This book presents a comprehensive and thorough re-evaluation of famed Spanish writer and diplomat Saavedra Fajardo’s performance as a negotiator, propagandist, politician and thinker, in the context of the relationship between the two branches of the House of Austria (Madrid and Vienna) during the Thirty Years’ War (1618-48) in the Holy Roman Empire. The author’s use of unpublished archival material from eight countries allows for a more accurate and realistic portrait of the Murcian statesman, one which debunks centuries-old myths and legends. At the same time a new, interdisciplinary and comparative approach for Saavedran studies is proposed. One hundred new texts (essays, letters, state papers) have been edited for the first time. Along with the new biography, the volume includes new achievements, such as the analysis of three different, recently-discovered front pages for the Empresas políticas, Saavedra’s bestseller. In addition, Heinrich Schlick, the key detractor of the Spanish Monarchy at the imperial court of the Habsburgs around 1640, a landmark year for Europe, is identified and presented.