But Brutus Says He Was Ambitious 249Historiography has retained this initial image, but generally without cit-
ing any specific evidence to sustain it, implicitly relying on the reverse
logic that because he was so successful he must by definition have been
inordinately ambitious. In fact, as has been indicated at relevant stages
in this book, each step in Wallenstein’s upward progress had an inherent
logic independent of personal ambition, while the further aims attrib-
uted to him were contemporary speculations or the malicious inven-
tions of his enemies.
Wallenstein was conventionally ambitious for his time and class in
aspiring to an advantageous marriage, but he pursued neither of the
other routes to self-betterment potentially available to him as a younger
man. Many noblemen of quite elevated status made careers in the
service of the yet more elevated, including most of those who have been
mentioned among Ferdinand’s councillors. Prince Christian of Anhalt-
Bernburg rose high in the service of the electors of the Palatinate, and
Wallenstein himself later numbered counts among the senior officials
of his household. Gentlemen of his initial status could and did advance
in rank and possessions by this route, but although he set his foot
on the lower rungs of the ladder with Matthias there is no indication
that he made any effort to progress further. The alternative career of a
professional soldier was also open to both noblemen and gentlemen
long before the start of the Thirty Years War. Among the former to pur-
sue it were Tilly, Arnim and Franz Albrecht of Saxe-Lauenburg, while
Aldringer was only one of a number who achieved high rank despite a
more modest background. Again Wallenstein made a start but went no
further until pressed by changing political circumstances.
Wallenstein’s actions following the spread of the Bohemian revolt to
Moravia bear the hallmarks not of ambition but of the man of action
responding to a new, challenging and personally threatening situation.
Rather than await events in the hope of escaping the worst he chose
to show his colours and to take his fate into his own hands, exhibiting
publicly for the first time the foresight and competence which were the
characteristics of his subsequent career. He employed the same qualities
to good effect in his property dealing following the defeat of the revolt,
but this nevertheless has to be seen as opportunism rather than simple
ambition, as such circumstances could not have been foreseen, still less
engineered. Doubtless there was an element of ambition underlying the
subsequent elevation of Friedland into a principality, although social
aspiration might be a more appropriate term, and the move also had
much to do with Ferdinand’s need to create a new and personally loyal
aristocracy in Bohemia.