They decipher censored content of some letters from Marie Antoinette

A group of scientists has managed to decipher the censored content of some letters exchanged by the Queen of France Marie Antoinette and Count Axel von Fersen, who was supposedly her lover.

“Not without you”, “My dear friend” and “You, whom I love”, these are just some of the words that researchers have managed to identify in the correspondences between the two historical figures.

The content, now revealed, was scribbled in dark ink, apparently to censor the effusive and perhaps loving language of Marie Antoinette’s letters, details The Associated Press.

The private letters between the French queen and the Swedish count were exchanged between June 1791 and August 1792. The von Fersen family maintained the correspondence until 1982, when they sold it to the National Archives of France, where they remain stored until today.

At the time the letters, the French royal family was under surveillance in Paris, having tried to flee the country. Shortly after, the French monarchy would be abolished, and the following year both Marie Antoinette and her husband, Louis XVI, would be beheaded.

“At this time, people used a lot of flowery language, but here, it is a very strong language, very intimate. We know that with this text there is a love relationship, “said Anne Michelin, materials analyst at the Center for Conservation Research at the Sorbonne and co-author of the research.

The analyzed letters deal with political events and personal feelings. The redacted words, such as “madly” and “beloved”, do not change the general meaning of the missives, but rather alter the tone of the relationship between the sender and the recipient.

To reveal the secrets of the documents, the scientists used a method that separately identifies the inks used according to their chemical composition. The technique allowed them to recover the original text in eight of the 15 letters analyzed.

What’s more, the scientists even managed to identify the person who censored the letters: Von Fersen himself. However, his motivations remain a matter of speculation.

“Perhaps this correspondence was important to him for sentimental reasons or for political strategies,” Michelin told Live Science, explaining the probable reason why the count simply did not get rid of the letters.

Numerous passages in the letters are about the political situation at that time, so perhaps the count would like to share the information with other people from foreign royal courts. Censoring the letters could be a way to try to protect the virtue of the queen, who was married to another man.

The research was published on October 1 in the journal Science Advances.