This dissertation is an investigation of the genesis, circulation and disappearance of the Spanish pastoral novel of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in relation to the Spanish imperial project during its apogee and decline during the same period. Through a close reading of certain Spanish pastoral novels and an examination of historical materials from the period, this study uncovers a number of links between pastoral and empire. Each chapter focuses on a discrete number of pastoral novels, moving chronologically from Jorge de Montemayor's Los siete libros de la Diana (1559) to don Gabriel de Corral's La Cintia de Aranjuez (1629). The first chapter demonstrates how classical and early-Renaissance texts may be read as either praising or criticizing their own country's sociopolitical situation. The same chapter also discusses how, through other genres, Iberian authors (the dramatist Juan del Encina and the poet Garcilaso de la Vega) imitated their precursors by choosing the pastoral to honor contemporary historical figures. Since the study of the Spanish empire can be divided into three parts—its rise and subsequent grandeur (under the reign of Charles V), its tumultuous apogee (under Philip II) and its decadence (with Philip III and Philip IV), this dissertation accomplishes the same with the pastoral novel canon. In the second chapter, Jorge de Montemayor's Los siete libros de la Diana, Alonso Pérez's La Diana de Montemayor (1563) and Gaspar Gil Polo's Diana enamorada (1564) praise Charles V and his court with the construction of a locus amoenus within Spain. In the third chapter, Luis Gálvez de Montalvo's El pastor de Fílida (1582) and Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's La Galatea (1585) continue the tradition laid out by their precursors by praising Iberia but, within the same space, include numerous criticisms of the nascent decadence of the empire. In the final chapter, Félix Lope de Vega Carpio's La Arcadia (1598) and don Gabriel de Corral's La Cintia de Aranjuez possess more criticism than praise of Spain and its empire. This dissertation investigates how history can influence the structure of a specific literary genre, and how this genre can reflect upon the historical milieu.