Some Achieve Greatness 71only other help from within Germany came from the eccentric young
Duke Christian of Brunswick, administrator of the secularised diocese
of Halberstadt and known to his opponents, not without good reason,
as the ‘mad Halberstädter’. Christian too raised an army but likewise
fell foul of Tilly and the Spanish in June 1622, following which he
and Mansfeld, who had re-enlisted his army with what little money
Frederick had been able to beg or borrow, headed for Holland with the
remainder of their forces, and by the autumn they were fighting against
the Spanish on behalf of the Dutch rather than for Frederick.
After a winter spent in planning and pipe-dreaming these serial los-
ers were in the field again in the summer of 1623. Their grand strategy
was for Christian, supported by Mansfeld, to advance on Bohemia from
the west across north Germany, while Bethlen Gabor and some of the
Bohemian exiles under Thurn attacked from the east. The indefatigable
Tilly foiled the scheme, first interposing himself on Christian’s line of
march, then catching him as he retreated westward and comprehensively
defeating him in early August. A couple of weeks later, and as yet una-
ware of this disaster, Bethlen belatedly launched his own advance with a
large army, said to number 40,000 to 50,000 men, many of them Turks.
Against him the emperor could muster only a poorly equipped force of
some 9000, of which Wallenstein was appointed third-in-command.^4
Nevertheless Bethlen proceeded cautiously, particularly once he learned
of the defeat of his allies and the consequent possibility of Imperialist
reinforcements descending on him from the west. Hence he confined
himself to raiding and skirmishing in Moravia, while the emperor’s
little army moved equally cautiously south towards Pressburg, intend-
ing to take up a defensive position near Vienna. Bethlen followed, and
towards the end of October the Imperialists took refuge in the forti-
fied town of Göding (Hodonín), sixty miles north of Vienna. Bethlen
had no siege artillery, so he was forced to attempt to starve them out.
After three weeks, closer to success than he realised but with winter
coming on and his men wanting to go home with their booty, he gave
up and concluded a truce, leaving Ferdinand once again to end the year
with no enemies in the field against him.
Some writers have suggested that Wallenstein was the obvious man to
command the Imperial army on this campaign, and that therefore he
must have been passed over for personal or political reasons. Military
seniority is a much sounder explanation. Wallenstein’s command in
Bohemia was essentially that of a garrison, whose principal task was to
guard against any possible renewal of the revolt, whereas leading the
only force the emperor could raise against the much larger army of an