# How ancient are the oldest documents which are still classified? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 6, 2013, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-ancient-are-the-oldest-documents-which-are-still-classified/665479 "2013-08-06T09:30:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-ancient-are-the-oldest-documents-which-are-still-classified/665479/61 "2015-05-28T23:12:23Z")
> [@Jesta](#): > > So, this is what came of french letters? > [@Leo\_Bloom](#): > > What now came in French letters? [Jr Modding] Okay, you two, if you can’t keep it clean, maybe you should take your filthy talk elsewhere. [/Jr Modding] 😉 ETA: And **Leo** , I think you meant “who,” not “what.” ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2015, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-ancient-are-the-oldest-documents-which-are-still-classified/665479/62 "2015-05-28T23:20:19Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#): > > Ridiculous. > > Knowledge of history is paramount. > > Historical information \>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\> Petty insecurities by idiots at government x. Yes, yes, meanwhile on Planet Earth, the one populated with Humans… ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-ancient-are-the-oldest-documents-which-are-still-classified/665479/63 "2015-05-29T00:00:01Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > William Wallace could not have been Edward III’s father. He died seven years before Edward III was born. It was a difficult pregnancy. ---
**Author:** ![Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90ced4/32.png) [@Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waltzes_with_Cacti)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-ancient-are-the-oldest-documents-which-are-still-classified/665479/64 "2015-05-29T00:00:08Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > But that would make no difference at all. Her child would not be heir to the throne or anything. > ’ > Wanting to respect the privacy of the dead is not the same as "classified documents’ and in fact there no document here in any case. Oh, there _are_ documents. There are letters and journals. Go back and read my post about the royal archives and he Argyll ducal records. The Lococks don’t want the throne. They just want to know the truth about their ancestry. There is a lot of circumstantial evidence that points towards the story being true. As for disturbing the dead, _ **the same cemetery that is thwarting the Lococks moved hundred of bodies so they could build a coffee shop. And they gave those bodies to an osteological research lab instead of reburying them.** _ Yes, there’s a coverup and it includes suppressed documents. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-ancient-are-the-oldest-documents-which-are-still-classified/665479/65 "2015-05-29T01:34:42Z")
> [@Kinthalis](#): > > Ridiculous. > > Knowledge of history is paramount. > > Historical information \>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\>\> Petty insecurities by idiots at government x. I’d say that the two are about equal. Knowledge of history only means that history books, great and not-so-great will be written. Nobody will heed it, except for those who buy history books. ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 1:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-ancient-are-the-oldest-documents-which-are-still-classified/665479/66 "2015-05-29T01:36:15Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Yes, yes, meanwhile on Planet Earth, the one populated with Humans… Ouch! Ninja’d. ---
**Author:** ![HeXen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@HeXen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeXen)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-ancient-are-the-oldest-documents-which-are-still-classified/665479/67 "2015-05-29T01:48:45Z")
Usually secret archives are not really secret per say, rather they are so irreplaceable and frail that only the most trusted of researchers could ever be permitted to look at them. There are also “secret” historical artifacts but again they are not really hidden or a secret just that they are one of a kind and perhaps no one has any way right now to find out more information until the technology arises. ---
**Author:** ![Isilder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/cc9497/32.png) [@Isilder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isilder)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-ancient-are-the-oldest-documents-which-are-still-classified/665479/68 "2015-05-29T05:35:48Z")
> [@Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](#): > > Queen Victoria’s daughter Princess Louise (1848-1939) is rumoured to have given birth to an illegitimate baby boy. She was married off to the heir to the Duke of Argyll. Leopold’s personal assistant/nurse was sacked about the same time. Leopold’s teacher, a bishop, was also sacked because Louise was in love with him !.. That same bishop was rowing for Lewis Carol when Alice in Wonderland was first authored… And may have given Louise council on sexual matters… It seems odd the doctor then marries some lower class person who already has two children , AND adopts a third. However he may have been sexually dysfunctional since he never had children of his own, and she may have been injured, sexually useless, by childbirth. He would have had been involved in many births to unwed mothers, and mothers who died during childbirth, the adoption could be from anywhere… the money may have been purely goodwill for being good in terms of service to the poor, and teaching of other doctors. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2015, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-ancient-are-the-oldest-documents-which-are-still-classified/665479/69 "2015-05-29T13:29:27Z")
> [@Waltzes\_with\_Cacti](#): > > Several years ago the writer Lucinda Hawksley was researching a bio of Louise with an eye to confirming or refuting the baby rumours. She attempted to obtain access to letters and journal entries by or about the princess in the royal archives and the Argyll family records. On both fronts Hawksley was firmly rebuffed. No documents pertaining to Louise were released. I have to say that Hawksley’s claims struck me from the start as being overhyped nonsense. Indeed, I have a strong suspicion that she’s an object lesson in how a clueless amateur can be their own worst enemy when attempting even the simplest types of historical research. That the Royal Archives contain some documents relating to Princess Louise is not a secret and some historians have been given access to them. But sensible, experienced historians know that when dealing with the Royal Archives, you first need to convince its staff that you are indeed sensible and experienced. Before accepting Hawksley’s claims about why she was denied access, I would want to get a sense that she isn’t a nutter with an agenda. Which, as it happens, is probably exactly the same test that the staff of the Royal Archives applied when considering her application. And it’s not as if they would have told her that if that was the real reason. In any case, the chances of anything incriminating surviving in the Royal Archives can confidently be said to be zero. It is now well-known that the royal papers for that period were systematically weeded, first by Princess Beatrice and then, on an even more extensive scale, by Lord Esher. See Jane Ridley’s _Bertie_ and Yvonne Ward’s _Censoring Queen Victoria_ for the full hair-raising details. As for the Argyll archives at Inveraray, successive dukes have long been notorious for allowing no access at all to any of their papers for any period and on any subject. So there is no reason to suppose that they consider Princess Louise’s papers to be more sensitive than anything else they have. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-ancient-are-the-oldest-documents-which-are-still-classified/665479.md?page=3)