Dumas the man in the iron mask. The prisoner in the iron mask: who was he really?
Iron mask(French Le masque de fer) - a mysterious prisoner of the times of Louis XIV, held in various prisons, including the Bastille, and wore a velvet mask (later legends turned this mask into an iron one). Died November 19, 1703.
A mask is a symbol of transformation, change and at the same time concealment, mystery. The mask is endowed with the ability to transform what is present into what is desired, to overcome the edge of one’s own nature; This is the magical aspect of transformation, characteristic of both the masks of religious rituals and the masks of theatrical performances (derived from the former). The mask is also given a negative meaning. So, according to belief, changing identities is characteristic of evil spirits(“The undead do not have their own appearance, they walk in disguises”). This is due to the extremely negative attitude of the church towards national holidays, including an element of carnival, “change of disguise.”
The first information about a man named “Iron Mask” appeared in the Dutch work “Mémoires secrets pour servir à l’histoire de Perse” in 1745. According to these memoirs, the "Iron Mask" is the Duke of Vermandois, illegitimate son King Louis XIV and Madame La Valliere, who slapped his half-brother, the Grand Dauphin, and atoned for this guilt with eternal imprisonment. According to the official version, Vermandois died in his youth in 1683. Voltaire, in his “Siècle de Louis XIV” (1751), aroused general interest in this mysterious personality, regarding whom various hypotheses were expressed.
Some Dutch writers suggested that the "iron mask" was a foreigner, a young nobleman, chamberlain to Queen Anne of Austria and real father Louis XIV. Reliable information about the “iron mask” was first given by the Jesuit Griffay, who was confessor in the Bastille for 9 years, in his “Traité des différentes sortes de preuves qui servent à établir la vérité dans l'Histoire” (1769), where he cites the diary of the royal lieutenant in Bastille and list of the dead of St. Paul's Church. According to this diary, on September 19, 1698, a prisoner was delivered from the island of St. Margaret in a stretcher, whose name was unknown and whose face was constantly covered with a black velvet (not iron) mask.
This prisoner died, according to the diary, on November 19, 1703. In general, Griffay was inclined to the opinion expressed in “Mémoires secrets” about the identity of the “iron mask.” In the seventh edition of the Philosophical Dictionary, in the article Anne of Austria, Voltaire returned to the history of the “iron mask”, pointing out that he knows more than Griffay, but, as a Frenchman, must remain silent.
One modern interpreter of Nostradamus, a specialist in the field of esoteric numerology, suggests that between quatrains 96 and 95 of Centuria I there is - in addition to location - a certain hidden connection that can be traced on the basis of Kabbalistic doctrines, the relationship between combinations of letters of the Hebrew alphabet and digital manipulations known as called the "Kabbalah of the Nine Chambers". Probably the religious leader mentioned in quatrain 96 of Centuria I (“destroyer of temples and sects”) should be the mysterious child about whom Nostradamus writes in quatrain 95 of the same Century
“Near the monastery they will find a child - one of two twins,
Coming from an old monastic family.
His fame, influence over sects and eloquence will be such that everyone will say:
This is the person we need."
Commentators of the 19th century - and some of the modern ones - traditionally associated this quatrain with the personality of the French king Louis XIV. There was a legend that he was the illegitimate son of Cardinal Mazarin and had a twin brother. To avoid problems with the succession to the throne, Louis's brother was imprisoned as an infant, where he eventually grew old and died without uttering a single word in his life. Nobody knew this prisoner, and he went down in history under the name Iron Mask. However, recent research has shown that the old interpretation of quatrain 95 of Centuria I is incorrect, because although the man in the iron mask existed, he was not the twin brother of Louis XIV. Accordingly, there is no reason to deny that the character of this quatrain is a child who later became the leader of traditional Christianity (see quatrain 96). However, even if this version is finally confirmed, the words about the origin of the child from an “ancient monastic family” should not be taken in a literal sense - perhaps Nostradamus symbolically characterized the deep religious beliefs of this person.
