He was in Rome in 1605. He is recorded in Prague in 1609 and again in Rome in 1610. A census in 1612 of people living at the court, conducted at the time Rudolf II died, includes the name of Jacob Hoefnagel, followed by the title 'Contrafetter' which means portrait painter. He experienced financial difficulties, which he attributed to the court's failure to pay his salary as a court painter. As a consequence he left the imperial service at the end of February 1612. Jacob Hoefnagel was later that year reported as living in Vienna. He returned to Prague by 1613. He was citizen of the Malá Strana in Prague between 1614 and 1617. In 1614 he married his fourth wife. In 1616, he finally received the overdue salary of five hundred thousand guilders which the imperial court owed him. Despite this payment he was experiencing financial difficulties in 1617. In Prague he belonged to a circle of Flemish and Dutch merchants, artists and scholars, some of whom were Reformed, with close ties to the court of Rudolf II. He was a diplomat at the court at a time when Prague played a pivotal role in European affairs. During the Thirty Years' War which started in 1618, he took the side of the protestant Winter King Frederick V of the Palatinate against the catholic Habsburg dynasty. He was appointed as the official agent of the Bohemian estates to the Dutch Republic in 1618 and resided in the Dutch Republic from 1618 to 1620. He had the right contacts for the position as he was the nephew of the Dutch poet and politician Constantijn Huygens, who had married his aunt Susanna Hoefnagel. Huygens was secretary to the Dutch Stadtholder Maurice, Prince of Orange. In 1620 Hoefnagels was again a resident in Prague. He was accused by the authorities of fraudulently dealing with certain financial matter. Hoefnagel was convicted in absentia in a political process of embezzlement of funds. All his goods were confiscated and, according to some sources, he was sentenced to death. He could, however, flee. He spent time in Scandinavia including Stockholm and Göteborg. In Göteborg, he holds various high level positions: from 1622 to 1626 he is city counselor, from 1624 to 1627 president of the court of justice and in July 1624 he was appointed as one of the three burgomasters. In 1624 the Swedish king Gustav