60 Wallenstein
casually in the very next sentence: ‘Because the years thus far into the
future cause no particular unease of mind, I for my part have no time
at present to continue with these toilsome and far-reaching details,
so I will let the matter rest there.’^14
Kepler’s revised horoscope has been quoted at some length to show
that Wallenstein can have been under no illusions thereafter about the
limitations of astrology as defined by the leading practitioner of the age.
Equally clear was the latter’s view of ‘young astrologers who believe
in and take pleasure in games of this kind’ and ‘those who wish to be
deceived with open eyes’ by referring to them.^15 This has not prevented
biographers from writing as though Wallenstein treated Kepler’s very
cautious new prognostications as his oracle and vade-mecum. Diwald
claimed that ‘he time and again carefully noted the differences in the
particulars of his actual life against the astrologically calculated coordi-
nate system of Kepler’s’. Mann was categorical: ‘Wallenstein disregarded
alike the phantasmagoria and the impertinences of Kepler’s appraisal.
He heeded only the “revolutions”, henceforth comparing them year
by year with actual events. His notes in the margin of the horoscope
prove it.’^16
There are a number of problems with this interpretation. Firstly there
are only seven extremely brief marginal notes, and they deal exclu-
sively with very public matters in which Wallenstein was involved,
major events in the war and the pledging to him of the duchies of
Sagan (Z ̇agan ́ ) and Mecklenburg, things which would have been widely
known.^17 Secondly the notes are made only against the astrological data
and not against any of the forecasts. Thirdly the manuscript on which
the notes are to be found comes not from Wallenstein’s papers but from
Kepler’s. Fourthly the last note refers to January 1630, the year in which
Kepler died, although Wallenstein lived another four eventful years.
Lastly it is well established that Kepler himself made marginal notes
of actual events against the annual revolutions on his own horoscope,
which he prepared in 1595, and that he continued this practice to the
end of his life.^18 Furthermore in the notes which Wallenstein made for
Kepler on the original horoscope he referred to essentially personal
matters, his marriages, illnesses and military appointments, none of
which are mentioned in these later notes although he had illnesses and
military appointments enough. It is also hard to believe that if he was
comparing events with the planets he would not have recorded the
birth of his only son and heir in December 1627 – probably the most
eagerly awaited occurrence in the life of a nobleman and landowner in
this period – or the child’s death a few months afterwards.