Britain's prime minister during World War II, Winston Churchill, was "pigheaded", 19th century writer Charles Dickens was "arrogant" while noted philosopher Karl Marx was a "difficult" person who "liked to get his own way", an analysis of their handwriting has revealed.
Graphologists have studied the handwritings of politicians, monarchs and philosophers in documents exhibited for the first time by The National Archives in Kew, southwest London.
These include the 1874 naturalisation papers of Marx, 16th century papers relating to the divorce of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon and signed telegrams from Churchill to then US president Harry Truman in the 1940s.
"Churchill was fascinating because his script was very like a sample of Cleopatra's writing: small, fast and not very legible," Diane Simpson, a handwriting consultant who carried out the research for The National Archives, told The Sunday Telegraph.
"It is the written equivalent of someone lowering their voice so that the listener has to strain to hear -- almost as if they are saying 'let them work at it if they want to know what I'm saying'. It's a rebellious, bloody-minded way of writing," she said.
"Marx was also interesting because he signed off his naturalisation papers as 'Carl', possibly to make his name seem less foreign. He comes across as a judgmental, difficult person who liked to get his own way," she said.
The analysts were not told whose handwriting they were looking at.
The full set of original documents will be on display from Monday at The National Archives as part of an exhibition called 'Movers and Shakers: Geoffrey Chaucer to Elton John'.
According to the analysis, Churchill's small, hasty script demonstrates his "wilfulness and determination" not to live by the rules.
Dickens, the author of Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield and Oliver Twist, displayed his self-importance with his large signature underlined with a flourish.
Marx, who co-wrote The Communist Manifesto in 1848, had a tendency to run his words together -- evidence of his determination to go his own way and not listen to anyone else's opinion, according to graphologists.
Henry VIII's bold, careless script was evidence of his attention-seeking nature and moodiness.
On the other hand, his daughter Elizabeth I, was "independent, detail-conscious and goal-oriented".
Graphologists analysed the writing by measuring pressure, size, slant, spacing, baseline and connection.
Heavy pressure, akin to emphasis speech, reflected purpose, anger or impatience. Large writing, like volume in speech, demonstrated the desire to attract attention, while slanted writing indicated enthusiasm or emotion.
Wide spaces between words showed an author who prefers to isolate themselves from their environment, while mostly joined up writing implied, logic, single-mindedness and diligence, the report said.
The ability to write in a straight line revealed the writer's capacity to maintain equilibrium while an erratic baseline implied mood changes and flightiness, it said.