A twin or double can act as a twin symbol, embodying the principle of duality of all phenomena. The image of the double suggests duality of elements, balanced symmetry and a dynamic balance of opposing forces. Duality can develop along two lines - this is both a bifurcation and a doubling of a being. The belief in the existence of doubles of people and animals is characteristic of many cultures. The image of a double is usually associated with tragic themes, since, like any manifestation of multiplicity, doubling has suffering and evil as its attribute. So, for example, in German folklore the image of a doppleganger (literally translated as “double ghost”) appears, meeting which promises death to a person; a similar idea exists in Scottish folklore. Another aspect of the image is associated with the figure of the double as the personification of the spiritual principle, the soul. The ancient Egyptians believed that the double, ka, is exact copy human, invisible to ordinary people. Not only people have Ka, but also gods, plants and animals, even stones. The deity's double could tell the priests about the past and future. The Romans believed that every person has a double spirit - a protective genius.
favorite and mistress of King Louis XIV
Versions about the identity of the person “Iron Mask”
Illegitimate brother of Louis XIV. The publisher added a note to this article stating that the “iron mask” was the elder brother of Louis XIV, the illegitimate son of Anne of Austria, whose belief in sterility was refuted by the birth of this son; she then gave birth to Louis XIV by her husband. Louis XIV, having learned, already of age, about this brother, ordered him to be imprisoned. Linguet, in his Bastille devoilée, names the Duke of Buckingham as the father of the iron mask. St. Michel published a book in which he tried to prove secret marriage Queen Anne with Mazarin.
Twin brother of Louis XIV. Abbe Soulavi, who published Mémoires du Maréchal de Richelieu (London and Paris, 1790), tried to prove that the “iron mask” was the twin of Louis XIV. Louis XIII ordered this prince to be raised secretly in order to prevent the misfortunes which were predicted to happen to the royal house from this double birth. After Mazarin's death, Louis XIV learned of his brother's birth, ordered him to be imprisoned and, due to their striking resemblance, forced him to wear an iron mask. During the revolution, this opinion was considered the most correct.
Adventurer Mattioli. According to other sources, the prisoner with the black velvet mask was recorded in the Bastille lists under the name Marchioli. Cenac de Milhan expressed the opinion, on the basis of Italian documents, that the “iron mask” was none other than Mattioli, the minister of Charles Ferdinand of Mantua. Roy-Fazillac joined this opinion in his “Recherches historiques et critiques sur l’homme au masque de fer” (Paris, 1800). Mattioli promised Louis XIV in 1678 that he would persuade his duke to give France the fortress of Casale; he received 100,000 crowns and expensive gifts, but betrayed this secret to Savoy, Spain and Austria. To take revenge on him, the French government lured him into their territory and imprisoned him first on the island of St. Margaret, then in the Bastille.
Other versions. Jung (1873), together with Riese (“Die eiserne Maske”, Greifswald, 1876), claims that the “iron mask” was the Lorraine nobleman Armoise, who in 1672 stood at the head of a conspiracy against Louis XIV in the Spanish Netherlands and was captured in 1673. Others , early discarded and clearly fantastic, versions identified the Iron Mask with Nicolas Fouquet, the minister of Louis XIV, who died in the Bastille, or with the Englishman Duke of Monmouth, who rebelled against James II and was executed in 1685. Alexandre Dumas described the “iron mask” in the novel Vicomte de Bragelon, as the supposed twin brother of the Sun King Louis XIV. His personal jailer was Charles de Batz, Count D'Artagnan.
Igor Merkulov
By the way, Louise-Françoise de Labeaume-Leblanc (French: Louise-Françoise de La Baume Le Blanc, de la Vallière and de Vaujours; August 6, 1644, Tours - June 7, 1710) - Duchess de La Vallière and de Vaujour, favorite of Louis XIV.
She was a maid of honor to Princess Henrietta of Orleans. Despite the fact that she was not very beautiful and had a slight limp, she managed to charm the king with her comeliness and friendly disposition. She had four children by him, of whom two survived: Marie-Anne de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Blois (born 1666) and Louis, Count of Vermandois (born 1667), a supposed prisoner of the Iron Mask.
In dualistic mythologies, one of the twins is endowed with positive symbolism, and the other with negative symbolism, and then together they symbolize mutually balanced good and evil principles. In such cases, as a rule, the motive of rivalry between twin brothers is introduced (the Egyptian myth of Osiris and Seth and Slavic myth about Belobog and Chernobog). In addition, one often encounters the motif of the marriage of twins - brother and sister, symbolizing the unity of the opposites embodied in their images (for example, the marriage of the Egyptian Osiris and Isis). Sometimes twins were assigned two fathers - a common person and totem, in more developed mythological traditions - god; sometimes they were considered the children of an immortal father and a mortal mother. Divine and human characteristics in this case, as a rule, remain separately expressed. So, for example, one of the twins is endowed with immortality and symbolizes the eternal spirituality man, his soul, while the other twin is mortal and personifies the bodily principle subject to destruction. For example, in Greco-Roman mythology, the Dioscuri - the mortal Castor and the immortal Pollux were the sons of Leda and, accordingly, King Tyndareus and Zeus. There is an ancient Indo-European cult of twins. Its characteristic features are the connection of the twin characters with horses (Ashvins - “having horses” - were depicted in the form of two horses), with the sun and with the change of day and night (Dioscuri appear in the sky in the form of the morning and evening star of the constellation Gemini, Ashvins personify the morning and evening twilight), with the alternation of life and death (Castor and Pollux alternately reside in Hades and Olympus).
