WALLENSTEIN, ALBRECHT WENZEL EUSEBIUS. - General, b. 24 Sept. 1583 at Hermanice near Arnau (eastern Bohemia), d. 25 Feb. 1634 at Eger.

Orphaned at thirteen, he studied at the Lutheran Latin school of Goldberg (Silesia) and then at the Altdorf Academy in Nuremberg. During a journey to Italy in 1606 he converted to Catholicism. In 1609 he married a rich widow of Moravia, who died in 1614, and in 1617 he placed a contingent of armed men at the disposal of Ferdinand, Archduke of Styria (later Emperor Ferdinand II) for the war against Venice. He aided the emperor financially against the Bohemian rebels, but did not take part in the Battle of the White Mountain. He bought with great profit the lands confiscated from the rebel nobles, becoming the owner of a large part of Bohemia. In 1624 he was created Duke of Friedland by Ferdinand II, after having the previous year married Isabella of Harrach, thereby strengthening still further his ties with the imperial court. Following Denmark's intervention in the Thirty Years' War, he raised from nothing an army of 24,000 men for the emperor and became its commander-in-chief. He contained and drove back the enemy in Silesia, then turned against Christian IV, occupied Jutland and forced Denmark to make peace. The Emperor granted him in fief the Duchy of Sagan in Silesia and Mecklenburg. Deprived of his rank in 1630 because he was hated by the princes of the Empire, he retired to Bohemia, where he lived in princely style. Eager for ever greater power and to become one of the electors of the Empire, he did not hesitate to conduct secret negotiations with the King of Sweden and with the Bohemian émigrés. After Gustavus Adolphus's victories in Germany, however, he again accepted the supreme command of the imperial troops. Defeated at Lützen (16 Nov. 1632), he retired to Bohemia and maintained an ambiguous attitude. The Emperor, under the influence of his enemies, deprived him of his command, until, under the accusation of having betrayed the imperial cause, W. fell victim to a conspiracy among his officers, fomented by the court of Vienna.

Bibliography6 works

BIBL.: W. Wostry, W., in Die Grossen Deutschen, I, Berlin 1935, pp. 560-78; V. Valentin, W. after three centuries, in The Slavonic Review, 14 (1935-36), pp. 154-62; J. Pekař, W., Berlin 1937; W. Görlitz, W., Frankfurt am Main 1948; G. Hoehne, Das religiöse Charakterbild W.1, in Zeitschr. für Kirchengesch., 63 (1950-51); H. v. Srbík, W.1 Ende, 2nd ed., Salzburg 1952.

Silvio Furlani

@incollection{ec12_wallenstein_albrecht_wenzel_eu, author = {Furlani, Silvio}, title = {Wallenstein, albrecht wenzel eusebius}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {XII}, pages = {1645--1646}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1954}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/wallenstein-albrecht-wenzel-eusebius} }

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Wallenstein, Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius

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