Abstract
Having fallen out of favor with the Emperor, Wallenstein was deposed
as Supreme Commander in January 1634. Unbeknownst to him, a secret court
then found him guilty of treason on account of his unauthorized attempts
to broker a peace during the Thirty Years War. He retreated to the
Bohemian city of Eger and hoped for the timely arrival of Swedish
troops. By the time he realized the danger he was in, it was already too
late: on the night of February 25, 1634, he and four of his closest
allies were murdered by officers loyal to the Emperor. In the eighteenth
century, poet and playwright Friedrich Schiller immortalized Wallenstein
in the dramatic trilogy that bears his name (completed in 1799).