More plausibly, recent historians have suggested that the man could have been "Eustache Dauger", a man involved with several political scandals in the late 17th century.
Others suggested that he was Louis de Bourbon, Louis XIV's illegitimate son, who hadn't died on the battlefield at all and had instead been secretly imprisoned by his dad. Did the Queen actually father the child with another man in order to provide a male heir? Louis was born very late in his parents' marriage, and they may have struggled to conceive. What are the theories surrounding the identity of the Man in the Iron Mask?Ī postcard showing the Man in the Iron Mask living in luxury (Getty) Was the Man in the Iron Mask actually King Louis' father?ĭuring the Nine Years' War, the Dutch encouraged claims that the masked prisoner was a former lover of the queen mother, making him the king's real biological father – and making Louis himself illegitimate. It's even possible that the mask was only worn when the prisoner was being transferred from one prison to another, and that most of the time he was unmasked. The prisoner's cell only contained a sleeping mat.Īmong historians, there is agreement that this masked man existed, but it's not entirely clear what his mask was made of: some said black velvet, some said iron, and some said leather. Documents discovered in 2015 shed some light on the true story of the prisoner – and reveal that the jailer diverted the funds paid by King Louis XIV for the prisoner's maintenance into his own pocket. A Bastille official wrote in his memoirs about the arrival of his new boss (Saint-Mars) alongside a man "who is always masked and whose name is never pronounced."īut despite their 34 years together, Saint-Mars was reportedly no friend of the Man in the Iron Mask. There were rumours about this mysterious masked prisoner during his lifetime, and many written records do declare his existence. Together they moved between a number of prisons including the Bastille and the Fortress of Pignerol, until he died under the name of "Marchioly" on 19th November 1703. The masked man was said to be kept in the custody of a jailer and former musketeer named Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars, for the whole 34 years of his imprisonment. His identity was unknown – because, you guessed it, he was forced to wear a mask that completely obscured his face. "The Man in the Iron Mask" is the name given to an unidentified prisoner arrested during the reign of French king Louis XIV and held in prison until his death. An engraving of the Man in the Iron Mask from the 19th century (Getty)
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