132 Wallenstein
Intermezzo
Talk of Wallenstein’s recall began even before the ripples caused by his
dismissal had died down. Within two months Ferdinand began writing
to him again, and he did not hesitate to ask his ex-general’s advice
on military and political developments. Wallenstein responded in a
professional manner from his Bohemian retreat, but he ignored hints
that he should come to Vienna, which Questenberg attributed to his
‘infirmity, lack of inclination, and apprehensions about being pressed
to serve again’. Rumours nevertheless abounded, and many senior offic-
ers maintained a correspondence with Wallenstein which assumed that
his career was not over. In January 1631 his cousin Max wrote to him
that ‘Prince Eggenberg tells me that His Majesty and all the councillors
already recognise what they have lost in you’. By the spring Questenberg
was writing to him frankly: ‘We realise the wrong that we did, and we
regret it. ... Now people are seeing whether or not you were right with
your extravagant recruitment, and what we have come to in such a
short time with our penny-pinching economy.’ After Gustavus stormed
Frankfurt an der Oder in April he added that ‘we have made our own
bed, and now we must lie in it’. In May Ferdinand wrote to Wallenstein
personally, asking him to come to Vienna, where matters could better
be discussed, but still he made no move.^19 In the summer the military
situation deteriorated alarmingly, Saxony reluctantly threw in its lot
with the Swedes, and on 17 September Gustavus led their combined
forces to a spectacular victory over Tilly at Breitenfeld, near Leipzig. Still
Wallenstein remained deaf to the increasingly desperate messages from
Vienna. Within two months the Swedes were in Mainz and the Saxons
were in Bohemia, and on 15 November they took Prague. Two days
later Wallenstein agreed to meet Eggenberg, and a month afterwards he
was once again the emperor’s general, although he would accept only a
three-month appointment to reorganise the army.
Sixteen months between dismissal and reappointment briefly sum-
marised, but several questions left to answer. Why was Wallenstein
apparently so reluctant to return? Why in the end did he do so? What
was he doing in the meantime? The conspiracy theory has it that he was
biding his time, enjoying his revenge, and waiting for the situation to
become so bad that he would have to be re-engaged on his own terms.
Certainly, glad though he may have been to lay down the burdens of
command, he would have been less than human had he not felt some
bitterness. Nevertheless nothing in his extensive correspondence or
in any reliably reported statements betrays any resentment over his