Masters of the Battlefield by Davis Paul K

Author:Davis, Paul K.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Great Commanders From the Classical Age to the Napoleonic Era
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 2013-06-05T16:00:00+00:00

GUSTAVUS NEXT HAD TO MEET the redoubtable Albrecht von Wallenstein, once again the commander of imperial forces. Born in 1583 to poor but noble parents, Wallenstein served in wars against the Turks and Hungarian rebels, coming to the notice of the Hapsburg monarchy. In 1609 he married a wealthy widow; she died in 1614, leaving him a very rich man. He married into more wealth in 1617 and financed a cavalry squadron that same year to fight against the Venetians. By the time the Thirty Years War broke out in his home country of Bohemia the following year, he was a powerful and influential man in the eastern Holy Roman Empire.

In the early years of the war Wallenstein fought for the imperial cause and rose in rank to become Duke of Friedland in 1625. He gained more land and income as the war progressed, becoming Duke of Mecklenburg after helping to defeat the Danes in 1628. His increased military and political standing proved threatening to many of the imperial nobility, since he had no loyalty to empire or church. Through the urging of many of the nobles, primarily Emperor Ferdinand’s son Maximilian of Bavaria, Wallenstein was removed from his command in 1630, just after Gustavus had landed on the Baltic shore. Wallenstein went home, managed his estates, and bided his time, for he knew the time would come when Tilly would fail and the emperor would be in need.

At Rain, Wallenstein was in no mood to march to Tilly’s aid, and his command position made him answerable to no one. Much more a strategist than a tactician, Wallenstein grasped that Gustavus continually kept his mind on his lines of communication back to Sweden. Liddell Hart comments: “Wallenstein, the first grand strategist, appear[s] to have grasped the principle of unity of command, appreciating that to counter Gustavus, the absolute chief of a military monarchy, equal power and freedom of action was essential.”64 Although the Swedes ran rampant through Bavaria, Wallenstein did nothing to stop them. After all, that was Maximilian’s territory; after Maximilian had played a key role in having Wallenstein removed from command two years earlier, why should he care what happened to Bavaria? Wallenstein was busy expelling the Saxons from Bohemia, which not only secured his own base, but threatened Swedish supply lines and bases. Thus, he saved Vienna without having to defend it.

Wallenstein had raised an army of 40,000. Like Gustavus, he realized the value of regular pay and supply for the troops’ morale, and his territory of Friedland provided plenty of both. In early summer he summoned Maximilian to bring his Bavarian army to join him. The two joined forces at Eger and with 60,000 men moved toward Nuremberg. Gustavus had at first planned to march on Saxony to revitalize John George, but news of the huge imperial army gave him second thoughts. Instead he retreated into Nuremberg’s friendly environs, but with only 20,000 men. Wallenstein approached the city in July 1632 but did not use his three-to-one manpower advantage for an assault.

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