A Scandal in Bohemia 33Frederick’s Bohemian pretensions were nevertheless not prepared to
see him deprived of his Palatinate, not least because of the precedent it
would set. Mansfeld had spent the winter after the defeat of the revolt
occupying Pilsen while unsuccessfully canvassing prospective new
employers, but Dutch subsidies had enabled Frederick to re-engage him
in the spring of 1621, so that he was in the field again on Bohemia’s
south-west frontier. In the east Bethlen launched a new attack, to the
north there was a rising in Silesia, led by a local nobleman, the margrave
of Jägerndorf, and both Bohemia and Moravia were simmering and
potentially ready to revolt again. In this crisis Maximilian’s Catholic
League army had to be deployed against Mansfeld, while Bucquoy
headed for Hungary to take on Bethlen and Wallenstein was appointed
to lead a force into Silesia.^14
This was a significant advancement for him, as although it carried
no formal higher rank it was his first independent command. Again it
was an assignment in which political considerations were as important
as military ones. Jägerndorf was to be defeated and his property seized,
but at the same time Silesia was to be pacified rather than inflamed,
order was to be restored, and the Estates were to be encouraged back to
the emperor’s side. Events dictated otherwise. Jägerndorf did not wait
to be attacked but marched off south-east into Moravia, aiming to join
up with Bethlen in Hungary. The Imperialists were already in difficul-
ties following a clash at Neuhäusel (Nové Zámky), east of Pressburg, in
which Bucquoy himself had been killed. With Moravia vulnerable and
disaffected, Wallenstein was diverted urgently to undertake its defence.
He reached Olmütz just in time to secure it and make it his base for the
rest of the 1621 campaigning season, during which time he raised more
troops and skirmished successfully enough with the Transylvanians to
prevent them from making further progress, but his force was never
strong enough to mount an offensive and drive them out. Then as win-
ter approached Bethlen once again negotiated a peace with the emperor
and went home with his booty.
Letters from this time show the approach to financing war which
was one of the fundamentals of Wallenstein’s later success. He found
a familiar situation in Olmütz, with unpaid and unfed troops stealing
and extorting whatever they could from the citizens and peasantry,
who in turn were in a state of unrest bordering on revolt. Wallenstein
believed in order and favoured the organised and disciplined raising of
taxes – later generally known as contributions – from town and country,
including the landowners, on something like an equitable basis accord-
ing to ability to pay. Cardinal Dietrichstein, acting Imperial governor