The Man in the Iron Mask was a prisoner believed to have been held in the Bastille prison from an unknown date to his death on November 19, 1703. The identity of this man has been thoroughly discussed, mainly because no one ever saw his face as it was hidden by a black velvet mask, which later re-tellings of the story have said to have been an iron mask. The Bastille The Bastille was a prison in Paris, known formally as Bastille Saint-Antoine—Number 232, Rue Saint-Antoine. ... November 19 is the 323rd day of the year (324th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events February 2 - Earthquake in Aquila, Italy February 4 - In Japan, the 47 samurai commit seppuku (ritual suicide) February 14 - Earthquake in Norcia, Italy April 21 - Company of Quenching of Fire (ie. ...

The prisoner

The first surviving records of the masked prisoner are from July 1, 1669, when Louis XIV's minister Louvois sent a masked prisoner to the care of governor Marquis de Saint-Mars of the Pignerol prison. Saint-Mars was ordered to take a special care of this prisoner. He was to be kept incommunicado and Saint-Mars was told to threaten him with death if he ever tried to talk about anything else than his own personal affairs. The prisoner was to be treated well but he had been ordered to remain silent and masked at all times. Saint-Mars himself had been ordered to feed him. The first rumors of the prisoner's identity (as a Marshal of France) began to circulate at this point. July 1 is the 182nd day of the year (183rd in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 183 days remaining. ... // Events Samuel Pepys stopped writing his diary. ... For the musical group of the same name, see Louis XIV (band). ... François Michel le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois (January 18, 1641 - July 16, 1691), was the French war minister under Louis XIV. He was born in Paris to Michel le Tellier. ... Pinerolo is a town 40 km southwest of Turin. ... The Marshal of France (maréchal de France) was one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France. ...

Although the legend states that the prisoner wore the mask at all times, it is more probable that he was masked only during transport—such as when he was transported from prison to prison—and when there were outside guests in the prison.

Saint-Mars took the prisoner with him to his subsequent postings in l'Exiles prison and in May 1687 to the island of Sainte Marguerite, one of the Isles of Lérins. Sainte-Marguerite (French for Saint Margaret) is the name of several communes in France: Sainte-Marguerite, in the Haute-Loire d partement Sainte-Marguerite, in the Vosges d partement It is part of the name of several communes: Sainte-Marguerite-de-Carrouges, in the Orne d partement Sainte-Marguerite-de... The Isles of Lérins are two small islands near Cannes, France: The ÃŽle de Sainte-Marguerite and the ÃŽle de Saint-Honorat. ...

On September 18, 1698, Saint-Mars came to take his new post as a governor of the Bastille prison, bringing the masked prisoner with him. The prisoner was placed in a solitary cell in the pre-furnished third chamber of the Bertaudiere tower. The prison's second-in-command, de Rosarges, was to feed him. Most of the details of the masked man (continuous wearing of a mask and preferential treatment) come from Lieutenant du Junca of Bastille. September 18 is the 261st day of the year (262nd in leap years). ... Events January 4 - Palace of Whitehall in London is destroyed by fire. ...

The prisoner died on November 19, 1703, and was buried the next day under the name of Marchioly. All his furniture and clothing were reportedly destroyed afterwards. November 19 is the 323rd day of the year (324th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar. ... Events February 2 - Earthquake in Aquila, Italy February 4 - In Japan, the 47 samurai commit seppuku (ritual suicide) February 14 - Earthquake in Norcia, Italy April 21 - Company of Quenching of Fire (ie. ...

Vivien de Bulonde

The fate of the mysterious prisoner - and the extent of apparent precautions his jailers took - created much interest and many legends. However the truth emerged eventually.

In 1890 Louis Gendron, a French military historian, came across some coded letters and passed them on to Etienne Bazeries in the French Army's cryptographic department. After three years Bazeries managed to read some messages in the Great Cypher of Louis XIV. One of them referred to a prisoner and identified him as General Vivien de Bulonde. One of the letters written by François de Louvois made specific reference to de Bulonde's crime. 1890 was a common year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ... Étienne Bazeries (21 August 1846 - 7 November 1931) was a French military cryptanalyst active between 1890 and the First World War. ... In the history of cryptography, the Great Cipher was a nomenclator cipher developed by the Rossignols, several generations of whom served the French Crown as cryptographers. ...

