Wallenstein The Enigma of the Thirty Years War

by Mortimer, Geoff

• ISBN13: 9780230272125
• ISBN10: 0230272126
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-09-15
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

A minor Bohemian nobleman who within the space of a few years became a prince and one of the greatest landowners of his age; a military entrepreneur who twice saved the Holy Roman Emperor from disaster with armies he raised, financed and led, but was then twice dismissed; an able general who rescued the Empire from invasion by the Swedish King Gustavus II Adolphus, but was accused of planning to defect to the self-same Swedes; the emperor's commander-in-chief, but assassinated on the emperor's orders; a successful soldier who fell because he tried too hard to make peace; Wallenstein was all these things. Contemporary legends and propaganda were taken up by early biographers of this fascinating character to create a historical myth, elements of which are still present in many more recent accounts. In this book, Geoff Mortimer sets out to clarify the picture and to resolve the enigma.

Author Biography

 

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Conventions and References
A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery inside an Enigma
No Great Expectations
Early Manhood
A Scandal in Bohemia
Richer Than All his Tribe
The Fault Is Not in our Stars
Some Achieve Greatness
Go, Captain, Greet the Danish King
At the Parting of the Ways
The Wheel Is Come Full Circle
Once More unto the Breach
From the Fury of the Norsemen Deliver Us
Of Peace and Other Demons
Decline and Fall
Assassination Is the Quickest Way
But Brutus Says He Was Ambitious
References
Bibliography
Index