972Cyphersolver
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

At a glanceNot solved · text not obtained

The letter
Walsingham to Burghley, 25 June 1571, copied in the fair-copy letter-book of Walsingham’s Paris embassy. The Queen’s clear letter that follows it gives the record its “Elizabeth R.” heading.
Where
British Library, Harley MS 260 ff. 112v–113r; DECODE R8356, two pages, the same volume as R8361.
The cipher
Two boxed codes, [12] and [E4], and a nine-symbol run whose pattern (first = seventh, sixth = eighth = ninth) fits no English word under simple substitution.
How it was tried
Digges printed the letter in The Compleat Ambassador (1655) with the cipher as figures and no decipherment. CSP Foreign gives none, and no Walsingham key of 1570–73 is known.
What it says
In context, [12] with the run names a man who showed Walsingham his master’s letters, warning of a practice to steal away the Queen of Scots; [E4] is the informant.
Still open
The nine-symbol run is too short to attack without a key, and [12] and [E4] each occur once. 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: targets/r8356/.