Quatrains, centuries and prophecies of Nostradamus about the events of world history
Prisoner in the Iron Mask
The mysterious story of the prisoner in the iron mask has haunted novelists, playwrights and historians for several centuries. Who was this unfortunate person doomed to wear a mask for the rest of his life? Is he really the brother of Louis XIV? So far, no documents or evidence have been discovered that could shed light on this historical mystery.
TO mysterious story The prisoner in the iron mask was first attracted by the brilliant Voltaire. In his work “The Age of Louis XIV” he wrote: “An unknown prisoner, taller than average, young, with the noblest bearing, was sent to a castle on the island of Sainte-Margarita, off the coast of Provence. While traveling, he wore a mask with steel latches on the bottom, which allowed him to eat without removing the mask. The order was given to kill him if he took off his mask."
Over the course of twenty years, Voltaire periodically returned to the story of the mysterious prisoner, supplementing it with new facts. Finally, in 1771, in the next re-edition of his work, allegedly from the publisher, he wrote: “The Iron Mask, without a doubt, was the elder brother of Louis XIV...” How did he come to this conclusion? The fact is that the mother of the monarch, Anna of Austria, had a delicate taste, in particular in relation to exquisite linen. The Iron Mask had the same passion. In addition, as Voltaire pointed out, at the time of the appearance of the mysterious prisoner on the historical scene in Europe, the disappearance of any influential and famous person was not noted, so the mask most likely hid the prisoner’s resemblance to some important and well-known person.
"Iron Mask"
Voltaire believed that the Iron Mask was the elder brother of Louis XIV, whom the queen gave birth to from an extramarital affair and raised in secret from everyone, confiding only in Cardinal Richelieu. An even more curious version of the origin of the Iron Mask emerged from the notes of Cardinal Richelieu, in which he reported the birth of twin sons to Anna of Austria on September 5, 1638. Interestingly, the boys were born within a few hours of each other. When the first of them had already been declared the legal heir, the second was born, who, according to the law, was the eldest. The Queen was informed of the death of her second child. As a teenager, the unrecognized prince was sent to England, where he received an upbringing appropriate to his origin. In 1669, the brother of Louis XIV learned the truth about his origins and became part of a conspiracy to regain the throne. The conspiracy was discovered, and the main conspirator, the Huguenot Roux de Marcilli, was captured. Before dying under torture, he admitted that his servant Eustache Dauger was the real king of France. Doge was arrested when he arrived in Dunkirk, and from then on the man had to wear a mask and live in captivity.
However, serious historians consider such a development of events unlikely. Their doubts are based on records and documents related to the identity of Saint-Mars, the chief jailer of the Iron Mask.
Bénigne de Saint-Mars enjoyed the special confidence of Louis XIV and kept the king's especially important prisoners under his supervision. In 1665, this man was the commandant of the Pinerol fortress in the Alps. Here, for the first time, the historical trace of the Iron Mask appears, because it was from this fortress that the mysterious prisoner was transferred in 1681, together with Saint-Mars, to the Egzil fortress. From the registers it is known that in Pinerol Saint-Mars had five prisoners, two of them very famous people: former minister Fouquet and Marshal de Lauzun. Of these two, neither could be the Iron Mask: there was absolutely no need to hide their faces, moreover, Fouquet died in 1680, and Lauzen was released before Saint-Mars moved to Egzille. True, the places in the prison were not empty, and there were still five prisoners. Of these five, Saint-Mars took two with him to his new duty station.
Who were the five prisoners? One of the prisoners was a monk-swindler caught in deceiving the ladies of the court, the other was officer Dubreuil, imprisoned for treason. The third prisoner was the Italian Count Mattioli, who paid with his freedom for deceiving Louis XIV himself; many researchers assigned him the role of a mysterious prisoner. The fourth is Fouquet's servant, who was only guilty of serving his master, who knew many state secrets. Finally, the fifth prisoner was Estache Dauger, who was serving a sentence in a poisoning case.
Of these five, Mattioli was perhaps the best suited for the role of the Iron Mask. Mattioli was a minister at the court of Charles IV, Duke of Mantua, and this courtier was in charge of the fortress of Casale Monferrato, which Louis XIV intended to buy. The French king not only agreed with Mattioli on the sale of the fortress, but also gave him very valuable gifts. It is unknown why Mattioli broke the agreement with the king. In general, the Italian courtier informed many European courts about Louis's plans for the Italian fortress. For the French king, this was a political embarrassment, for which he decided to take revenge on Mattioli. He was kidnapped and imprisoned in Pinerol.
