They made use of the legal possibilities and chose during the for Waldeck disastrous Thirty Years' War the for them favourable side of Sweden.

[1] Wolrad was born at Eisenberg Castle on 7 July 1588[2] as the second son of Count Josias I of Waldeck-Eisenberg and Countess Mary of Barby and Mühlingen.

Because Wolrad and his elder brother Christian were still minors, they were under the custody and regency of their mother and Count Francis III of Waldeck-Landau [de].

Although a change of religion was excluded by the will and testament and the Peace of Augsburg did not allow it, territorial lord Maurice, who converted to Calvinism in 1605, introduced the Reformed confession and exerted both political and religious pressure on Waldeck.

After the long years of regency and thus the lack of an active policy adapted to the needs of the time, this would turn out to be very unpleasant for the young counts.

Due to the long period of political stagnation, the now revived attempts to reorganise the country internally and at the same time the limitation of the feudal rights externally acted as a sharp caesura for the County of Waldeck.

[5] The long absence of a strong territorial policy in the whole country led after 1607, when Christian and Wolrad tried to bring the County of Waldeck back in line with 'modern' developments, to such a large number of serious conflicts, that from 1614 onwards one can clearly speak of a deep governmental crisis.

But even more worrying was the external pressure that had been exerted on the county and its rulers by the completely unpredictable Landgrave Maurice, since the attack on the border town Freienhagen [de] in 1615.

But it was not until the attempts of Wolrad and Christian to gain dominion over the city of Korbach that provoked Landgrave Maurice to such an extent that he invaded and occupied the country.

[7] In the summer of 1620[note 1] the situation had become so intense that Landgrave Maurice occupied the county – with the exception of Waldeck Castle [de] and Arolsen.

[5][9] The policy of Landgrave Maurice did not go unnoticed in the Holy Roman Empire, despite the fact that the Bohemian-Palatinate War was of greater importance.

[5][note 2] After the acute threat to the county had been averted, Wolrad and Christian did not give up and tried, through the Reichskammergericht and the Reichshofrat, to get legally closer to their goal.

After the death of Count Philip Ernest of Gleichen on 18 November 1619, his younger brother Hans Louis ruled in Pyrmont.

When it became clear that he would have no descendants, he signed a succession treaty with his relatives Wolrad and Christian from Waldeck and ceded the County of Pyrmont to them in 1625.

However, in 1631 Christian met King Gustavus II Adolphus of Sweden, changed sides during the war and secured the county's support from the great power.