972Unsolved Historical Ciphers
E  Π  x  h  ρ  6  II  →  p r i n c e s

Paris → [Walsingham] · letter substitution with homophones · 9 November 1586

Sir Edward Stafford to Walsingham, 9 November 1586

Edward Stafford
fromEdward Stafford
Francis Walsingham
toFrancis Walsingham

BL Harley MS 1582 ff. 76–77, DECODE R8504. A short holograph letter in clear English. Its only cipher is one seven-sign word, deciphered as princes with the key recovered here from Stafford’s other letters in the volume. No decipherment was found on the page or in print.

Daniel Bourdeau · posted · updated

Method: key recovered based on adjacent plaintext · Extent: complete

Summary. DECODE lists R8504, with no decryption, as a cipher letter of “Sr. Ed. Stafford to unknown recipient”, London, 9 November 1586, with alphabet, graphic-sign and numerical ciphers. The two images show one page of clear English in Stafford’s hand, signed “E Stafford”, and a blank leaf. The only cipher is one word of seven signs on the second line. Stafford’s cipher with Walsingham had already been rebuilt here from a contemporary decipherment and glosses in the same volume (see Stafford, 20 August 1586). With that key the word deciphers as princes: “a paquet with princes from your honor”. Five of the seven signs take their values straight from the key. The other two (an r-form and rho) are inferred from the word itself. No other English word fits the pattern p?in?es. The letter is not in the Calendar of State Papers Foreign, which prints a different letter of the same day from Stafford to Burghley.

01 The document

f. 76r: Stafford’s holograph. About sixteen lines of clear English, a subscription and the signature “E Stafford”. f. 76v/77: blank, with show-through. No address or endorsement survives on the images, so the recipient is not named. The letter says “your honor”, and its siblings R8500–R8503 in the same volume are addressed to Walsingham, which makes him the probable recipient. DECODE’s “London” is where the manuscript is held. Stafford was ambassador in Paris. The clear text opens:

Opening lines of a handwritten English note with a single word of seven cipher signs on line 2
f. 76r, lines 1–5: Sr, I receaved as I was puttinge penne to this paquet a paquet wth [seven cipher signs, princes] …, the letter’s only cipher word. Image: British Library, Harley MS 1582 f. 76r, via DECODE R8504.
Sr, I receaved as I was puttinge penne to this paquet a paquet wth [E Π x h ρ 6 II] from your honor sent into …

02 The decipherment

signEΠxhρ6II
valueprinces
sourcekeycontextkeykeycontextkeykey

Decipherment: princes. Grade: C for the two context signs, H for the rest. There is one cipher word and it is deciphered, so no gaps remain.

03 Sources

Notes, transcription and profile: harley1582r8504/.