At the siege of Cuneo, Bulonde was concerned about enemy troops arriving from Austria and ordered a hasty withdrawal, leaving behind his munitions and wounded men. Louis XIV was furious and in another of the letters specifically ordered him "to be conducted to the fortress at Pignerole where he will be locked in a cell and under guard at night, and permitted to walk the battlements during the day with a mask". The dates of the letters fit the dates of the original records about the man in the mask. Cuneo (pop. ...

Given the evidence of the letters, there is now little need of an alternative explanation for the man in the mask. However, there were already other theories in existence and some others were propounded before the existence of the letters was widely known. Later commentators have still presented their own theories, possible based on embellished versions of the original tale, mixed with details from stories of other famous contemporary prisoners.

The legends and alternative theories

Contemporary claims about his identity included that he was a Marshal of France; or Oliver Cromwell; or Francois de Vendôme, Duc de Beaufort. Later, many people from Voltaire to Benjamin Franklin have put forward theories about the man in the mask. Unfinished portrait miniature of Oliver Cromwell by Samuel Cooper, 1657. ... François de Vendôme, the Duc de Beaufort (January 16, 1616 – 25 June 1669) was the illegitimate grandson of Henri IV of France. ... Duc de Beaufort was a title in the French nobility. ... The last of Voltaires statues by Jean-Antoine Houdon (1781). ... Benjamin Franklin by Jean-Baptiste Greuze 1777 Benjamin Franklin (January 17, 1706 – April 17, 1790) was one of the most prominent of Founders and early political figures and statesmen of the United States. ...

1. In 1711 the Palatine Princess Charlotte-Elizabeth of Bavaria claimed that the man was an exiled English nobleman who had been involved with the Fenwick affair to depose William III.
2. Louis XV and XVI have been attributed as saying that the prisoner was Ercole Antonio Mattioli, minister of Duke of Mantua. Mattioli had been involved with Louis XIV's intrigues in Italy and betrayed his secret negotiations with Duke Charles III of Mantua, for the purchase of an important border fortress. He was registered with a prison pseudonym "Lestang".
3. Voltaire claimed that the prisoner was a son of Mazarin and Anne of Austria and therefore an illegitimate older half-brother of King Louis XIV. How serious he was is hard to say. Alexandre Dumas used this theory in his book, The Vicomte de Bragelonne but made the prisoner a twin brother.
4. In 1801 revolutionary legislator Roux Fazaillac stated that the tale of the masked prisoner was an amalgamation of the fates of two separate prisoners, Mattioli and an imprisoned valet named Eustache Dauger.
5. In 1801 there emerged a legend, probably created by supporters of Napoleon Bonaparte, that the mysterious prisoner was the real Louis XIV himself and that Cardinal Mazarin had had him replaced by a more suitable candidate. Legend also held that he had married in prison and sired a son, who would have been taken to Corsica to become one of Napoleon's forefathers. This was most probably an intentionally spread political rumor.
6. One theory is that Eustache Dauger was a valet of imprisoned minister Nicolas Fouquet, also under the guard of Saint-Mars. (The masked man had been assigned to serve as his valet in one point.) After Fouquet's death, the king was afraid that the servant could reveal state secrets if released, so he remained in prison for the next 23 years, until his death. Additional rumors claimed, yet again, that Dauger was in fact twin brother of Louis XIV.
7. Andrew Lang, in his The Valet's Tragedy and Other Stories (1903), presented a theory that Eustache Dauger was a prison pseudonym of a man called Martin, valet of French Huguenot Roux de Marsilly. After his master's execution in 1669 the valet was taken to France, possibly by capture or subterfuge, and imprisoned because he might have known too much about his master's affairs. Dauger was later assigned to become one of Fouquet's valets in prison, the other being named La Riviere. Dauger was still in the same prison when Mattioli arrived and he was later transferred with Saint-Mars to his next postings. Tales about Mattioli, Dauger and some of the other prisoners would have been later merged into the story of a single one.
8. In The Man of the Mask (1908) Barnes presents James de la Cloche, the illegitimate but acknowledged son of Charles II, who would have been his father's secret intermediary with the Catholic court of France. Louis XIV could have imprisoned him because he knew too much about French affairs with England.
9. Other suggested candidates have included James, Duke of Monmouth, Armenian patriarch Avedick and Molière.

