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Cryptography Worksheet — The Babington Plot
The following note has been coded using the cipher actually used by
Mary Queen of Scots.
Can you crack it?
Carry out an analysis of the frequency of each character
De-code the message
crypto.interac ve‐maths.com
Teacher’s Notes — The Babington Plot
The text says:
To Anthony Babington, I agree that you can murder Queen Elizabeth at
the earliest me. From Mary.
Some hints to help with this one:
What are the most common symbols? What are
Symbol Frequency Le er
the most common le ers in English?
5 What 1 le er words are there?
Δ 1 Who might it be to and from?
Ø 6
O 9
8 3 The story of the Babington plot is a good example of
cryptanalysis (code breaking) in history. Babington and
C 3 Mary used the cipher to communicate in secret, howev‐
≠ 4 er Sir Francis Walsingham was able to employ Thomas
Phelippes, a professional cipher breaker, who managed
∞ 4 to work out the subs tu on that Mary had been using.
θ 2
5 They then added the postscript (shown on another
page) to a le er sent by Mary asking Babington to name
f 6 all the conspirators.
4
With all the notes they intercepted, Walsingham gath‐
m 1
ered enough evidence to convict Mary and the con‐
9 1 spirators of trying to assassinate Elizabeth I, and this led
to the conspirators being Hanged, drawn and quatered,
q 11
whilst Mary, Queen of Scots was beheaded.
η 2
10
1
1
^ 2
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The Babington Plot Frequency tables
f f
m m
9 9
q q
η η
^ ^
crypto.interac ve‐maths.com
The Babington Plot
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