On the eve of her execution in 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots wrote what is thought to be her very last letter. She had been imprisoned for nearly 20 years for the perceived threat she represented to ...

An example of letterlocking – where people doubled letters as envelopes to ensure the security of a document – the fallen monarch used a spiral locking process to seal a message that was “a last will ...

In a steady, stately script, an anonymous Dutch writer living around 1700 wrote a letter: “I never thought you’d be such a miserable dog,” it went. “If you’ve got something to say, just say it to my ...