Secret Mary Queen of Scots Letters Finally Decoded!

[@LesleyCelestial]

Thank you!! I am starving for any letters from Mary of Scots and Elizabeth..it's so difficult to find anyone with actual intent to explain, aside from the same thi gs over and over. I feel there had to be so much more between the two amazing queens,cousins etc. ❤

[@raumaanking]

Imagine if lady Jane Grey or Mary queen of Scots were never executed and imagine if one of them became the new queen of England in 1603 how would England have been like in your thoughts and opinions thanks

[@JessCDoesHistory]

That's a very big question! My initial thoughts are that the Church of England would be considerably different - Jane Grey was more reformist in belief than Elizabeth, Mary more conciliatory and likely to strike a middle ground of tolerance. It would bring into question the nature of parliamentary superiority in matters of political and legal authority, and drastically change the nature of the English Civil War. I think the Civil War would eventually happen in any case, given how the Act of Appeals had to use parliament in order to pass into law and circumventing a divine right monarchy from truly developing in England as it did in France.

[@bobettepancakes]

@@JessCDoesHistory I think that Mary Queen of Scots would ultimately win in that scenario if she were still alive as she had the might of Scotland and maybe still France behind her, and most would certainly see her as the legitimate new Queen rather than Jane. I don't think Jane would have that many supporters. It would be interesting if Jane had had a son, however.

[@KRISTIANITY_]

I gotta say, it's kinda fascinating to think it took AI in 2023 to decode these freaking letters, how the hell did the people she was writing to in the 16th century know what she was saying? You mentioned they had instructions on how to read them, but how were they supplied, if they came with the letter, wouldn't that botch the whole thing?

[@JessCDoesHistory]

The instructions on how to read the cipher were written as a symbol - so one symbol would say to use a certain code, and another symbol for a different one. Mary was constantly devising ciphers and codes to use in her letters - she had a lot of free time to fill and a lot of thoughts - and she also used a lot of invisible inks. It would be my guess that the system may have been sent out to the French ambassador in a less suspicious letter, concealed with invisible ink.

[@KRISTIANITY_]

@@JessCDoesHistory Oh good point, she indeed must have had a whole lot of time to come up with the codes. Thanks for the answer!