Scores of French love letters from the mid-18th century have been opened and studied for the first time since they were written. The letters – sent to French sailors by wives, siblings and ...

More than 100 letters, addressed to French sailors, were never delivered. They remained unopened for nearly 250 years, until a historian found them in Britain’s archives.

The letters from wives, girlfriends, parents and siblings of sailors aboard the French navy ship Galatée were written in 1758, while France and Britain were at war.

In one letter, Marguerite Lemoyne, a 61-year-old mother, scolds her son Nicolas Quesnel for not writing: / The National Archives/Renaud Morieux The National Archives/Renaud Morieux ...