Assassination Is the Quickest Way 239had already left and were held instead at Mies, where the general and
his escort had halted overnight only a week before. Ferdinand ordered
that Wallenstein’s body should be handed over to his relatives to bury
quietly where they pleased, but that the others were to be interred
where they were. Wallenstein had planned a mausoleum and crypt for
himself and his closest relatives in the Carthusian monastery which he
had founded at Walditz (Valdice), near Gitschin, but at the time of his
death the church was unfinished and the tomb not yet built, so that in
the meantime his body was temporarily laid to rest in Mies. The church
and crypt were eventually completed in 1636, and in May of that year
Wallenstein’s brother-in-law Cardinal Harrach, his widow Isabella and
Max Waldstein arranged for his body, in its rough wooden coffin, to be
moved to Walditz, travelling day and night under military escort. There
Wallenstein’s remains were immediately and privately buried, along-
side those of his first wife and infant son, which had been taken there
shortly before from their previous resting places.
In 1734 the Carthusians of Walditz commemorated the centenary of
the death of their founder, and ten years later they provided his remains
with an impressive pewter coffin. However in 1782 the monastery, like
many others, was dissolved as a result of reforms made by Emperor
Joseph II. A dispute then arose between two of Wallenstein’s direct
descendants, both wishing to claim the remains and to re-inter them in
their respective parts of the family property. This dragged on for three
years, but eventually, on 1 March 1785, the coffins were moved, with
great pomp and solemnity and in the presence of various descendants,
other nobility and curious onlookers. They were taken to the chapel of
Santa Anna, in the grounds of the baroque chateau at Münchengrätz
(Mnichovo Hradišteˇ, 40 miles north-east of Prague). Here Wallenstein’s
coffin was placed in a niche off the rear of the nave, with that of his
first wife and his infant son below it. Some years later they were moved
again, to a niche on the left side of the nave, which was subsequently
furnished with a substantial stone memorial plaque. This is still there to
be seen today, as the chateau is now a tourist attraction.^34