Decline and Fall 213resign the command, provided that His Imperial Majesty will guarantee
his personal safety and arrange for him to be paid a sum of 300,000
Reichstaler’. This would have been no more than a down payment on
the huge Imperial debts due to Wallenstein, and indicates how short of
cash he was by this time. On 24 January Richel heard that Wallenstein
had written to the court that ‘after four months he would voluntarily
resign, meanwhile putting the army back on to a sound footing and
equipping it for the field. Thereafter he would present it to the king,
the emperor’s son, hand it over completely, help His Majesty into the
saddle, kiss the stirrup, and take himself off into retirement.’ Richel
did not name his source on this occasion, but it is known that Count
Max Waldstein, Wallenstein’s heir and often his confidential messen-
ger, was in Vienna at that time, although the flowery style, untypical
of Wallenstein’s usual correspondence, suggests some embroidery of
what he may actually have written. On 8 February Richel reported hear-
ing from Eggenberg himself that Wallenstein ‘had sent for his cousin
Maximilian, through whom he had recently offered the emperor his
resignation’. This series of reports from the well-connected Bavarian
vice-chancellor is clear evidence both that Wallenstein was indicating
his willingness to resign and that this message had been received at the
highest level in Vienna.^30
Condemned unheard
At court they were too busy planning how to dismiss Wallenstein to
give any consideration to his offers to resign. At first, however, this
was not treated as a matter of great urgency, and on 9 January Richel
reported despondently to Maximilian that things were going badly and
slowly, as key ministers were talking only of limiting the generalissi-
mo’s powers, while sharing the command between Wallenstein and the
emperor’s son was also being mooted as a solution. For Maximilian and
for Wallenstein’s enemies at court this was not enough, but their agita-
tion for more radical measures made little progress until two develop-
ments brought about an abrupt change of approach. First Piccolomini
reported secretly that Wallenstein planned an all-out attack on the
House of Austria, and then news of the Pilsen oath came at just the right
moment to appear to confirm this threat. In the resulting atmosphere of
crisis in Vienna ready credence was also given to rumours such as those
reported by Richel some days later, to the effect that Wallenstein was
in weekly correspondence with Richelieu, and that his representative
had had a seven-hour meeting with the cardinal and the French king