Mary, Queen of Scots and Cryptoanalysis

Mary, Queen of Scots was let down by a faulty cipher and her misplaced trust in the reputed cleverness of her co-conspirators.

by David Allan Johnson Mention Elizabethan England to most people, and they usually think of William Shakespeare, the Globe Theatre and Sir Francis Drake. Codes, spies and cryptanalysts are probably the last things to come to mind. But besides poets, playwrights, and sea dogs, the reign of Elizabeth I also produced Britain’s first master spy, as well as its first state-sanctioned spy school. [text_ad] Sir Francis Walsingham was secretary of state to Elizabeth, as well as one of her most r