But Brutus Says He Was Ambitious 253and then the Swedes in 1633 was potentially possible, and Wallenstein’s
successors did inflict a crushing defeat on the Swedes at Nördlingen six
months after his death, although they did not anticipate how temporary
would be the effect of their victory. Had Wallenstein achieved such
successes in 1633 his standing would have soared to its highest level,
and the prospective personal rewards would have been commensurately
great, exceeding even what he had already gained. Instead he chose the
thankless and ultimately unsuccessful role of peacemaker. ‘Ambition’,
as Shakespeare’s Mark Antony said of Caesar, ‘should be made of sterner
stuff’. The search for peace, however, was never far from Wallenstein’s
strategy, and he summarised his view of the continuing conflict to
Arnim in December 1631: ‘As the evidence of this past fourteen years
of continuous war has more than sufficed to show, when most of the
country lies in ashes they will have to make peace.’^17 That is exactly
what happened – seventeen years later.