This chapter investigates Marvell’s poetry in the context of three aspects of seventeenth-century European poetry and in light of Marvell’s own connections with the continental Europe of his lifetime, and his interest in European literature in Latin and the vernacular languages. The chapter argues that our understanding of Marvell is far better served by regarding his enterprises as poet, prose writer, and political agent as a part of the particular literary power relationships and the political role of literature that pertained in continental Europe, in many ways differing from English situations. Topics discussed include the patronage and veneration of European poets, the cross-lingual arenas of poetic contest in times of international conflict, and the broader significance of the appeal to Marvell of European poetry, exemplified in the case of the Spanish poet Luis de Góngora y Argote.