Mary Queen of Scots: Team crack secret letters' code
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Experts have called the work to break the code a "historical sensation"
Do you ever write messages to your friends using a secret code? Well, it turns out Mary Queen of Scots did too - and now a team have finally managed to crack that code more than 400 years later.
Mary Queen of Scots is a famous historical figure who lived a life full of drama.
She wrote the letters whilst held prisoner by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I, because she was thought to be a threat to her power and the English throne.
Most of the letters were to a man called Michel de Castelnau de Mauvissiere, who was the French ambassador to England and who supported Mary.
Experts say the work to crack the code is the most significant discovery about Mary for 100 years.
She became Queen of Scotland when she was just six-days-old in 1542!
She had two claims to the English throne
She was beheaded in 1587 for treason
What did the secret code reveal?
Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned by her cousin Queen Elizabeth I
Mary was held prisoner in different locations for 19 years. During this time she would write letters to her allies on the outside.
There are 57 letters, from between 1578 and 1584, which the team say Mary used code to discuss a range of topics.
She used the code to write about her poor health and the conditions she was kept in whilst held prisoner in England.
Others talk about how she didn't trust Elizabeth's principal secretary Sir Francis Walsingham.
The team say she also spoke about her distress following the abduction of her son James, the future King, in August 1582.
How did they crack Mary Queen of Scots' secret code?
The codebreakers uncovered symbols that represented entire words
The team used computers and manual coding to crack the secret code.
It uses a replacement system - where symbols stand for letters or entire words and names.
"The code is quite elaborate, and it took us a while to crack it," said George Lasry, of the University of Kassel, one of the team of codebreakers.
The letters were found in the national library of France's online archives and it was first thought they related to Italy.
But the team soon realised that they were written in French.
John Guy, who is an expert on Mary Queen of Scots said: "This is the most important new find on Mary Queen of Scots for 100 years."
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