Some Achieve Greatness 69A series of letters which she wrote to him has survived, and in these
the formality of address of the time is combined with evident affection
and anxiety about his welfare, suggesting a relationship which was
more than merely dutiful. It is known that he replied regularly and
that she kept his letters until her own death many years later, although
unfortunately they have not been traced, but there are a number of
letters to Harrach in which Wallenstein exhibited great concern for his
wife’s well-being and safety during the turmoils of war, as well as mak-
ing more personal references indicating a bond between them. Later in
1623, with Bethlen on the advance with a large army and Wallenstein
himself besieged in a small Moravian town, he made repeated requests
for her to be moved out of harm’s way, eventually sending Harrach
‘a hundred thousand thanks’ for getting her out of Prague, ‘so that I am
relieved of my greatest worry’. He was certainly a dutiful husband and
evidently able to inspire affection, which suggests that he was also able
to respond to it, but no more can confidently be said on the basis of the
limited evidence available.^1
During 1623 Wallenstein also found other ways of improving his
standing. First he secured an Imperial patent joining many of the
Bohemian estates he had purchased to Friedland, and in January
1623 the emperor raised them to the status of a palatinate, conferring
on Wallenstein the archaic but prestigious rank of count palatine.
Although not carrying with it a formal title this gave him many of
the powers of a prince, as well as valuable commercial rights within
his territory, and it was a de jure recognition of what Wallenstein had
achieved de facto, the creation of a virtual principality by the acquisition
of so much land in a single block. More surprising was the emperor’s
decision eight months later to elevate Friedland into an actual princi-
pality, thus giving Wallenstein the rank and title of Fürst, a prince of
the Empire.^2 In the complex Imperial hierarchy this was not quite as
impressive as it sounded, as Fürst was an honorific title applicable to all
above the rank of count (Graf), but which could also be granted specifi-
cally to those like Wallenstein who did not have this automatic right.
Nevertheless it was a rare honour and a major step upwards, which may
in part have been a reward for Wallenstein’s large loans to the Imperial
treasury, although political considerations were probably more impor-
tant. Executions, expropriations and emigration following the collapse
of the revolt had left a vacuum in the top levels of society in Bohemia
and Moravia, which Ferdinand was seeking to fill through the creation
of a new aristocracy loyal to and dependant upon him personally. Even
so, titles could not be distributed unless the recipients possessed the