194 Wallenstein
comprehensive devastation and decline of the Empire have considered
ways and means by which this may be remedied, and the Empire and its
constituent parts rescued from despoliation by foreign troops and
restored to their former prime and well-being’. Hence both electoral
armies were to join with the Imperialist forces and be placed under
Wallenstein’s command, ‘in order to achieve the above objectives and
through their combined might to restore the stability of the religious
and secular peace as it was during the Imperial reigns of Rudolph and
Matthias, and under his present Imperial Majesty before these troubles
which have arisen, and to maintain the same against anyone who per-
sists in further disturbing it’.
The electors’ replies reached Wallenstein three weeks later, on
13 November, their refusals presented as delicately as possible by Franz
Albrecht, and with a hint that the generalissimo’s poor health contrib-
uted to the problem, as it could not be assumed that he would be able to
remain in his post to see the matter through.^29 Their responses were neg-
ative because at root the electors were not ready to abandon the Swedes,
not least because they still looked to be the stronger party. John George
of Saxony was a stubborn and conservative man who had only very
reluctantly been induced to break away from his duty to the emperor
and the Empire, which he saw as the natural order of things, but once
having done so the same conservative sense of honour and duty held
him bound to his new alliance. George William of Brandenburg was an
altogether weaker character, but as a Calvinist he found the emperor’s
religious policy even more threatening, and he had always been more
inclined towards the Swedes than his Saxon counterpart. For both,
the withdrawal of the Edict of Restitution was fundamental, but the
Imperial delegation’s position during the attempted mediation earlier
in the year, and the emperor’s increased anti-Protestant measures in his
own lands, gave them no encouragement, while Wallenstein’s reference
to the old religious peace was far too vague.
Therein lay the central problem. Wallenstein was looking for an act of
faith based on trust in himself, effectively asking the electors to burn their
boats by breaking with the Swedes, but to leave negotiation of settlement
terms with the emperor until afterwards. He himself said, in sending a
copy of his draft treaty to Trauttmansdorff, that he had not sought to
specify any details, as that would fall to the emperor and the other parties
to determine later. Never was Wallenstein’s political naivety more clearly
exposed. Two months earlier the emperor’s councillors had drawn up
negotiating positions for the delegation to the prospective Breslau peace
conference. The efforts of the devious minds in Vienna take up 34 pages