The Man in the Iron Mask
Anonymous; cropped by Beyond My Ken (talk) 09:23, 30 April 2010 (UTC), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
“The Man in the Iron Mask” is a moniker given to an unidentified French prisoner in the 17th and 18th century whose face was perpetually hidden. Contemporary accounts suggest that the mask was most likely made of black velvet, rather than iron. Many believe that The Man in the Iron Mask was a nobleman or someone very close to nobility. All seem to agree that he was incarcerated for either his appearance or something he knew rather than something he did.
At the time it was rumored that The Man in the Iron Mask was imprisoned at the behest of the Sun King himself, Louis XIV, King of France. In fact, the first recorded mention of The Man in the Iron Mask was in a letter to the governor of Pignerol Prison, Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars from one of Louis XIV’s ministers, Marquis de Louvois in 1669. In the letter, Louvois informs Saint-Mars that The Man in the Iron Mask will be arriving at the prison within the month and that the governor should prepare a cell with multiple doors, one closing upon the other to prevent eavesdropping. Louvois also tells Saint-Mars to only contact the prisoner once a day and to inform the prisoner that if he spoke of anything other than his immediate needs, he would be executed. Louvois went on to assure the governor that the prisoner shouldn’t be too much trouble, since he was “only a valet.” But, if The Man in the Iron Mask was only a valet, then why all the security? The letter between Louvois and Saint-Mars also stated that the prisoner’s name was Eustache Dauger, but the name appeared to be added later than the rest of the letter, it was written in different ink and handwriting.
Saint-Mars was transferred four times and each time The Man in the Iron Mask was moved along with him; For thirty-four years the captor and jailer traveled the prisons of France together. Their final prison was the infamous Bastille, where the Man in the Iron Mask died in 1703. The anonymous prisoner was buried under the name “Marchioly.” One Bastille official wrote in his memoirs that Saint-Mars constantly accompanied the prisoner “who is always masked and whose name is never pronounced.”
“Dauger” was eventually given permission to serve as a valet to a high-ranking prisoner, the former superintendent of finances, Nicolas Fouquet. Fouquet was the only person Dauger was allowed contact with. Why was Fouquet allowed access to The Man in the Iron Mask when no one else was permitted to speak with him? While Foquet was expected to remain incarcerated for the rest of his life, he was still permitted to write letters and receive visitors. If The Man in the Iron Mask was really a nobleman, then working as a valet would be considered beneath him, even if he was a criminal.
There was actually an imprisoned nobleman named Eustache Dauger de Cavoye, but he was already imprisoned in a different prison, at the time of the first mention of The Man in the Iron Mask. Eushache Dauger de Cavoye was mentioned in a poem composed by a fellow inmate, in which it is claimed that Dauger de Cavoye died in the 1680’s, twenty years before The Man in the Iron Mask died in The Bastille.
Many years after the death of The Man in the Iron Mask, French philosopher and writer Voltaire was sent to The Bastille. Voltaire became intrigued by prison gossip about The Man in the Iron Mask. He began recording the convicts’ impressions. Several of the Bastille’s older prisoners described The Man in the Iron Mask as being of “majestic height, young, of a graceful and noble figure. With refined manners, played guitar, served fine food and kept away from contact with other prisoners, visited only by the governor.” Voltaire described the mask as being made of iron, “the chin composed of steel springs, which gave him the liberty to eat with it on.” Most contemporary accounts, however, describe the mask as being black velvet. Voltaire claimed that The Man in the Iron Mask was an older, illegitimate brother of Louis XIV, imprisoned because he was a threat to the king.and out
Alexandre Dumas, author of The Three Musketeers, wrote that The Man in the Iron Mask was the identical twin of the king. The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later, the prisoner’s face was hidden because of his resemblance to the king, which would cause a threat to the line of succession. Identical twins, did, in fact, run in the French royal family.
Another theory posits that The Man in the Iron Mask was the birth father of King Louis XVI. Before the birth of Louis XIV, his father, Louis XIII had been estranged from his wife for fourteen years, additionally he was old and sick. If he died without an heir, the throne would have gone to Louis’s younger brother, Gaston. The king’s minister, the notoriously schemy Cardinal Richelieu, didn’t get along with Gaston and would have lost his position and possibly his life if Gaston came to power. According to the theory, Richeilieu arranged for another man to impregnate the queen and then run off to the new world. The mysterious baby daddy then supposedly returned when Louis XVI was an adult, attempting to extort money from the king, and wound up behind a mask.
Other theories propound the prisoner was the illegitimate son or bastard half-brother of Louis XIV, the queen’s lover, the king’s favorite mistress’s lover, the queen’s lover, and various other disgraced generals and noblemen or illegitimate children of various European kings.
Whatever his identity, The Man in the Iron Mask has captured the imagination of people for five hundred years. If The Man in the Iron Mask was indeed just valet, why bother to keep him alive, hidden, and so carefully guarded, especially considering that at that time in France working class people could be put to death for pretty much any reason? So why keep him alive if he had committed a crime serious enough to be imprisoned for the rest of his life? And why keep his face covered? What were his captors afraid the world would see?