However, it is known that this whole story with the capture of the Italian was not a secret at that time, so there was no point in hiding the face of this prisoner. Additionally, Mattioli would have been 63 years old at the time of Iron Mask's death in the Bastille, while the mystery prisoner was only about 45 years old. After leaving Pinerol, Saint-Mars noted in correspondence that Mattioli and Dubreuil remained in the fortress, and the monk-swindler died. Thus, it becomes clear that Fouquet’s servant and Eustache Doger went to Egzille with Saint-Mars. Fouquet's servant should not have been hidden under a mask, so the mysterious prisoner was clearly Eustache Doget. It is known that in 1694, when Saint-Mars was already the governor of the island of Sainte-Marguerite, Mattioli and Dubreuil again joined him and Dauger. Mattioli soon died, and Saint-Mars again goes to the Bastille, to a new place of service, with two prisoners - one of them in a mask, the other Dubreuil. And this fact confirms that the Iron Mask was Doge.
Why was Doge such an important prisoner? It is believed that he knew some important state secret. In addition, at one time Doge replaced Fouquet’s servant who was ill, serving the former minister, and from him he too could have learned some secrets. Or maybe Doge was actually Louis’s brother? The famous French historian Alain Decaux categorically rejects this version. In his book, he writes: “The Sun King would never have allowed a person of the same blood to be made Fouquet’s lackey!”
What if Doge came illegitimate son some important courtier and looked very much like him? Maybe he tried to blackmail him and ended up in prison for it? Then the respectful attitude towards the prisoner and the reluctance to take his life could be explained.
From the book Following the Book Heroes author Brodsky Boris IonovichIn iron armor Quentin's journey from the castle of Plessis le Tours to Liege began with a dangerous adventure. Important circumstances forced Isabella de Croix to leave french city Tour and head to the Belgian city of Liege. Accompany the young countess and her elderly
From the book Mysticism Ancient Rome. Secrets, legends, traditions author Burlak Vadim NikolaevichSomeone in a mask with a violet But every carnival was not only a holiday. In the Middle Ages, and in the 18th–19th centuries, it carried away a lot human lives. Under the cover of a mask during the holiday, they dealt with unwanted people, committed bloody revenge, destroyed rivals, and
From the book Stalin's Slandered Victory. Assault on the Mannerheim Line author Irincheev Bair KlimentievichLoimola: stalemate on the railway After the capture of Suo-järvi, the 56th Division separated from the neighboring 139th Rifle Division and continued its advance to the west, along the highway and railway Suo-jarvi - Loimola - Vyartsilya - Joensuu. 34th Finnish Army Regiment after the loss of Suo-järvi 3
From the book Hidden Pages of Soviet History. author Bondarenko Alexander YulievichAllen Dulles: the man in the mask The press has more than once quoted from the speech of CIA Director Allen Dulles regarding the priorities of the American post-war doctrine against the USSR. But there is, however, a version that the so-called “Dulles speech in 1945” is a fake,
From the book Stalin against the “degenerates of the Arbat” author Sever AlexanderEmergency on the railway One of the popular myths is that in the twenties and thirties most accidents occurred due to low level training of Soviet railway workers and the fact that almost all the tsarist “specialists” were fired from this industry. If only the “ex” would continue
author Ionina NadezhdaMysterious prisoner No. 6 In the early 1860s, a prisoner appeared in one of the casemates of the Alekseevsky ravelin, whose identity and reasons for his imprisonment for a long time remained a secret even to the prison administration itself. The press of that time did not even dare to mention it
From the book 100 Great Prisoners [with illustrations] author Ionina NadezhdaPrisoner No. 30664 The whole world knows the American writer Williams Sidney Porter under the pseudonym O’Henry. From a few photographs, the face of a typical “average American” looks at us, who had no special features, except for one - literary talent. At the age of 20
From the book Youth and the GPU (The Life and Struggle of Soviet Youth) author Solonevich Boris LukyanovichCentenary Prisoner “The pain of life is stronger than the interest in life. That’s why religion will always win over philosophy.” V. Rozanov In our prison cell there are 18 “regular” places: 18 iron beds screwed to the walls. Now these bunks stand upright, like rusty, bent wrecks.
From the book Study of History. Volume II [Civilizations in Time and Space] author Toynbee Arnold Joseph4. Philosopher in the Mask of a King Another means of salvation, without recourse to either a “time machine” or a sword, was proposed in the first generation of the Hellenic “time of troubles” by the earliest and greatest Hellenic adepts of the art of detachment. “While in the states.”
