Introduction: "Why not a Five Years' War?" - Lothar Höbelt and Pavel Marek Part I: The Central European Perspectives 1. Bavaria and the Establishment of the Imperial Army in the Thirty Years' War - Robert Rebitsch 2. Pied Piper and "Flying Squadron": The Ambivalent Character of Wallenstein's Mission in 1625 - Lothar Höbelt 3. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Thirty Years' War: Wallenstein's Rise (1623-25): An Attempt at Systematisation - Aleksandra Ziober 4. Gabriel Bethlen in the Thirty Years' War - Gábor Kármán Part II: The West European Perspectives 5. The Motives Behind King Christian IV's Decision to Enter the Thirty Years' War in 1625 and His Ensuing Defeat - Michael Bregnsbo 6. "Warr kindled in the very bowells of Christendom." England and the Opening of the Thirty Years' War - Thomas G.

Otte 7. French Perceptions of the Rise of Wallenstein, 1624-26 - David Parrott Part III: The Mediterranean Perspectives 8. Italy in Turmoil: Habsburg Hegemony Threatened (1624-25) - Gianvittorio Signorotto 9. Valtellina as a Breaking Point? Reflection of the Nuncio Carlo Caraffa and the Context of the Politics of Pope Urban VIII, - Tomás cernusák 10. The Count Duke of Olivares, the Union of Arms, the Turn of 1624-25 - Manuel Rivero Rodríguez 11. Wallenstein, the Improbable Spanish Client - Rubén González Cuerva Part IV: Wallenstein and Bohemia 12. The Rise and Fall of Wallenstein through the Eyes of His Aristocratic Contemporaries from Bohemia and Moravia, 1624-48 - Vítezslav Prchal 13. Albrecht von Wallenstein and His Monetary Policy - Petr Vorel 14.

Wallenstein's Files in the Haus-, Hof- und Staatsarchiv: What We Have and How to Find It - Zdislava Röhsner Summary: Escalation, Prolongation, Intensification of the War - Lothar Höbelt and Pavel Marek Notes on Contributors Index.