In a world torn apart by the French Revolution, doomed Queen Marie Antoinette exchanged secret letters with a rumored lover. Someone later censored them — and now scientists know who.
Chemical analyses of the ink reveal not only the obscured words, but also the identity of the censor, researchers report October 1 in Science Advances.
From June 1791 to August 1792, as Marie Antoinette and the rest of the royal family were confined to Paris’ Tuileries Palace following an escape attempt, the queen managed a clandestine correspondence with Swedish Count Axel von Fersen.
Whether the correspondents exchanged words of love or state secrets was a longstanding mystery, says Anne
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