Wallenstein acquired the Duchy of Friedland in 1622 as direct payment for his financial backing of Ferdinand II during the Bohemian revolt — one of history's more brazen exchanges of military credit for territorial sovereignty. By 1629, when this thaler was struck, he commanded an imperial army of roughly 100,000 men financed almost entirely through his own estates and an aggressive system of troop quartering that stripped occupied territories bare. The coin is less a ducal issue than a statement of personal power at its absolute peak.
He would be dismissed by Ferdinand the following year, his enemies at court having finally convinced the emperor that a subject this powerful was ungovernable.
Wallenstein acquired the Duchy of Friedland in 1622 as direct payment for his financial backing of Ferdinand II during the Bohemian revolt — one of history's more brazen exchanges of military credit for territorial sovereignty. By 1629, when this thaler was struck, he commanded an imperial army of roughly 100,000 men financed almost entirely through his own estates and an aggressive system of troop quartering that stripped occupied territories bare. The coin is less a ducal issue than a statement of personal power at its absolute peak.
He would be dismissed by Ferdinand the following year, his enemies at court having finally convinced the emperor that a subject this powerful was ungovernable.