in transforming into courtiers the former nobles of their country—a result that of course was favourable to the absolutist policy of the house of Habsburg.
In the new campaign Waldstein was again victorious. He defeated at Dessau the army of Mansfeld, who was acting in alliance with the King of Denmark. Waldstein was now at the acme of his power. He treated the German princes with studied discourtesy, when they attempted to complain of the depredations committed by his troops. This was by no means displeasing to the absolutist courtiers of Ferdinand. In 1625 Waldstein received from the Emperor the title of prince, and in 1627 that of Duke of Friedland. The town of Jičin near Friedland in Bohemia became the centre of his vast dominions. He here exercised almost sovereign power and obtained the right of coining money; disregarding the Imperial decrees, he continued to tolerate Protestants in his territory and even employed them in his service. Of all the fantastic plans attributed to Waldstein, that of becoming King of Bohemia, particularly according to recent research, appears to be the only one that seriously entered into his mind. After the defeat of the King of Denmark the Emperor conferred on Waldstein the two duchies of Mecklenburg, as the rulers of these lands had been allies of the Danes. As Northern Germany was very shortly afterwards overrun by the Swedes this gift proved somewhat a barren honour. It, however, granted to Waldstein the then very extensive rights and powers of a sovereign prince of the empire, and Waldstein's defenders have often laid stress on this when attempting to justify the negotiations with foreign powers into which he afterwards entered.
These repeated successes of the Imperial arms naturally encouraged the extreme adherents of Rome, who were always very powerful at Ferdinand's court. The impetuous confessor Lamormain assured his Imperial master that he would imperil his soul if he did not at least partially introduce in Germany those reforms that had already been carried out so successfully in Bohemia. The result of these counsels was the famed "Edict of Restitution" which the Emperor after considerable hesitation signed on March 6, 1629. This enactment decreed that all monasteries and ecclesiastical possessions of which the Romanists had been deprived since the so-called "interim" of Passau in 1552
