AN HISTORICAL mystery that has had academics scratching their heads for 500 years has finally been solved – the letters in 'code' sent from King Fernando of Aragón and military leader Gonzalo de Córdoba giving orders on wartime strategy.
The monarch, whose marriage to Isabel of Castilla united the two kingdoms Spain was split into, wrote his messages giving instructions on deploying troops during the Italian invasion in the early 1500s in code just in case the enemies found the papers, given that they could have landed in rogue hands in the two weeks it would have taken for the missives to reach Gonzalo de Córdoba in southern Italy from the king's palace.
This enigmatic written language has never been deciphered until now – historians have discovered it was made up of 88 symbols and 237 letters, each with two to six additional numbers, or characters such as triangles, and with no spaces between words or sentences and no punctuation.
At the time, Spain was trying to take over the Mediterranean and fighting France for the stronghold in a five-year battle based in the Kingdom of Naples which ended in 1504 with a victory for Spain.
Naples was a Spanish territory for the next 143 years.
By cracking the code used for the encrypted messages, historians have been able to read the king's orders to the military commander on fighting strategy, and his reproaching Gonzalo de Córdoba for making decisions without consulting him first.
