A group of researchers has successfully deciphered the code used in a set of letters previously owned by Mary, Queen of Scots. The letters, composed between 1578 and 1584, utilized a complex encryption system that blended letters and symbols. They were exchanged between Mary and others while she was held captive by her cousin Elizabeth I. The codebreakers, who were part of an international team, discovered the mysterious letters in the archives of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris during their search.
According to the study's lead author George Lasry, a computer scientist, cryptographer, and a member of the DECRYPT Project, a group committed to decode historical manuscripts. This is an incredibly thrilling discovery. He stated that, although they have decrypted secret codes from royalty in the past, this particular accomplishment with Mary, Queen of Scots, was remarkable due to the high number of previously unpublished letters they were able to decipher and the significance of her historical reputation.
Decoding Using Computer Methods
The researchers utilized both computational methods and manual comparisons to other historical texts to decipher 57 letters in total, with 50 of them being previously unknown to historians. The study, published in the journal Cryptologia on February 7th, also revealed that the researchers were able to identify symbols that represented specific names, places, and dates.
Mary was arrested for her alleged involvement in the Babington Plot, a scheme aimed at killing Elizabeth I. A significant number of her letters were addressed to Michel de Castelnau de Mauvissière, the French ambassador to England, who was a supporter of the Catholic Church over Protestantism. In her letters, Mary employed feminine forms of verbs and adverbs and frequently referenced the name "Walsingham" or Sir Francis Walsingham, who was Queen Elizabeth's primary secretary.
Additionally, Mary's letters also depicted her declining health while in captivity, the unfavorable living conditions of the prison, and her ongoing discussions with Queen Elizabeth I to secure her release. The letters also expressed Mary's suspicion that the negotiations were not being carried out in sincerity, as reported by Live Science.
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Cracking Queen's Ciphers
According to George Lasry, the letters combined amount to approximately 50,000 words of fresh primary source material on Mary Stuart, providing new insight into some of her years in England. John Guy, the author of Queen of Scots: The True Life of Mary Stuart stated that this is the most significant discovery regarding Mary, Queen of Scots, in the last 100 years. Mary was executed for treason at the age of 44 in 1587.
The Decrypt Project has numerous encrypted historical manuscripts that have been stored in archives and libraries, including private letters, diaries, intelligence reports, and even manuscripts connected to secret societies. Many of these historical documents will remain unreadable unless the process of decoding them can be automated.
The objective of the Decrypt Project is to create AI-assisted tools and resources for decoding historical materials through interdisciplinary research that combines fields such as computational linguistics, cryptology, history, linguistics, and philology.
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