Sir Henry Norreys to Cecil, 1567–68

At a glanceKnown key applied · partial (33% of the cipher)

The letter: Sir Henry Norreys (Norris), Elizabeth’s ambassador in France, to Cecil, 9 March 1568 (Old Style 1567; DECODE says “9 Mar 1567”). Patrick Forbes copied only its enciphered words, with those of six other despatches.
Where: British Library Add MS 4136 f. 161, Forbes’s deciphering file; DECODE R9251, with no decipherment on the record.
The cipher: Name signs and word groups of the Cecil–Norris cipher. The target letter has only three ciphered items.
How it was read: None of the keys filed in the volume fits. Tomokiyo’s published partial table of the Cecil–Norris cipher does. Shuffled among the same signs (1,000 trials), the groups give on average 0.2 dictionary words and at most 3, against 8 for the real table.
What it says: Groups decrypt to demaund, reason, ruin, remain and Master Stewarde, and name signs for the French King and probably the Queen of Scots.
Still open: The middle item, four signs, decrypts to a t ? l. The originals in TNA SP 70, which may carry the clerks’ decipherments, were not seen.
Credit: Satoshi Tomokiyo’s partial table of the Cecil–Norris cipher.

Forbes's copy: Norreys's ciphered words of 6 (end), 9 and 24 February and 9 March 1567/8, Add MS 4136 f. 161 — Add MS 4136 f. 161 (DECODE R9251 p. 1): the end of the 6 February list, then the ciphered words of 9 February, 24 February and 9 March 1567/8, numbered by Forbes. Image: British Library, Add MS 4136 f. 161, via DECODE R9251 (p. 1).

01The documents

Add MS 4136 is Forbes’s working file for his Full View of the Public Transactions in the Reign of Q. Elizabeth (1740–41). He copied the enciphered stretches of the ambassadors’ letters and filed the keys at ff. 177–190 (see the Smith write-up). The Norreys section is:

Letter	Folio	Items	CSP Foreign viii
4 June 1567	160	7 (two long)	no. 1265
6 July 1567	160	1	no. 1405
10 July 1567	160	1	no. 1427
6 Feb 1567/8	160–161	23	no. 1987
9 Feb 1567/8	161	11	no. 1998
24 Feb 1567/8	161	8	no. 2025
9 Mar 1567/8	161	3	no. 2054

The rest of R9251 is Throckmorton (27 Aug 1562), Middlemore (8 Apr 1563) and Smith (7 Mar 1562/3), in other ciphers.

02The key

The key records in the volume (R9257 Percy, R9260 Throckmorton’s first and second ciphers, R9261 Smith and Croft, R9262 Throckmorton’s third) do not match Norreys’s signs. A crib search against the Calendar’s wording was inconclusive: the groups are too short and too many words fit. The name signs did give three identifications, because they recur in the same order in the 9 and 24 February letters, and both Calendar entries run “the Protestants … the Prince [of Condé] … the Admiral”.

The key came from Tomokiyo’s page on Elizabethan ciphers. Cabala (1663) prints Cecil’s cipher letters to Norris, and its “Postscript” to 27 September 1568 is really the decipherment of that letter’s cipher passages. From it Tomokiyo rebuilt a partial table. Signs may be turned in any orientation (⊏ = ⊔ = e, Γ = L = d), and single signs stand for persons. Applied to Norreys’s groups:

Letter, item	Reading	Calendar
6 July 1567 (1)	Master Stewarde	“Signed: Stewart’s name in cipher”
4 June 1567 (6)	#… Savoia … the in[t]e[n]d to ouerthrou # # a[nd] Engla[n]d	“the King of Spain, the Emperor, with the Duke of Savoy intend to overthrow the Protestants of France, Flanders, and England”
10 July 1567 (2)	the lord of Murrei … (rest garbled)	“the Earl of Murray”
6 Feb 1568 (1)–(4), (7), (16)	Leisly; [the] earl; Rothes; papystes; reaums (realms); stayid	“one Lesley, brother to the Earl of Rothes, who came from the Papists of Scotland”
9 Feb 1568 (1), (3), (4)	demaund; reason; peac[e]	“whether now the demand of Calais were not very expedient … a mean to make peace”
9 Feb 1568 (5)–(9)	the French King, the Protestants; ruin; the Prince, the Admiral	“peace betwixt the French King and the Protestants, otherwise Norris much doubts the ruin of the Prince of Condé and the Admiral”
24 Feb 1568 (2)–(4), (6), (8)	the Protestants, the Prince, the Admiral; money; remain	“the Prince and the Admiral … that they may have money to pay the Almains, whom otherwise he much fears will not long remain with them”

