Albrecht von Wallenstein

1583 – 1634

Albrecht Wenzel Eusebius von Wallenstein, Duke of Friedland, was a Bohemian military leader and statesman who served as supreme commander of the armies of Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II during the Thirty Years' War. His ruthless requisitioning of money and supplies from occupied territories—the so-called "Wallenstein system" that financed his vast armies through systematic plunder—devastated central Europe. By 1634 his accumulating wealth and unilateral peace negotiations with the Protestant powers had so unsettled Ferdinand II that the emperor ordered his assassination, which was carried out at Eger by his own subordinates.

Last checked: May 10, 2026, 1:06 PM