Albrecht Von Wallenstein - Early Life

Early Life

Wallenstein was born on 24 September 1583 in Heřmanice, Bohemia, into a poor Protestant branch of the Waldstein (Wallenstein, Valdštejn) family who owned Heřmanice castle and seven surrounding villages. His mother Markéta (née Smiřická of Smiřice) died in 1593, his father Wilhelm (Vilém) in 1595. They had raised him bilingually – the father spoke German while his mother preferred Czech – yet Wallenstein in his childhood had a better command of Czech than of German. The religious affiliation of the parents was Lutheranism and Utraquism.

After the death of his parents, Albrecht for two years lived with his maternal uncle, Jindřich Slavata of Chlum and Košumberk, a member of the Unity of the Brethren (Bohemian Brethren), and adapted his uncle's religious affiliation. Uncle sent him to the brethren's school at Košumberk Castle in Eastern Bohemia. In 1597, Albrecht was sent to the Protestant Latin school at Goldberg (now Złotoryja) in Silesia, where the then German environment led him to hone his German language skills. While German became Wallenstein's everyday language, he is said to have continued to curse in Czech. On 29 August 1599 Wallenstein continued his education at the Protestant University of Altdorf near Nuremberg, Franconia, where he was often engaged in brawls and épée fights, leading to his imprisonment in town prison.

Already in February 1600, Albrecht left Altdorf for his Grand Tour through the HRE, France and Italy, where he studied at the universities of Bologna and Padua. Wallenstein thus was in command of the German, Czech, Latin and Italian languages, was able to understand Spanish, and had some skills in French.

Wallenstein then joined the army of the Emperor Rudolf II in Hungary, where he saw, under the command of Giorgio Basta, two years of armed service (1604–1606) against the Ottoman Turks and Hungarian rebels. In 1604, his sister Kateřina Anna married the leader of Moravian Protestants Karel the Older of Zierotin. He studied at University of Olomouc (matriculated 1605). In 1606, he came into contact with the Olomouc Jesuits, and converted to Catholicism in the same year. The decision to convert may have had its roots in his friendship with the Jesuits, the Counter-Reformation policy of the Habsburgs which effectively barred Protestants from being appointed to higher offices at court, in Bohemia and in Moravia, and the impressions he gathered in Catholic Italy. However, there are no sources indicating the reason for Wallenstein's conversion, except for a subjunctive anecdote by his contemporary Franz Christoph von Khevenmüller about Virgin Mary saving Wallenstein's life when he fell from a window in Innsbruck. Wallenstein later would owe allegiance to the Imperial Habsburg Monarchy as a member of the Order of the Golden Fleece.

In 1607, upon recommendation by his brother-in-law Zierotin and another relative Adam of Waldstein, often mistakenly referred to as his uncle, Wallenstein was made chamberlain at the court of Matthias, and later also chamberlain of archdukes Ferdinand and Maximilian.

In 1609, Wallenstein married Czech Lucretia of Víckov, née Nekšová of Landek, rich widow of Arkleb of Víckov owning the towns of Vsetín, Lukov, Rymice and Všetuly/Holešov (all in eastern Moravia). She was three years older than himself, and he inherited her estates after her death in 1614. He used his wealth to win favour, offering and commanding 200 horses for Archduke Ferdinand of Styria for his war with Venice in 1617, thereby relieving the fortress of Gradisca from Venetian siege. He later endowed a monastery in her name, and had her reburied there.

In 1623, Wallenstein married Isabella Katharina, daughter of Count Harrach. She bore him two children, a son who died in infancy and a surviving daughter. Examples of the couple's correspondence survive. Both marriages made him one of the wealthiest men in the Bohemian Crown.