Marie Antoinette’s secret messages to Swedish count revealed by chemical analysis

By Jamie Durrani2021-10-05T08:30:00

A painting showing a white woman with fluffy grey hair, wearing a large grey-green hat with feathers. She's dressed in an opulent blue dress with a large bow at the front and lace details. She's holding some cut roses and looking serenely at the viewer.

Source: © Universal History Archive/Universal Images Group/Getty Images

Spectroscopy deciphers censored passages in 200-year-old letters between last French queen and the man rumoured to be her lover

Chemical analysis has helped decipher censored messages sent between the last queen of France Marie Antoinette and a Swedish count rumoured to be her secret lover.

During the French revolution in the late 18th century, Marie Antoinette kept up a secret correspondence with the Swedish diplomat Axel von Fersen. Not only did von Fersen keep the letters he received from the French queen, but he also archived drafts of the letters he penned to her. But at some point, sections of the messages were redacted by a mystery censor.