I shall love you up to the death

Valerie Nachef; Jacques Patarin

Paper 2009/166 Original: eprint.iacr.org/2009/166 ↗

I shall love you up to the death

Valerie Nachef

Jacques Patarin

Abstract

\begin{abstract} In this paper, we explain the encryption algorithm used by the Queen of France, Marie-Antoinette, to send letters to Axel von Fersen during the French Revolution. We give the complete deciphering of some letters for which we found differences with the text taken from historical books. We also provide the deciphering of one letter that seems to be unknown so far. The results we get bring new proofs on Marie-Antoinette's deep affection for Fersen. Finally, we mention some open questions about Marie-Antoinette's correspondence with Axel von Fersen.

Metadata

Available format(s): PDF
Category: Secret-key cryptography
Publication info: Preprint.
History: 2009-08-18: last updated; 2009-04-10: published
Short URL: https://ia.cr/2009/166
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

BibTeX

@misc{cryptoeprint:2009/166,
      author = {Valerie Nachef and Jacques Patarin},
      title = {I shall love you up to the death},
      howpublished = {Cryptology {ePrint} Archive, Paper 2009/166},
      year = {2009},
      url = {https://eprint.iacr.org/2009/166}
}