186 Wallenstein
during the Saxon occupation of Bohemia from late 1631 to mid-1632
had implicitly allied them with the rebels of 1618.^14 During that period
the skulls of those executed in 1621 had been removed from display
and interred, the Jesuits had been chased away and Protestant pastors
brought back, some former landowners had reoccupied their forfeit
properties, others had incited peasant riots on confiscated estates, and
all concerned had acted as though the defeat of the Bohemian revolt
had been permanently reversed. The leaders were mostly returning
exiles, many of whom held Swedish army commissions and hastily
departed when the Saxons withdrew, but there were others still with
property in Bohemia. These now found themselves facing similar pro-
ceedings to those of ten years earlier, and some two hundred confisca-
tions eventually followed. Wallenstein’s motive was his army’s need
for money, but his long-established dislike of rebellion may also have
played a part. The action was at least consistent with what had been
done previously, and on this occasion the losers were less able to argue
that they had not known what to expect.
Fruitless endeavours
Wallenstein’s initial military plan for 1633 was as cautious as that of
the previous year. He would make no move until his army was prop-
erly prepared, and he then intended to secure his rear by recovering
the Habsburg territory of Silesia before turning his attention to the
Swedish armies in the Empire. Arnim was still in Silesia with the Saxon
army, with Duke Franz Albrecht of Saxe-Lauenburg as his second-in-
command. Although a Protestant, Franz Albrecht had been an Imperialist
officer for ten years, five of them under Wallenstein, who knew and
liked him, but he had resigned his commission in 1631 before join-
ing the Swedes and fighting at Lützen, where he was in Gustavus’s
immediate entourage when the king was killed. Despite this he was
distrusted by the Swedes, and Oxenstierna regarded him as essentially
Wallenstein’s man. Alongside the Saxons in Silesia, and cooperating
closely with them although nominally independent, was a detachment
from Brandenburg under Colonel Burgsdorff, and there was also a small
Swedish army of around 6000 men, including many Bohemian émigré
officers and with Thurn in command. Opposing them were a number
of Imperialist regiments commanded by Gallas, but over the winter and
into spring 1633 neither side made any move against the other.
In mid-May Wallenstein was ready. His army, some 35,000 strong, had
been mustered at Königgrätz (Hradec Králové), 60 miles east of Prague,