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Let up envelope letter format1/3/2024 ![]() ![]() This is how you send a letter before the envelope is invented," explains Daniel Starza Smith, a lecturer in Early Modern English literature at King’s College London. "This isn't something special that people do on special occasions. By folding and cutting letters in various clever patterns, people attempted to hide their correspondence from unwanted readers, and the "locks" came in myriad types. Mary Queen of Scots was far from the only person who was skilled in the art of "letterlocking" – the technique became common throughout Europe during the Late Middle Ages (1250-1500) and Early Modern periods (1500-1815). Watch this and other letterlocking techniques on the Unlocking History Research Group's YouTube page. ![]() Watch a reconstruction of how Mary did it: No wax or adhesive was required, but crucially, if someone tried to sneak a look, they would have to rip through the strip, so her brother-in-law would know the message had been intercepted. After poking the knife through the rectangle to make a hole, she then fed the strip through, looping it and tightening it a few times, creating a "spiral lock". Instead, Mary cut a thin strip from the paper margin, before folding up her message into a small rectangle. However, envelopes were not used in the 1500s – not least because paper was expensive – and there was no trustworthy postal service at the time. She didn't want her captors snooping – and particularly not her cousin Queen Elizabeth I. "The Catholic faith and the assertion of my God-given right to the English crown are the two issues on which I am condemned." With a sad acceptance of her fate, she asked him to take care of her affairs and pay her servants, wishing him "good health and a long and happy life".Īfter Mary had finished writing, she then began to fold up the letter to secure its contents. "Tonight, after dinner, I have been advised of my sentence: I am to be executed like a criminal at eight in the morning," she wrote. Late at night on 8 February 1587, an imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots composed her last ever letter to her brother-in-law. ![]()
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