Secret codes and the Babington Plot 

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Anthony Babington was a young Catholic noble who joined a plot to depose the Protestant Queen Elizabeth I and put Mary Queen of Scots on the English throne.

Sir Francis Walsingham, the head of Elizabeth’s secret service, captured a Catholic plotter named Gilbert Gifford and ‘convinced’ him to act as a double agent. Gifford would act as an intermediary - smuggling letters to Mary who was imprisoned in Chartley Hall.

All the letters were given to Walsingham. The letters were written in a secret code called ‘a nomenclator cipher’. Walsingham had the code deciphered. Walsingham waited and gathered evidence that would implicate Mary in a plot against Queen Elizabeth.

On 28 June 1585 Babington wrote to Mary outlining a plot to murder Elizabeth and release Mary with the support from an invasion from Spain.

Myself with ten gentlemen and a hundred of our followers will undertake the delivery of your royal person from the hands of your enemies.

For the dispatch of the usurper, from the obedience of whom we are by the excommunication of her made free, there be six noble gentlemen, all my private friends, who for the zeal they bear to the Catholic cause and your Majesty\'s service will undertake that tragical execution.

Extract from Anthony Babington letter to Mary, June 1585

Mary’s reply was intercepted and sent to Walsingham. It was sealed with a drawing of a gallows. Walsingham had the evidence he needed.

Babington and the other plotters were arrested, tortured, tried and condemned to be hanged, drawn and quartered. The damning evidence of the letters between Mary and the plotters was presented to Queen Elizabeth. It was only a matter of time before Mary would be sentenced to death.

Luminarium Encyclopaedia Project - Anthony Babington and the Babington plot

Learn about the life Anthony Babington, who along with a small band of Catholics, plotted to assassinate Queen Elizabeth I on behalf of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Download Simon Singh\'s \'Crypto CD-ROM\' and create your own codes, learn about the history of codes and practice cracking them through games and other materials for teachers.

Learn how Queen Elizabeth I\'s code-breakers cracked the cipher used by Mary, Queen of Scots.

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