‘Procure as many as you can and send them over’: Cartographic Espionage and Cartographic Gifts in International Relations, 1460–1760

The quotation within the title of this essay reports Charles II’s response to the offer of his envoy in Paris, Lord Preston in 1683 to send over ‘the plans of some fortified places which I believe are very exact. If Your Majesty hath them not before and if you approve of them, I do not question but to have draughts of all the other fortifications of France in a little time.’1 Charles’s words, as reported by Preston’s confidant Francis Gwynne, the Under-Secretary of State, well reflect the enthusiasm of governments then as now for confidential spatial information about other partners in the international system — even if, as in this case, they were at the time allies.