A Scandal in Bohemia 25returned from active service on Ferdinand’s behalf at Gradisca, but
although the nobility were predominantly Protestant most of the princi-
pal Moravian offices were nevertheless held by Catholics, including two
of the three colonels commanding their troops.
Why did Wallenstein, a born Bohemian, become a firm opponent
of the Bohemian revolt – a question which has sometimes carried
the implication that his position was unpatriotic and dishonourable?
Such a view is based on an anachronistic concept of nationalism and
patriotism, one which developed later and which did not apply in the
early seventeenth century, when loyalties and duties remained personal
in a surviving feudal sense. Wallenstein had long since relinquished
his position in Bohemia to become a Moravian lord, landowner and
colonel, and he owed no legal or moral duty to the Bohemian Estates.
The same was true even in Moravia, as the Estates were neither the
state nor the government, the head of both being the emperor in his
capacity as margrave, and constitutionally the ultimate loyalty was due
to him. Many people in the Thirty Years War had to face conflicting
loyalties, particularly between their religion and their constitutional
duty, but Wallenstein had no such difficulty, as for him they led in the
same direction, as did his previous choice of Habsburg service, while
his personal outlook was also constitutionalist. Feudal landowners and
senior military officers tend to be supporters of established authority
and opposed to rebellion, and Wallenstein was no exception. Hence
he was bound to reject the Bohemian revolt and to side with Habsburg
legitimacy.
Wallenstein’s loyalty as a Moravian colonel was thus dependent on
Moravia’s continued loyalty to the emperor. Internally divided and
above all anxious to keep out of the conflict, the Moravians at this
stage preferred neutrality. As long as they made no direct break with
the emperor Wallenstein’s position remained tenable, but he lost no
time in preparing for their expected defection. In August 1618 he set
about raising money, 20,000 gulden from his own resources and a fur-
ther 20,000 borrowed.^2 In October he went to Vienna to offer to raise
a regiment of 1000 cuirassiers (heavy cavalry) in the Netherlands for
service in the spring under his own command. This was a welcome
proposition, in response to which Wallenstein received a provisional
appointment as an Imperial colonel, confirmed in February 1619 when
the regiment was ready, although he was still waiting in May for a
receipt for his 40,000 gulden loan to the emperor which had financed
the recruitment.^3 Meanwhile despite still being a Moravian colonel
he had started to cooperate unofficially with the Imperial forces in