972Unsolved Historical Ciphers
The [12] 6 1 7 4 a H 6 H H shewed me his M[aste]rs letters … come from [E4]

Paris → London · name code with a short cipher run · June 1571

Walsingham’s letter-book, June 1571

Francis Walsingham
fromFrancis Walsingham
William Cecil
toWilliam Cecil

BL Harley MS 260 ff. 112v–113r, DECODE R8356, catalogued as a ciphered letter of Elizabeth to an unknown recipient. It is a letter-book copy of Walsingham to Burghley, 25 June 1571, with one cipher run and two code groups, followed by the Queen’s letter to Walsingham in clear. The cipher was transcribed and not deciphered: no key survives and the run is too short to recover one. No earlier decipherment is known; Digges printed the letter in 1655 with the cipher left as figures.

Daniel Bourdeau · posted · updated

Method: not solved · Extent: text not obtained

Summary. DECODE R8356 is two pages of the fair-copy letter-book of Francis Walsingham’s Paris embassy, the same volume as R8361 (November 1572). The heading “Elizabeth R.” belongs to the Queen’s letter that starts on f. 113r. That letter is in clear. The cipher is in the letter before it, Walsingham to Burghley of 25 June 1571. It is a boxed code [12], a nine-symbol run 6 1 7 4 a H 6 H H, and a second boxed code [E4]. Digges printed the letter in The Compleat Ambassador (1655) with the cipher set as figures and no decipherment. The run’s pattern (first symbol = seventh, sixth = eighth = ninth) fits no English word under simple substitution. With nineteen cipher symbols across this record and R8361, and no Walsingham key of 1570–73 known, the run cannot be deciphered. Sender, recipient, date and context are identified; the cipher is not.

01 The two pages

Image P1 (f. 112v) ends Leicester’s letter to Walsingham (“Yor assured frend R. Leicester”) and begins Walsingham to Burghley. Image P2 (f. 113r) ends that letter, “the xxvth of June 1571”, and begins “Elizabeth R. … To the right trustie and welbeloved Frauncis Walsingham Esqr or Amba: resident wth or good brother the Frenche Kinge”. The Queen’s letter concerns the French ambassador, M. de L’Archant, captain of the guard of the Duke of Anjou, and the coming of the Marshal Montmorency. It is written entirely in clear.

Harley MS 260 f. 112v, Walsingham to Burghley, June 1571, with the boxed code and cipher run in the first line
f. 112v: the cipher run in line 1, and [E4] in line 12 (“come from [E4] who discovereth it to his M.”). Image: British Library, Harley MS 260 f. 112v, via DECODE R8356 (image P1).

02 The cipher

The first line: The, a boxed 12, then 6 1 7 4 a H 6 H H
“The [12] 6 1 7 4 a H 6 H H shewed me his Mrs letters dated the ixth of this moneth”. Image: British Library, Harley MS 260 f. 112v, via DECODE R8356 (image P1).

In context, [12] with the run names the man who showed Walsingham his master’s letters, which asked him to warn “A.” of a practice to steal away the Queen of Scots. [E4] is the informant “who discovereth it to his Master”. Digges (p. 106) prints the run as “1627 40q0n 6> nu” and [E4] as “54”. Both are the compositor’s guesses at the symbols and carry no decipherment.

03 What was tried

04 What remains open

05 Sources

Notes, transcription and profile: r8356/.