This pie graph shows how often geographical locations (within a country) or countries are mentioned as a percentage of all the places mentioned in the letters included in the Diplomatic Correspondence.
There are some surprises here - the frequency of mentions of Spain, for example, could be expected to be more than 3.2%. However, the data here is influenced by Bodley’s method of description. Bodley tends not to describe Spain as a geographical construct, preferring to name the ‘King of Spain’ and his actions, and agents, directly (and in the Diplomatic Correspondence schedule we coded these mentions as biographical rather than geographical). This is in contrast to his modus operandi of discussing the Low Countries and component locations using town, district or regional detail. There are clear contextual and historical reasons for this: as an ambassador in The Hague who was in frequent contact with political bodies such as the Estates General and the Council of State, in which he had a seat himself, Bodley had intimate knowledge about the developments in the Low Countries and could thus be far more precise when writing about them. The people with whom Bodley corresponded, such as the Privy Council and Lord Burghley also expected and demanded detailed information - Burghley asked Bodley, for instance, to provide him a drawing about the battle that took place between Arnhem and Nijmegen. Conversely, Bodley did not possess this kind of localized knowledge about Spain, and mentioning King Philip II or simply Spain could be a reference to the threat posed by the Spanish Habsburgs in a more general sense.