WALLENSTEIN

WALLENSTEIN (1583-1634), general of the Imperial army in the Thirty Years' War, born in Bohemia, of a Protestant family, but on the death of his parents was, in his childhood, adopted and educated by the Jesuits, and bred up in the Catholic faith; bent on a military life, he served first in one campaign and then another; rose in imperial favour, and became a prince of the empire, but the jealousy of the nobles procured his disgrace, till the success of Gustavus Adolphus in the Thirty Years' War and the death of Tully led to his recall, when he was placed at the head of the imperial army as commander-in-chief; drove the Saxons out of Bohemia, and marched against the Swedes, but was defeated, and fell again into disfavour; was deprived of his command, charged with treason, and afterwards murdered in the castle of Egra; he was a remarkable man, great in war and great in statesmanship, but of unbounded ambition; is the subject of a drama by Schiller, in three parts.