From the book Hunting the Emperor author Balandin Rudolf KonstantinovichATTEMPTS ON THE RAILROAD The secret brotherhood “Black Redistribution” called on the peasants to gather assemblies and send walkers to the capital with demands to divide all the land and forests between everyone equally without ransoms and urgent payments, to reduce all taxes and duties, to allow
From the book Golgotha of the 20th century. Volume 1 author Sopelnyak Boris NikolaevichPrisoner No. 7 “Written a few minutes before my death. I thank you all, my dears, for all the good things you have done for me. Tell Freiburg that it has caused me boundless pain that, since the Nuremberg trials, I have had to act as if I did not know her. To me
From the book Prisoners of the Bastille author Tsvetkov Sergey EduardovichThe First Prisoner In 1380, Charles V died. With his death, the horrors of internal civil strife were added to the disasters of the Hundred Years' War. The heir to the throne, Charles VI, had not yet reached adulthood. The kingdom ended up in the hands of rival houses: the Dukes of Anjou, Berry,
From the book History of Russian Investigation author Koshel Pyotr AgeevichThe mysterious prisoner Conspiracies were dangerous for Catherine’s government, in particular, the conspiracy of Lieutenant Mirovich of the Smolensk Infantry Regiment, who made an attempt in July 1764 to free Ivan Antonovich and elevate him to the throne. Vasily Mirovich’s grandfather was
From the book Strategies of Genius Women author Badrak Valentin VladimirovichSecrets of the Iron Lady Women's Skeptics political career may rightly object: Margaret Thatcher burst into history so clearly because she to the common man, and it is easier for a scrupulous researcher to identify her than any other politician. Especially since
From the book Russian Explorers - the Glory and Pride of Rus' author Glazyrin Maxim YurievichIron ore processing Tsibakin Yaroslav Fedorovich (Ekaterinoslav, 1911–1989, Hamilton, Ontario), Russian metallurgical engineer. In Canada since 1949. Lead inventor of The Steel Company of Canada Ltd. "Stelco". In 1962, Ya. F. Tsibakin invents a new economical method
From the book Creators and Monuments author Yarov Roman EfremovichWith an iron hand, the crane barely noticeably moved against the flow from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. At this moment, his movement slowed down: another danger threatened. It was necessary to pass the shoal on the left bank. Here the barge was scuttled in advance; the crane stood above it. The pumps started working
The legend of the Iron Mask, the most mysterious of all prisoners, has existed for more than two centuries. Voltaire first told the world about him, and his research formed the basis for stories about the Iron Mask.
“A few months after the death of Mazarin,” writes Voltaire, “an unprecedented event occurred... An unknown prisoner, young and of the noblest bearing, was sent to the castle on the island of St. Margaret (near Provence). On the way, he wore a mask with steel latches on it. lower part of it, which allowed him to eat without removing the mask. Orders were given to kill him if he removed the mask. He remained on the island until a trusted officer of Saint-Mars, the governor of Pinerol, took command of the Bastille in 1690 Mr. did not go to the island of St. Margaret and did not take the prisoner to the Bastille, where he was accommodated as well as could be possible in such a place, and nothing was refused to him, whatever he asked.
The prisoner had a passion for extremely fine linen and lace - and received it. Played the guitar for hours. They prepared the best for him gourmet dishes, and the old doctor of the Bastille, who treated this man, who had peculiar illnesses, said that he had never seen his face, although he often examined his body and tongue. According to the doctor, the prisoner was remarkably built, his skin was slightly dark; The voice was striking just with its intonations alone. This man never complained about his condition, and never once betrayed his origins. The unknown died in 1703. What is doubly surprising is that when he was brought to the island of St. Margaret, not a single disappearance of famous people was recorded in Europe.”
The prisoner was, without a doubt, a noble man. The governor himself set the table for him and then left, having previously locked the cell. One day a prisoner scratched something on a silver plate with a knife and threw it out the window to a boat that was off the shore, right at the foot of the tower. The fisherman in the boat picked up the plate and brought it to the governor. The latter, extremely concerned, asked the fisherman if he had read what was scribbled here, and if anyone had seen it in his hands? The fisherman replied that he could not read and no one had seen the plate.
Voltaire found alive last person, who knew the secret of the Iron Mask - the former minister de Chamillard. His son-in-law, Marshal de La Feuillade, begged his dying father-in-law on his knees to reveal to him who the man in the iron mask really was. Chamilar replied that this was a state secret and he took an oath never to disclose it.
