12/12/2018

Catherine of Aragon's undecipherd letter

I found Catherine of Aragon's letter in cipher (3 November 1509) to her father, King Ferdinand of Spain, in the Spanish archives online. Unable to decipher it myself, I submitted it as a challenge at MTC3. To my pleasant surprise, two people have already solve it (which will be reflected on the MTC3 page soon). (Since the challenge is still open, I refrain from disclosing the solution.)

Since Catherine of Aragon was among the first who used cipher in the English court ("Earliest English Diplomatic Ciphers"), I have been looking for her ciphers. It is known that the Spanish archives have her letters in cipher.

For example, Catherine's first letter in cipher appears to have been that of 7 September 1507 (Bergenroth p.426), preserved in S.E.T.c.I. [i.e., Archivo General en Simancas, Estado, Tratados con Inglaterra] L.5.f.57. but I could not locate it online. Catherine's letters of the same date are found at
http://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/description/2208086
http://pares.mcu.es/ParesBusquedas20/catalogo/description/2208087
but these seem to be different.

As another example,
Bergenroth Suppl. p.33 has a letter originally deciphered by Almazan (20 March 1509), preserved in Archivo General de Simancas Patronato Real Tratados con Inglaterra, Legajo No.5 fo.60.


As yet another example, Catherine's letter of 29 July 1509, preserved in Britain, has a short passage in cipher (Brewer).

If any further cipher material related to Catherine of Aragon is available, please let me know.

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