206 Wallenstein
enforcement of the Edict of Restitution. Prominent in the second were
Cardinal Dietrichstein and Wallenstein’s cousin Wilhelm Slavata, chan-
cellor of Bohemia, while a more recent addition was Heinrich Schlick,
one of Wallenstein’s principal commanders during the Danish campaign
and by this time president of the war council. These were able men and
formidable opponents, well capable of using the embittered failures
among the soldiers in the third group for their own purposes, in order
to give a veneer of professional military credibility to their criticisms of
Wallenstein. The fiasco of the latter’s advance against Bernhard at the
end of November enabled his opponents to move from whispering in
ante-chambers to shouting in the streets, almost literally, in the form
of a number of virulent anonymous pamphlets which circulated during
December.^14 Their authors almost certainly included Weingartner and
Slavata, and it may be assumed that they reached the emperor’s eyes, as
well as being avidly read by Maximilian, who was once again seeking to
orchestrate the chorus of complainants.
Perhaps more important than this round-up of the usual suspects,
however, was a shift in the Spanish attitude to Wallenstein. They had
supported him unsuccessfully at the time of his earlier dismissal, and
Count Olivares, the chief minister, continued to see in him the best
chance of bringing the war in Germany to a successful conclusion,
thereby freeing joint Habsburg resources for the war in the Netherlands,
which remained the principal Spanish priority. The ambassador at
the Imperial court, however, was of a different opinion, and in order
to investigate his negative reports Olivares despatched Count Oñate,
a previous ambassador and regarded in Madrid as the expert on
Germany, to Vienna in the autumn of 1633. Oñate was startled to dis-
cover the extent to which Wallenstein’s standing had declined, even
among his former principal supporters, and under pressure of events
and the criticisms of the general’s enemies his own support wavered at
the critical moment.^15
One factor which helped to confirm his doubts was a visit to
Wallenstein by the Capuchin monk Diego de Quiroga, who arrived in
Pilsen on 4 January 1634. The regent of the Spanish Netherlands, the
aged Infanta Isabella, had recently died, and there were fears that a
power vacuum could provide the opportunity for a rebellion favouring
the Dutch, so that the Spanish court were anxious that her successor,
the king’s younger brother, known as the Cardinal Infant, should reach
Brussels as soon as possible. This was no simple matter, as the Dutch
controlled the sea, while Feria’s recent campaign had failed to secure
the land route along the Rhine, so a circuitous journey through Austria