The Wheel Is Come Full Circle 135possibility, while after being at the centre of affairs for so long he could
not easily have turned his back completely on them, even had others
been prepared to allow him to do so.
That they were not is shown not only by the emperor’s eagerness
to seek Wallenstein’s advice and the efforts of the court to entice him
back into service, approaches which progressed during 1631 from hints
to requests to supplications, but also by the secret diplomacy which
they entrusted to him. In view of the long-standing rivalry and tension
between Sweden and Denmark, war with the former suggested that
there might be benefits in seeking improved relations with the latter.
Who better than Wallenstein to explore the possibility, given that he
was known to the Danes as having been a moderating influence on the
final terms offered at the peace of Lübeck in 1629? Vienna was happy
enough when he proposed to offer King Christian the opportunity to
buy sections of his own Mecklenburg territories – no great concession
on his part as the duchy was at that time already threatened by the
Swedes – but the emperor objected to Christian regaining the north
German bishoprics which he had been forced to give up at Lübeck.^23
Ferdinand’s opposition, ostensibly on religious grounds although he
also had his eye on one of the bishoprics for his son, proved to be the
stumbling block, and in the end nothing came of the contacts.
After the defeat at Breitenfeld the court turned to Wallenstein again,
recalling his friendship with his former field marshal Arnim, who
was by then commanding the new Saxon army. The Saxons had only
joined Gustavus as a last resort, and it therefore seemed worth trying to
entice them away with the offer of a separate peace. Again Wallenstein
accepted the commission, and he obtained a safe-conduct for Arnim to
visit him, but the plan was overtaken by events when the latter unex-
pectedly marched his army into Bohemia. Wallenstein did not wait in
Prague to receive him, but a private meeting did take place nearby at
the end of November, following which he reported on the discussions
to Eggenberg, although the details are not known. The Saxons duly
notified their Swedish allies of the meeting, but naturally they made
no mention of a separate peace, saying only that the possibility of an
overall settlement had been debated.^24
Contacts with the other side also took place earlier in 1631, a time
when the Bohemian exile groups, ever optimistic but rarely realistic,
thought that they saw a chance to involve Wallenstein in their schemes.
They were not particularly hostile towards him, apart from those whose
own properties he had acquired, as he had done no more than many
others following the defeat of the Bohemian revolt, and he had usually