The Babington Plot was a celebrated conspiracy , in 1586 , to assassinate Queen Elizabeth . It led to the execution of Mary Queen of Scots , whose weakly cipher entail her . match out that cypher today , cryptography fans !
In 1586 , Europe was in a DoS of turmoil . Religious difference between for the most part Catholic France and Spain , and Protestant England , compounded the political aggression between the area . One mortal who could sway the balance was Mary Queen of Scots . The womanhood had a title to the can of both Scotland and France , and would be well - placed to reclaim England for Catholicism .
Mary had a personal , as well as political , grudge against the reigning Queen Elizabeth . Elizabeth had imprison Mary , and single out her from her son . When Marywas contacted by Sir Anthony Babington , an Englishman who represented French and Spanish conspirators , she jumped at the chance to bolt down Elizabeth and be rescued from her prison . The plot was scotch but Mary clung to trust that her letters were indecipherable . She ’d compose them in code .
unluckily , Mary had never had a opportunity . Elizabeth ’s functionary had cut through them from the outset , and pass them over the Thomas Phelippes . Phelippes was a polyglot and an early analyzer of codes . He was willing to put in the time to do frequency analysis – observe which role in Mary ’s cipher came up most frequently , and proposing value for them . He ’d plug the value in , and see if they amount up with anything sane . Mary ’s computer code was rather simple , substitution of symbols for letters , and a few more symbols for frequently used Word of God . Phelippes cognise of the plot of land to assassinate Elizabeth before Mary did – the letters went to him . But he tolerate the letter describing the plot to go to Mary , so she could approve it and condemn herself . When Phelippes transport that letter on to Elizabeth ’s spymaster , he sketched a gallows on the gasbag that contained it .
The picture shows Mary ’s codification , her letter and the codification for the most frequently used Word . A white transcript of the codification can be foundhere .
Top Image : © advertising Meskens / Wikimedia Commons
[ ViaThe Code Book . ]
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