French love letters confiscated during Seven Years' War read for first time 265 years later

Love letters, both familial and romantic, were opened for the first time in 265 years at the request of a Cambridge University professor. They were written during the Seven Years' War.

"The messages offer extremely rare and moving insights into the loves, lives and family quarrels of everyone from elderly peasants to wealthy officers' wives," author Tom Almeroth-Williams writes after they were opened and read for the first time in 265 years.

Many of the photographed letters show they were wax-sealed, handwritten and "provide precious new evidence about French women and [laborers], as well as different forms of literacy."