Control. The script work/tomokiyo_apply.py counts dictionary words (the, and, lord, papists, realms, Rothes, earl, stayed, reason, ruin, master, steward…) in the decrypted groups. The real table gives 8 hits. With its letter values shuffled among the same signs (1,000 seeded trials) the mean is 0.22 and the maximum 3, and no shuffle produces a whole cribbed word such as Rothes, papystes, Steuarde, Murrei or Savoia. The table is Norris’s cipher, used from 1567 and not only in 1568.

A word list, not a reading. Forbes copied only the ciphered words of the six earlier letters, so what the table gives for them is single words matched to the Calendar’s summaries, with no sentences to build. Under the reading bar the siblings count as decoded, not read (check of 23 October 2026); the word list stands as a word-level decipherment. Only the originals in TNA SP 70/96–97, whose clear text would put the words back into their sentences, could turn them into a reading.

03The letter of 9 March 1568

The Calendar (no. 2054): “Upon M. Montmorency’s first return from the treaty holden at Longjumeau the King despatched four gentlemen, viz., to the Pope, the Emperor, the King Catholic, and the Swiss … Thinks if peace be concluded some attempt will be made into Scotland for the delivery of the Queen.” Forbes copied three items:

Item	Signs	Reading	Grade
(1)	ꝺ (turned)	the [French] King	H: the same name sign as in 6 Feb (5), (13) and 9 Feb (5), where it matches the Calendar’s “the French King”
(2)	crossed arrowhead, o, loop, ∞	not read: a t ? l	open. Cabala p. 152 prints the crossed arrowhead inside the “all” before papists, where p is 4 and 4+, so it is not p, and “Pope” is withdrawn. + = a in Norreys’s own “earl” (6 Feb), o = t (papists), ∞ = l; the loop is unmatched. “Catholic”, the first guess, is withdrawn too
(3)	∂ (closed loop)	the Queen [of Scots]?	I: by position against “for the delivery of the Queen”; the sign occurs nowhere else

04What remains open

9 March (2), a t ? l, open; (3) the Queen of Scots only by position (I). The loop sign is not in Tomokiyo’s table.
4 June 1567 items 1, 3, 4 and 7, and the rest of 10 July (2): the token transcription of those lines needs redoing.
6 Feb 1568 items 9, 12, 17, 20 and 23; 9 Feb 10 and 11; 24 Feb 1 and 7.
Cabala (1663) pp. 142–173 would give the signs missing from the table (g, k, q, w, the loop) and perhaps the name symbols.
The originals, TNA SP 70/96–97, probably carry interlinear decipherments by Cecil’s clerks, and their clear text is what would turn the siblings’ word list into sentences. They were not seen (State Papers Online, not reached).

Full texts

The transcription and the decryption of every document on this page, so that the reading can be used and checked. Short files are shown here; all are in the repository.

Norreys to Cecil, Paris, 9 March 1567/8 (Add MS 4136 f. 161, DECODE R9251) not prose

Forbes's copy of the three ciphered items of Norreys's letter: the French King, an unread five-sign word, and probably the Queen of Scots. In context (CSP Foreign viii no. 2054) Norreys reports that after the treaty of Longjumeau the King sent gentlemen to the Pope, the Emperor, the King Catholic and the Swiss, and that if peace is concluded an attempt will be made into Scotland for the delivery of the Queen.