A palatinate is an area administered by a count palatine, originally the direct representative of the sovereign but later the hereditary ruler of the territory subject to the crowns overlordship. ... The Wittelsbach family is a European royal family and a German dynasty from Bavaria. ... William III of England (14 November 1650–8 March 1702; also known as William II of Scotland and William III of Orange) was a Dutch aristocrat and a Protestant Prince of Orange from his birth, King of England and King of Ireland from 13 February 1689, and King of Scots... Louis XV in 1712, dressed as a girl, as was customary at the time for very young boys of the aristocracy The regent, Philippe dOrléans Louis XV (February 16, 1710 – May 10, 1774), called the Well-Beloved (French: le Bien-Aimé), was King of France from 1715 to... Louis XVI (August 9, 1754, Versailles – January 21, 1793, Paris) was King of France and Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then King of the French in 1791-1793. ... Ercole Antonio Mattioli (1640-1694) was a minister of duke Charles IV of Mantua who was later captured and imprisoned by Louis XIV of France. ... Mantua (in Italian Mantova) is a city in Lombardy, Italy and capital of the province with the same name. ... The last of Voltaires statues by Jean-Antoine Houdon (1781). ... Anne of Austria Anne of Austria (September 22, 1601 _ January 20, 1666) was Queen Consort of France and Regent for her son, Louis XIV of France. ... For the musical group of the same name, see Louis XIV (band). ... Alexandre Dumas, père, born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (July 24, 1802 – December 5, 1870), is best known for his numerous historical novels of high adventure which have made him the most widely read French author in the world. ... The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later (Le Vicomte de Bragelonne ou Dix ans plus tard) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. ... The Union Jack, flag of the newly formed United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. ... Bonaparte as general Napoleon Bonaparte ( 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821) was a general of the French Revolution and was the ruler of France as First Consul (Premier Consul) of the French Republic from November 11, 1799 to May 18, 1804, then as Emperor of the French (Empereur des Français... Jules Cardinal Mazarin, French diplomat and statesman Jules Cardinal Mazarin, born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino (July 14, 1602, Pescina, Italy – March 9, 1661, Vincennes, France) served as the chief minister of France from 1642, until his death. ... A valet or gentlemans gentleman is a mans male servant. ... Nicolas Fouquet (January 27, 1615 — March 23, 1680) was viscount of Melun and of Vaux, marquis de Belle-Isle, superintendent of finance in France under Louis XIV. Born in a bathtub, he belonged to an influential family of carnivores, and after some preliminary schooling with the Jesuits, at the age... For the former National Basketball Association player, see Andrew Lang (basketball player). ... In the 16th and 17th centuries, the name of Huguenots came to apply to members of the Protestant Reformed Church of France, or historically as the French Calvinists. ... Roux de Marsilly (???-1669) was a French Huguenot conspirator against Louis XIV of France. ... James de la Cloche (1644?-1669?) is an alleged would-be-illegitimate son of Charles II of England who would have first joined a Jesuit seminary and then gave up his habit to marry an Napolitan woman. ... Charles II (29 May 1630–6 February 1685) was the King of England, King of Scots, and King of Ireland from 30 January 1649 (retrospectively de jure) or 29 May 1660 (de facto) until his death. ... James Crofts, later Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth, 1st Duke of Buccleuch (April 9, 1649–July 15, 1685) recognised by some as James II of England and James VII of Scotland, was born in Rotterdam in the Netherlands, the son of Charles II and his mistress, Lucy Walter, who had... Molière, engraved frontispiece to his Works Jean-Baptiste Poquelin, better known as Molière (January 15, 1622 – February 17, 1673), was a French theatre writer, director and actor, one of the masters of comic satire. ...

See also

• The Man in the Iron Mask (movie)
• L'homme au masque de fer was an 1848 book by Alexandre Dumas, père, based on this legend, the third volume of Dumas's novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne.
• Princess Tarakanova - a Russian version of the Man in the Iron Mask

There have been several movies entitled The Man in the Iron Mask, all based on the final section of the novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne by Alexandre Dumas, which was itself based on the 18th century myth of the Man in the Iron Mask. ... See also: 1847 in literature, other events of 1848, 1849 in literature, list of years in literature. ... Look up book in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Alexandre Dumas, père, born Dumas Davy de la Pailleterie (July 24, 1802 – December 5, 1870), is best known for his numerous historical novels of high adventure which have made him the most widely read French author in the world. ... The Vicomte de Bragelonne: Ten Years Later (Le Vicomte de Bragelonne ou Dix ans plus tard) is a novel by Alexandre Dumas, père. ... An 1864 painting by Konstantin Flavitsky depicts the legend that Tarakanova was killed by a 1777 flood. ...

External links

• Free eBook of The Man in the Iron Mask at Project Gutenberg