Naturally, Voltaire did not fail to express a number of hypotheses about the mysterious prisoner. Going through the names of nobles who died or disappeared during mysterious circumstances, he concluded that it was certainly neither the Comte de Vermandois nor the Duke de Beaufort, who disappeared only during the siege of Kandy and who could not be identified in the body beheaded by the Turks.
"The Iron Mask was, without a doubt, the elder brother of Louis XIV, whose mother had that special taste in fine linen. After I read about it in the memoirs of the era, the queen's predilection reminded me of the same tendency in the Iron Mask, after which I finally ceased to doubt that it was her son, of which all other circumstances had long convinced me... It seems to me: the more you study the history of that time, the more amazed you are at the coincidence of circumstances that testify in favor of this assumption,” - wrote Voltaire.
But this is a legend. The only thing that can be said with certainty is that after 1665, a prisoner entered the Pinerol castle under the jurisdiction of the governor of Saint-Mars, and this prisoner was the Man in the Iron Mask. The date of his arrival in Pinerol is unknown. Otherwise, it would be possible to immediately establish who was hiding under the mask. The fact is that archival documents relating to the prison, of which Saint-Mars was the head, have been preserved, and they are very accurate: they inform us in detail about the events that took place in Pinerol - the arrival of prisoners, their names, the reasons for their imprisonment, illnesses, deaths, release, if it happened occasionally.
It is indisputably established that the masked man followed Saint-Mars all the way to the Bastille. However, the mask appeared on his face only many years later, when he moved to the Bastille. In 1687 Saint-Mars became governor of the island of St. Margaret; the prisoner was also transferred there. 11 years have passed. The jailer and the prisoner grew old together. Finally, at the age of 72, Saint-Mars was appointed commander of the Bastille. The old order nevertheless remained in force: no one should see the prisoner or speak to him.
Minister Barbezou wrote to Saint-Mars: “The King finds it possible for you to leave the island of St. Margaret and go to the Bastille with your old prisoner, taking all precautions to ensure that no one sees him or knows about him.”
But how to keep a secret? Saint-Mars had an idea: instead of hiding his prisoner, why not hide only his face? It was thanks to this “find” that the Man in the Iron Mask was born. Let us note once again - never before this moment had the mysterious prisoner worn a mask. Saint-Mars managed to keep his secret for a long time. The first time the prisoner put on a mask was during a trip to Paris. In this guise he went down in history...
Actually, the mask was made of black velvet. Voltaire supplied it with steel latches. The authors who took up this topic after him wrote about it as being made “entirely of steel.” It got to the point that historians debated the question of whether the unfortunate prisoner could shave; they mentioned small tweezers, “also made of steel,” for removing hair. (Moreover: in 1885 in Langres, among old scrap iron, they found a mask that perfectly matched Voltaire’s description. There is no doubt: the inscription in Latin confirmed its authenticity...)
In August 1698, Saint-Mars and his prisoner set off. In the journal for registering prisoners of the Bastille, M. du Junca, the royal lieutenant, made the following entry: “On the 18th of September, on Thursday, at 3 o’clock in the afternoon, M. de Saint-Mars, commandant of the Bastille fortress, arrived to take office from the island of St. Margherita, bringing with him his long-time prisoner, kept under his supervision back in Pinerola, who must wear a mask at all times, and his name must not be mentioned; he was placed, immediately upon arrival, in the first cell of the Basinier Tower until nightfall, and at 9 o'clock evening I myself... transferred the prisoner to the third cell of the Bertollier Tower."
Four years later M. du Junca was forced to open the Bastille register once again. A sad event happened: Monsieur Saint-Mars lost his oldest prisoner. Du Junca recorded the following: “On the same day, 1703, November 19th, this unknown prisoner in a black velvet mask, brought by M. de Saint-Mars from the island of St. Margaret and guarded by him for a long time, died around ten o'clock in the evening after feeling a little unwell the day before after Mass, but at the same time he was not seriously ill. Monsieur Giraud, our priest, confessed him. Due to the suddenness of his death, our confessor performed the sacrament of confession literally at the last moment of his life; This long-guarded prisoner was buried in the parish cemetery of Saint-Paul; when registering his death, Monsieur Rosarge, physician, and Monsieur Rey, surgeon, designated him by a certain name, also unknown."
After some time, du Junca managed to find out under what name the prisoner was reported. He then entered this name in the journal, and here we give the uncorrected text: “I learned that since M. de Marchiel was registered, 40 l. have been paid for the burial.”
Monsieur de Marchiel... Isn't this the name of the mysterious prisoner? The fact is that among the prisoners in Pinerola was Count Mattioli, minister and envoy of the Duke of Mantua, arrested on May 2, 1679. Mattioli’s candidacy has ardent and zealous supporters. What are the arguments of the “Matthiolists”?
