Remember the Man in the Iron Mask?

Remember the Man in the Iron Mask? Today is the anniversary of the death of the mysterious prisoner who for more than thirty years was hidden in French prisons under various names, in almost complete isolation from human company and constantly masked, on pain of instant death should his face and identity be revealed.

The Mask was already being written about in the eighteenth century. Voltaire was the first to suggest that the prisoner wore an iron mask, although some genuine witnesses indicated that it was made of velvet. Whom the French crown concealed for 34 years, even from his gaolers, remains a riddle to this day: an illegitimate son of Louis XIV, or a son of Oliver Cromwell, or perhaps the real father of Louis XIV, or François, Duke of Beaufort, or perhaps Cardinal Mazarin, or an illegitimate son of Charles II of England. One of the more outlandish versions names the prisoner as the real Peter I, taken captive during the Grand Embassy.

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

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Frederic Leighton

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Remember the Man in the Iron Mask?

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September digest: archaeological finds, exhibitions, museums, theatre and the Church

Frederic Leighton

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