What is The Man in the Iron Mask

The novel by Alexandre Dumas "The Viscount of Bragelonne" is the last part of the Trilogy on the Three Musketeers. In it appears a curious character named Felipe who is supposedly the twin brother of the King Louis XlV.

In the plot of events, this character ends up being a prisoner in the Bastille, where he is secretly locked up with his face covered with a mask. This fictional story is based on reality, since at the end of the 17th century a man was imprisoned for more than thirty years. Nobody knows with absolute certainty who it is.

He is simply known as the Man in the Iron Mask. Not only is your identity, but it is also unknown what was the crime that he could commit and who imprisoned him. This historical episode has been remembered on the big screen on several occasions; the last in the 1998 film starring Leonardo di Caprio and entitled precisely "The Man in the Iron Mask".

Two historical testimonies about the strange character

The French philosopher Voltaire was jailed twice. In one of them, some inmates told him old stories about a mysterious prisoner who wore a mask during his stay in prison. In his work "The Century of Louis XlV" there are several references to the strange character: he had a

appearance stately, he was very well treated by his jailers, he liked to play the guitar and at no time did he get rid of the iron mask that protected his face.

During the years that the individual mystery remained locked up, one of his jailers surnamed Saint-Mars kept a diary about his work in prison. In this document some information about the enigmatic and curious individual appears: the mask that covered his face was not made of iron but of velvet, during his While in prison, he was known by a pseudonym (Marchioli) or as prisoner 64389000, the few visits he received treated him with a lot of I respect and he was always guarded by two guardians who were ordered to kill him if he took off his mask.

Conjectures and theories about your identity

Some researchers have tried to shed some light on the identity of the Man in the Iron Mask. It is stated that he could have been a twin brother of Louis XlV and that for dynastic reasons he was imprisoned.

It is also said that he could be the illegitimate son of a recognized member of the nobility or of the queen of France herself. The prisoner is said to have been Eustache Dauger, an individual who had been a close associate of Cardinal Mazarin's treasurer.

According to another theory, the prisoner was an Italian diplomat who was jailed for revealing state secrets. One of the hypothesis that has been handled is that it was actually a woman.

These and other investigations move in the realm of conjecture. However, it is known that the Man in the Iron Mask died in 1703 and on his grave in the Saint Paul cemetery there is simply a name, Marchioli.

Photo: Fotolia - PackShot

Themes in The Man in the Iron Mask