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Turncoat Generals – Commanders From History Who Switched Sides

Khalid Elhassan April 3, 2025 17 min

Turncoat - Benedict Arnold — Benedict Arnold. Smithsonian Magazine

6. Securing Protestant Bohemia for Catholicism

Turncoat - Albrecht von Wallenstein — Albrecht von Wallenstein. Albrecht Valdstejna

Wallenstein fought in numerous campaigns and battles, and earned a reputation for military brilliance. At the outbreak of the Thirty Years War, the Hapsburgs feared having to face the Protestant-born Wallenstein. However, Wallenstein calculated that siding with the Catholics was more profitable, so he offered his services and an army of 30,000 to 100,000 to Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand II. Wallenstein then proceeded to destroy Protestant armies and the Protestant cause in his native Bohemia. He did that so thoroughly, particularly at the Battle of White Mountain in 1620, so as to eradicate two centuries of a powerful Protestant tradition that dated back to Hussite Wars in the early 1400s. From a Protestant stronghold in Central Europe, Bohemia became a Catholic bastion, and remains Catholic to this day. Wallenstein then proceeded to wreck the Protestant cause in western and northern Germany.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.