Mary Queen of Scots’ political scheming revealed in decoded missing letters
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Decoded letters expose Mary Queen of Scots’ political plotting
- Fifty-seven secret letters written by Mary Queen of Scots were recently decoded after being mistakenly labelled as Italian in the French national library.
- Computer scientists George Lasry and Satoshi Tomokiyo, along with German music professor Norbert Biermann, solved the cipher system used by Mary during her imprisonment.
- The letters, dating from 1578 to 1584, reveal Mary's cunning political schemes, including attempts to manipulate Queen Elizabeth I's spymaster, Francis Walsingham.
- Addressed mostly to the French ambassador, Michel de Castelnau de Mauvissiere, the correspondence shows Mary providing direct instructions about feeding information about her.
- Historians involved in the project describe Mary as a "clever" and "adept player" who strategically used her limited position to orchestrate plans, with the full content to be published in 2027.