Lipogrammatic text

[geoffreycaveney]

Well, I have suggested earlier in this thread that the point could possibly be, for example, Yorkist English people, perhaps in northern France during the period of English control of that region in 1415-1429, communicating with each other in a cipher which also omitted entirely certain letters in the word "Lancaster", perhaps first of all omitting "L" and "A", for example.

We have two threads going on here:

• Arguing for a lipogrammatic text that excludes words
  
• Arguing for a lipogrammatic text that excludes letters
  

The first would read "the House of ..."
The second would read "the House of ncster". Which, I suggest, is hardly a difficult code to break.
(A real medieval encrypted text would have read "the House of DoolyDally", where DoolyDally is known by sender and receiver to be Lancaster).

What I have in mind is possibly a text that would read, for example, "the House of Irour Thee".

The first quarter of the 15th century is exactly when the nobles transitioned from French to English.. it is impossible to say whether anybody in any position to be worried about who was reading their diaries would be written in Anglo-French or Norman
French at that time.

I note that Edward, 2nd Duke of York, between 1406 and 1413 translated The Master of Game from French into English, and he dedicated the book to Henry, Prince of Wales (the future Henry V). So even in these high circles of the early 15th century English nobility, there was a need and a demand for translations of French texts into English.

Anyway, back to my basic question that I always ask - if the whole thing is written in an unknown alphabet, why bother obfuscating the plain text?

The unknown alphabet is for the purpose of encryption and secrecy. Obfuscating the plain text in the form of a lipogram would just be an added level of expressing extreme loyalty to the Yorkist cause by showing such contempt for the "Lancastrian" letters L and A that one refuses to write them at all, even in cipher.