Treachery and Death
In December Wallenstein retired with his army to Bohemia, around Plzeň. Vienna soon definitely convinced itself of his treachery, a secret court found him guilty, and the Emperor looked seriously for a means of getting rid of him (a successor in command, the later emperor Ferdinand III, was already waiting). Wallenstein was aware of the plan to replace him, but felt confident that when the army came to decide between him and the Emperor the decision would be in his favour.
On January 24, 1634 the Emperor signed a secret patent (shown only to certain of Wallenstein's officers) removing him from his command. Finally an open patent charging Wallenstein with high treason was signed on February 18 and published in Prague. Losing the support of his army, Wallenstein now realized the extent of his peril, and on February 23 with a company of some hundred men, he went from Plzeň to Cheb, hoping to meet the Swedes under Duke Bernhard. After his arrival at Cheb, however, certain senior Scottish and Irish officers in his force assassinated him on the night of February 25. To carry out the assassination, a regiment of dragoons under the command of an Irish Colonel Butler and the Scots colonels Walter Leslie and John Gordon first fell upon Wallenstein's trusted officers Adam Trczka, Vilém Kinsky, Christian Illov and Henry Neumann whilst the latter banqueted at Cheb Castle (which had come under the command of John Gordon himself), and massacred them. Trczka alone managed to fight his way out into the courtyard, only to be shot down by a group of musketeers. A few hours later, an Irish captain, Walter Devereux, together with a few companions, broke into the burgomaster's house at the main square where Wallenstein had his lodgings (again courtesy of John Gordon), and kicked open the bedroom door. Devereux then ran his halberd through the unarmed Wallenstein, who, roused from sleep, is said to have asked in vain for quarter.
The Holy Roman Emperor may not have commanded the murder, nor even desired it, but he had given free rein to the party who he knew wished "to bring in Wallenstein, alive or dead." After the assassination, he rewarded the murderers with honour and riches.
Wallenstein was buried at Jičín.
Read more about this topic: Albrecht Von Wallenstein
Famous quotes containing the words treachery and/or death:
“I do not deny the possibility that the people may err in an election; but if they do, the true [cure] is in the next election, and not in the treachery of the person elected.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)
“A rat crept softly through the vegetation
Dragging its slimy belly on the bank
While I was fishing in the dull canal
On a winter evening round behind the gashouse
Musing upon the king my brother’s wreck
And on the king my father’s death before him.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)