A love letter written more than 540 years ago has been deciphered thanks to artificial intelligence, revealing the touching story of a young woman torn between love and her family's financial interests.
Experts from the genealogy platform MyHeritage used the new "Scribe AI" technology to analyze the letter written in February 1477 by Margery Brews to her fiancé, John Paston III.
The document is considered one of the oldest known romantic letters in the English language, but deciphering it has been extremely difficult. The letter was written in an informal style, with inconsistent spelling, medieval abbreviations, and old Anglo-Saxon symbols that are now nearly incomprehensible.
Through artificial intelligence analysis, researchers were able to uncover the full content of the letter, in which Margery confides to her fiancé the pain and anxiety she was experiencing due to the conflict between the two families over the marriage dowry.
In the letter, she writes that she had a "heavy heart" because her mother had failed to persuade her father to increase the dowry amount, as demanded by the groom's family. However, Margery promises John that her love would not change, even if he were to lose half his fortune. She also asks her fiancé to keep the letter a secret.
Despite the difficulties and financial pressure, the story had a happy ending. Margery and John married and later had a son, William, in 1479.
The letter is part of the famous "Paston Letters" collection, which contains over 400 letters written over three generations by an English family in Norfolk and is considered one of the most important historical sources for social life in medieval England.
Researchers also discovered that some descendants of the couple still exist today and reacted with emotion upon learning of their connection to this 15th-century love story.