When the Man in the Iron Mask died, the deceased was recorded under the name Marsciali or Marscioli. You can see a hint of Mattioli's distortion here. Marie Antoinette's maid reported that Louis XVI once told Marie Antoinette that the Man in the Mask was "a mere prisoner of a disconcerting character, a subject of the Duke of Mantua." From the intercepted correspondence it is also known that Louis XVI told Madame Pompadour the same thing: “This was one of the ministers of the Italian prince.”
But Mattioli’s story was not a secret to anyone. His betrayal, arrest, imprisonment - newspapers spread this story throughout Europe. Moreover, the enemies of France - the Spaniards and the Savoyards - published a story about his activities and arrest in order to shake public opinion in favor of Mattioli. Additionally, Mattioli died in April 1694 and the Iron Mask in 1703.
Who was he? It is very likely that the Iron Mask was a certain Eustache Doge. In 1703 he died in the Bastille, having spent 34 years in prison. What crime Doge committed is unknown. But it must have been serious to entail harsh treatment and painful isolation for so many years.
On July 19, 1669, Saint-Mars received an order from Paris for the arrival of a prisoner in Pinerol: “Monsieur Saint-Mars! The Sovereign ordered a certain Eustache Doget to be sent to Pinerol; with his maintenance, it seems extremely important to ensure careful security and, in addition, to ensure the impossibility of transfer prisoner information about himself to anyone. I will notify you about this prisoner so that you prepare for him a reliably guarded solitary cell in such a way that no one can enter the place where he will be, and that the doors of this cell securely closed so that your sentries cannot hear anything. It is necessary that you yourself bring the prisoner everything he needs once a day and under no circumstances listen to him if he wants to say anything, threatening him with death if he will open his mouth to say anything, unless it relates to the expression of his requests. You will furnish the cell for the one who is brought to you with everything necessary, taking into account that he is just a servant and he does not need any - significant benefits..."
What crime entailed such punishment? This man was "only a servant," but no doubt he was involved in some serious matter. He had to know some secrets that were so important that no one, not even Saint-Mars, knew the true guilt of this man.
Doge was constantly in complete silence and absolute solitude. The fear that Doge would speak became an obsession of the jailers and ministers. From Paris, Saint-Mars was repeatedly asked in fear: had Doget betrayed his secret?
Researcher Maurice Duvivier identifies Eustache Doget with a certain Eustache d'Auger de Cavoye, who as a child played with Louis XIV. It was the latter circumstance that became the reason that the king did not bring him to justice and personally sentenced him to life imprisonment. The reason for his imprisonment still remains a mystery. Was there another person hiding under this name? We don’t know. In any case, he was not the brother of Louis XIV.
In 1698, a prisoner was brought to the Bastille, whose face was hidden by a terrible iron mask. His name was unknown, and in prison he was numbered 64489001. The aura of mystery created gave rise to many versions of who this masked man could be. 
Prisoner in an iron mask in an anonymous engraving from the French Revolution (1789).
The authorities knew absolutely nothing about the prisoner transferred from another prison. They were ordered to place the masked man in the most remote cell and not talk to him. After 5 years the prisoner died. He was buried under the name Marcialli. All the deceased’s belongings were burned, and the walls were torn apart so that no notes remained.
When in late XVII In the 1st century, under the onslaught of the Great French Revolution, the Bastille fell, the new government published documents that shed light on the fate of the prisoners. But there was not a single word about the man in the mask. 
Bastille is a French prison.
The Jesuit Griffe, who was a confessor in the Bastille at the end of the 17th century, wrote that a prisoner was brought to prison wearing a velvet (not iron) mask. In addition, the prisoner only put it on when someone appeared in the cell. From a medical point of view, if the prisoner actually wore a mask made of metal, it would invariably disfigure his face. The iron mask was “made” by writers who shared their assumptions about who this mysterious prisoner really could be. 
The Man in the Iron Mask.
The masked prisoner was first mentioned in the Secret Notes of the Persian Court, published in 1745 in Amsterdam. According to the Notes, prisoner No. 64489001 was none other than illegitimate son Louis XIV and his mistress Louise Françoise de La Vallière. He bore the title of Duke of Vermandois, allegedly slapped his brother the Grand Dauphin, for which he ended up in jail. In fact, this version is implausible, because the illegitimate son of the French king died at the age of 16 in 1683. And according to the records of the confessor of the Bastille, Jesuit Griffe, the unknown was imprisoned in 1698, and he died in 1703.
