This impressive study is concerned with three interrelated themes. It offers an up-to-date biography of Archduke Albert of Austria (1559–1621), analyses international relations in the early seventeenth century and assesses the forces behind Habsburg politics in this period. In all these areas it sheds authoritative new light. Albert may not have been the most celebrated statesman of the period, but his standing in Counter-Reformation Europe was considerable. A nephew of Philip ii of Spain, he initially embarked upon a promising career in the Catholic Church. At the age of eighteen he was appointed cardinal. Yet dynastic interests forced Albert to change this predestined clerical role, making him marry Philip ii's daughter Isabella in 1598. As a result, he became ruler of the Habsburg territories in the Low Countries – commonly known as the Southern or Spanish Netherlands. The nature of Albert and Isabella's reign has long been subject of debate. Duerloo reconsiders the traditional view of the couple as mere temporary heads of a protectorate of the Spanish crown, paying attention to the extent of their authority on paper and in practice. Eschewing anachronistic readings of sovereignty, he points out that contemporaries regarded Albert and Isabella's regime unambiguously as autonomous. Still, as a middling power they had to operate within the constraints of the transnational Habsburg enterprise. Duerloo is particularly strong in putting dynastic politics and international relations firmly into a seventeenth-century context. Displaying a remarkable familiarity with (un)written codes of contemporary diplomacy, statesmanship and familial entrepreneurship, he aptly explains how the concepts of ‘piety’ and ‘dynasty’ became intrinsically intertwined in Albert's mindset. This study is based on extensive research in over a dozen archives across Europe and is written in a rich, personal and suggestive style. Duerloo's book will be a point of reference for decades to come.