14 Wallenstein
post at court. On the contrary he sought no more than to become one
of many gentlemen of the chamber, whose main function was to pro-
vide a fitting entourage for the prince on progress, in the field or on
court occasions. This was a part-time and undemanding role but one in
which useful contacts could be made, and as his approach was success-
ful he accordingly went to Vienna in 1607.^15
His sponsor was Baron Karl Zierotin, who had married his sister
Katharina while Wallenstein was at the wars in 1604, and although
she had died of tuberculosis during the following year the two men
remained in contact. Almost twenty years older than Wallenstein,
Zierotin was one of the leading noblemen of Moravia, then attached to
the Bohemian crown but a constitutionally separate territory, and he
was both well connected and very rich. As a scholar, a leading mem-
ber of the Moravian Brethren and something of an elder statesman he
would not have given a testimonial lightly, so that although his letters
say the kind of things that references conventionally do his portrayal
of Wallenstein at the age of 23 is probably reasonably accurate: a young
gentleman replete with fine and laudable qualities, of excellent family,
with good manners, well educated and, considering his youth, sensible
and mature.^16 Zierotin also noted that Wallenstein was keen for more
military experience and would probably at some point seek leave to
serve in Flanders with Archduke Albrecht, another brother of Matthias
and Rudolf.
In the following year Wallenstein had his first fleeting involvement in
politics. In the early seventeenth century a number of significant flare-
ups arose from the underlying and growing tensions within the body
politic of Europe at large and the Holy Roman Empire in particular,
of which two particular areas of dissension are relevant here. Firstly
there was disarray in the Empire at the very top, as both Rudolf and
Matthias were not only ageing and childless – or at least without legiti-
mate heirs – but also at constant loggerheads. At best Rudolf was eccen-
tric and at worst verging on madness, while although sane Matthias was
scarcely more competent but considered himself far more suitable for
the top position. Their personalities and conflict both reflected and exac-
erbated the pressures on Catholic Habsburg leadership of the Empire,
foremost among these being the growing influence of Protestantism
in the political as well as the religious sphere. Hence the second impor-
tant matter was the agitation of the mainly Protestant nobility in the
territories of the Bohemian crown, agitation aimed at securing religious
liberties in terms which would also politically emasculate their king, a
role which Rudolf combined with that of emperor.