Still from the film “The Man in the Iron Mask” (1998).
Francois Voltaire, in his work "The Age of Louis XIV", written in 1751, first indicated that the Iron Mask could well be the twin brother of the Sun King. To avoid problems with the succession to the throne, one of the boys was raised secretly. When Louis XIV learned of his brother’s existence, he doomed him to eternal imprisonment. This hypothesis explained the presence of the prisoner’s mask so logically that it became the most popular among other versions and was subsequently filmed more than once by directors. 
The Italian adventurer Ercole Antonio Mattioli could be hiding under the mask.
There is an opinion that the famous Italian adventurer Ercole Antonio Mattioli was forced to wear the mask. The Italian in 1678 entered into an agreement with Louis XIV, according to which he undertook to force his duke to surrender the fortress of Casale to the king in exchange for a reward of 10,000 crowns. The adventurer took the money, but did not fulfill the contract. Moreover, Mattioli gave out this state secret to several other countries for a separate reward. For this treason, the French government sent him to the Bastille, forcing him to wear a mask. 
Russian Emperor Peter I.
Some researchers have put forward completely implausible versions about the man in the iron mask. According to one of them, this prisoner could be the Russian Emperor Peter I. It was during that period that Peter I was in Europe with his diplomatic mission (“Grand Embassy”). The autocrat was allegedly imprisoned in the Bastille, and a figurehead was sent home instead. Like, how else can we explain the fact that the tsar left Russia as a Christian who revered traditions, and returned back as a typical European who wanted to break the patriarchal foundations of Rus'.
In 1698, a prisoner was brought to the Bastille, whose face was hidden by a terrible iron mask. His name was unknown, and in prison he was numbered 64489001. The aura of mystery created gave rise to many versions of who this masked man could be.
The authorities knew absolutely nothing about the prisoner transferred from another prison. They were ordered to place the masked man in the most remote cell and not talk to him. After 5 years the prisoner died. He was buried under the name Marcialli. All the deceased’s belongings were burned, and the walls were torn apart so that no notes remained.
When in late XVIII century, under the onslaught of the Great French Revolution, the Bastille fell, the new government published documents that shed light on the fate of the prisoners. But there was not a single word about the man in the mask.
The Jesuit Griffe, who was a confessor in the Bastille at the end of the 17th century, wrote that a prisoner was brought to prison wearing a velvet (not iron) mask. In addition, the prisoner only put it on when someone appeared in the cell. From a medical point of view, if the prisoner actually wore a mask made of metal, it would invariably disfigure his face. The iron mask was “made” by writers who shared their assumptions about who this mysterious prisoner really could be.
The masked prisoner was first mentioned in the Secret Notes of the Persian Court, published in 1745 in Amsterdam. According to the Notes, prisoner No. 64489001 was none other than the illegitimate son of Louis XIV and his mistress Louise Françoise de La Vallière. He bore the title of Duke of Vermandois, allegedly slapped his brother the Grand Dauphin, for which he ended up in jail. In fact, this version is implausible, because the illegitimate son of the French king died at the age of 16 in 1683. And according to the records of the confessor of the Bastille, Jesuit Griffe, the unknown was imprisoned in 1698, and he died in 1703.
Francois Voltaire, in his work "The Age of Louis XIV", written in 1751, first indicated that the Iron Mask could well be the twin brother of the Sun King. To avoid problems with the succession to the throne, one of the boys was raised secretly. When Louis XIV learned of his brother’s existence, he doomed him to eternal imprisonment. This hypothesis explained the presence of the prisoner’s mask so logically that it became the most popular among other versions and was subsequently filmed more than once by directors.
There is an opinion that the famous Italian adventurer Ercole Antonio Mattioli was forced to wear the mask. The Italian in 1678 entered into an agreement with Louis XIV, according to which he undertook to force his duke to surrender the fortress of Casale to the king in exchange for a reward of 10,000 crowns. The adventurer took the money, but did not fulfill the contract. Moreover, Mattioli gave out this state secret to several other countries for a separate reward. For this treason, the French government sent him to the Bastille, forcing him to wear a mask.
Some researchers have put forward completely implausible versions about the man in the iron mask. According to one of them, this prisoner could be the Russian Emperor Peter I. It was during that period that Peter I was in Europe with his diplomatic mission (“Grand Embassy”). The autocrat was allegedly imprisoned in the Bastille, and a figurehead was sent home instead. Like, how else can we explain the fact that the tsar left Russia as a Christian who revered traditions, and returned back as a typical European who wanted to break the patriarchal foundations of Rus'.
In past centuries, masks were used not only to hide people’s faces, but also to turn them into real instruments of torture. One of these was
