperor had no cash with which
to pay his debts, so if Wallenstein was to get anything at all, property
it had to be. Mecklenburg would at least bring in a future income, and
whereas the emperor’s promissory notes were by now almost worth-
less as collateral the lands of the duchy might be used to raise further
loans. To this pressing current need we can probably add a hard-headed
assessment by Wallenstein that if he was ever to secure settlement from
Ferdinand he had to take what was available, and while it was available.
Should the war end, repayment might well be indefinitely deferred.
Security was a likely second consideration for the perennially inse-
cure Wallenstein. Additional and geographically separate lands reduced
the chances of losing them all in some future reversal of military or
political fortune. Military security was also relevant, as the safety of the
Empire was also Wallenstein’s own security in possession of his estates.
Mecklenburg in his hands would not offer Gustavus Adolphus the sup-
port its dukes had given to Christian of Denmark, and its ports would be
closed to him, whereas they would become available for the Habsburg
Baltic navy Wallenstein was trying to establish. This was also a consid-
eration for Ferdinand, who had no friends among the Protestant princes
of north Germany, so that substituting the loyal Wallenstein for the
hostile dukes of Mecklenburg had the same attraction as his policy of
replacing Bohemian rebels with a new nobility of his own creation.
Putting ambition for personal aggrandisement in third place may not
conform to the traditional interpretation, but although Wallenstein
doubtless had such aspirations he was first and foremost a practical
man. Money and security were necessary before ambitions could be
achieved and enjoyed, but the weight he attached to the title and status
of Mecklenburg should nevertheless not be underestimated. Certainly