Transcription

transcription.txt

# Norreys -> Cecil, ciphered words as copied by Patrick Forbes, BL Add MS 4136 ff.160-161
# (DECODE R9250 p.2 = f.160; R9251 p.1 = f.161). Space-separated sign tokens; # = single name sign.
# Token names are ad hoc: xi=ξ, oo=∞-like double circle, P=♇ (hooked e/p shape), J=♃ (4-like with hook),
# Gam=Γ, cup=⊔, sqc=⊏, arc=⌒, dash-a=⊣, flat=♭, 3b=3 with bar over, 3u=3 underlined, s2=s with diaeresis,
# 7d=7 with diaeresis, ':' suffix = colon written after sign, cap=∩, perp=⊥, bow=⋈, sig=σ, hash=#
# Dates in heading are Old Style (year from 25 March).
[N670604 4 June 1567, CSP F viii 1265]
1: xi oo n s2 s: cup 2 3u bow :t xi
2: #ff
3: xi oo P xi sqc 3b 3u 4 flat m
4: xi v flat P m sqc hash T sig oo phi Gam X sig perp varpi cup 7d 7: n H pi sqc sh cup 2 perp sig P m hash v T E 4 perp m phi xi flat sh dash-a Zb arc J flat
5: #c1 #b1 #P #b5
6: #c2 3 + 7: P flat Gam lam s2 cap sqc phi m s sqc E L bow s: lam P 7d cup 2 s: cap 2 lam 7 o :t #Zx #b8 dash-a E Gam flat m pi oo T 3r dash-a
7: xi Gam 7: m cap perp J s: flat pi sqc
[N670706 6 July 1567, CSP 1405]
1: rc dash-a 3b s2 sqc J 3 5: cup 7 o T 2 Gam sqc
[N670710 10 July 1567, CSP 1427]
2: s2 v sqc oo P J Gam cup lam varpi xi v 7d 2 J cup flat P v T s cap sqc hash xi flat m 3b s perp flat flat L X g pi 2 cup
[N680206 6 Feb 1567/8, CSP 1987]
1: xi dash flat 3b oo 9
2: Zb sqc + J oo
3: J P s: v n 3u
4: 4 T 4: 9 3b s: sqc 3u
5: #D
6: #de
7: 2 sqc perp 7: rc 3b
8: #cross
9: #D2 cap T 7: sqc de c
10: #ae:h
11: #8
12: :t J sqc pi cup m s:
13: #D
14: #tt
15: #£
16: 3u 5: dash-a 9 flat L
17: £ £: :£
18: #de
19: #phi
20: sig flat 3 sig 9
21: #box13
22: #8
23: 3 9 de sqc
[N680209 9 Feb 1567/8, CSP 1998]
1: Gam cup arc dash-a 7d m L
2: #phi
3: J sqc dash-a 3b lam m
4: 4 dash perp hash
5: #de
6: #Xr
7: 2 7d flat m
8: #Ec
9: #fk
10: dash-a 4: 5: inf 5: 9 v
11: P rc flat s s2 9 L
[N680224 24 Feb 1567/8, CSP 2025]
1: :f f: J sqc 2
2: #Xr
3: #Ec
4: #fk
5: #fa
6: m-bar
7: 4 + T 9 g T
8: J sqc v T 9 sh
[N680309 9 Mar 1567/8, CSP 2054]  <- DECODE R9251 target
1: #vo
2: + rc o l inf
3: #d-loop

Decryption

reading.md

# Norreys to Cecil, Paris, 9 March 1567/8 — the three ciphered items (DECODE R9251, Add MS 4136 f.161)

Key: Cecil-Norris cipher, 1568 (Tomokiyo's reconstruction from *Cabala*, 1663). Grades H/C/M/I.

(1) ꝺ (turned) — the [French] King (H: same name sign as in 6 Feb 5, 13 and 9 Feb 5)
(2) crossed arrowhead, o, loop, ∞ — "a t ? l", not read. Cabala p. 152 shows the arrowhead is not p
    ("Pope" withdrawn); "Catholic" withdrawn too.
(3) ∂ — the Queen [of Scots]? (I: by position against "for the delivery of the Queen")

Context (CSP Foreign viii no. 2054): "Upon M. Montmorency's first return from the treaty holden at Longjumeau the
King despatched four gentlemen, viz., to the Pope, the Emperor, the King Catholic, and the Swiss … Thinks if
peace be concluded some attempt will be made into Scotland for the delivery of the Queen."

Sibling readings: see NOTES.md; full decrypt of every group in work/tomokiyo_apply.out.

Norreys's earlier letters, 4 June 1567 to 24 Feb 1567/8 (ff. 160-161) decoded, not read

The ciphered words of Norreys's letters of 4 June, 6 July and 10 July 1567 and 6, 9 and 24 Feb 1567/8, as copied by Forbes, decrypted group by group with Tomokiyo's 1568 Cecil-Norris table and checked against the calendared letters in CSP Foreign viii.

A mechanical decode with holes in most sentences: shown so that the transcription and the key can be checked and improved, not as a reading.