85

The geographical and political context in which the Thirty Years’ War was born and developed was wide and complex. Central-northern Europe represented the main theater of these confrontations, indeed, but some of the most noteworthy moments of the conflict (especially in its Franco-Habsburg phase) took place in northern Italy. For different diplomatic reasons, the Medici were largely involved in them, and Grand Duke Ferdinando II went so far as to propose –albeit in vain –the creation of a new supra-state entity which should have presided over the maintenance of peace in Italy and in Europe. Drawing upon rich archival documentation and a large bibliography, this article analyzes the Thirty Years’ War from the Tuscan angle, and it focuses on the series of conflicts which helped Richelieu’s and Mazarin’s France achieve military and diplomatic success between 1613 and 1649, while also bringing about a change in the international policy of the Medici Grand Dukes, who went from being major diplomatic players to mediators. Thus, having never been really examined in their global and entangled diplomatic dimension, the wars of the Montferrat and Mantuan successions (1613 -1617, 1627 -1631), the Valtellina War (1618-1639), and the wars of Castro (1641-1649) turn out to be particularly useful for reconstructing and evaluating the diplomatic involvement of the Grand Dukes of Tuscany during the Thirty Years’ War. Furthermore, they provide a good framework for broaching some interesting connections between these diplomatic dynamics and the contemporary political, philosophical, and scientific climate.