Cryptography: Encrypted letters of Mary Stuart discovered – Knowledge

Mary Stuart wasn’t really good at keeping secrets. The Scottish Queen (1542 – 1587) spent her last 18 years as a political prisoner in English castles and palaces. In order to keep in touch with her supporters, she slipped secret messages to visitors during this time – supposedly unnoticed. In fact, English spies intercepted some of her letters and in the end she was executed. She was accused of planning to murder her second-degree aunt, Queen Elizabeth I of England, while she was in prison. And it is ironic that the letters used as evidence may have been forged.