The Iron Mask (French: Le masque de fer) is a mysterious prisoner from the time of Louis XIV, who was kept in various prisons, including the Bastille, and wore a velvet mask (later legends turned this mask into an iron one). Died November 19, 1703.
The mask is a symbol of transformation, change and at the same time concealment, mystery. The mask is endowed with the ability to transform the present into the desired, to overcome the brink of its own nature; this is the magical aspect of transformation, which is characteristic of both the masks of religious rituals and the masks of theatrical performances (leading their origin from the former). The mask is also given negative value. So, according to belief, the change of disguises is characteristic evil spirits("The undead do not have their own appearance, they walk in disguises"). This is connected with the extremely negative attitude of the church towards public holidays, which includes the element of carnival, "change of disguise".
The first information about a man named "Iron Mask" appeared in the Dutch essay "Mémoires secrets pour servir à l'histoire de Perse" in 1745. According to these memoirs, the "Iron Mask" is the Duke of Vermandois, the illegitimate son of King Louis XIV and Madame Lavalier, 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 enigmatic personality, about which various hypotheses were expressed.
Some Dutch writers suggested that the "iron mask" was a foreigner, a young nobleman, a chamberlain of Queen Anne of Austria and real father Louis XIV. Reliable information about the "iron mask" was first given by the Jesuit Griffet, 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 the church of St. Paul. According to this diary, on September 19, 1698, a prisoner was brought 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, Griffet was inclined to the opinion expressed in the Mémoires secrets about the personality 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", indicating that he knows more than Griffet, but, as a Frenchman, he must remain silent.
One modern interpreter of Nostradamus, a specialist in esoteric numerology, suggests that between quatrains 96 and 95 of Centuria I there is - in addition to location - a certain hidden connection, which 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 "Kabbalah of the Nine Chambers". Probably, the religious leader referred to in quatrain 96 of Centuria I (“destroyer of temples and sects”) must be the mysterious child Nostradamus writes about in quatrain 95 of the same Centuria
“Near the monastery they will find a child - one of two twins,
Descended from an old monastic family.
His fame, influence on 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 - have 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 he had a twin brother. To avoid the problem of succession, brother Louis was imprisoned as an infant, where he eventually grew old and died without speaking a single word in his life. Nobody knew this prisoner, and he went down in history under the name of the Iron Mask. However, the latest 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 the “old monastic family” should not be taken literally - perhaps Nostradamus symbolically characterized the deep religious convictions of this person.
A twin or twin can act as a twin symbol, embodying the principle of the duality of all phenomena. The image of the double suggests a duality of elements, balanced symmetry and a dynamic balance of opposing forces. Duality can develop along two lines - this is the bifurcation and doubling of the being. Belief in the existence of doubles of people and animals is characteristic of many cultures. The image of the double is usually associated with tragic themes, since, like any manifestation of plurality, doubling has suffering and evil as its attribute. So, for example, in German folklore, the image of a doppelganger (in the literal translation “double ghost”) appears, a meeting with which promises death to a person, a similar idea exists in Scottish folklore. Another aspect of the image is associated with the figure of a double as the personification of the spiritual principle, the soul. The ancient Egyptians believed that the double, ka, is exact copy human, invisible ordinary people. Not only people have ka, but also gods, plants and animals, even stones. The double of the deity could tell the priests about the past and the future. The Romans believed that every person has a twin 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 being an adult, 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 the secret marriage of Queen Anne with Mazarin.
Twin brother of Louis XIV. Abbe Sulyavi, 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 brought up secretly in order to prevent the misfortunes that, according to the prediction, were to occur for the royal house from this double birth. After the death of Mazarin, Louis XIV found out about the birth of his brother, ordered him to be imprisoned and, in view of 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, a prisoner with a black velvet mask was recorded in the Bastille lists under the name Marchioli. Senac 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 convince his duke to give France the fortress of Casale; he received 100,000 skudos 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 Rize (“Die eiserne Maske”, Greifswald, 1876), claims that the “iron mask” was the Lorraine nobleman Armois, who in 1672 stood in the Spanish Netherlands at the head of a conspiracy against Louis XIV and was captured in 1673. Others , early discarded and apparently fantastic, versions identified the Iron Mask with Nicolas Fouquet, a minister of Louis XIV who died in the Bastille, or with the English 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 supposed twin brother of the Sun King Louis XIV. His personal jailer was Charles de Batz, Comte d'Artagnan.
Igor Merkulov
By the way, Louise-Françoise de Labom-Leblanc (fr. Louise-Françoise de La Baume Le Blanc, de la Vallière and de Vaujours; August 6, 1644, Tours - June 7, 1710) is the Duchess de Lavaliere and de Vaujour, mistress of Louis XIV.
She was a lady-in-waiting to Princess Henriette of Orleans. Despite the fact that she was not very beautiful and limped a little, she managed to enchant the king with her good looks and friendly disposition. She had four children from him, of whom two survived: Marie-Anne de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Blois (born in 1666) and Louis, Count of Vermandois (born in 1667), the alleged prisoner of the "Iron Mask".
In dualistic mythologies, one of the twins is endowed with positive symbolism, and the other with negative, and then together they symbolize mutually balanced good and evil principles. In such cases, as a rule, the motif of rivalry between twin brothers is introduced (the Egyptian myth of Osiris and Set and the Slavic myth of Belobog and Chernobog). In addition, there is often a motif of the marriage of twins - a brother and sister, symbolizing the unity of the opposites embodied in their images (for example, the marriage of the Egyptian Osiris and Isis). Sometimes two fathers were attributed to the twins - an ordinary person and a totem, in more developed mythological traditions - a god; sometimes they were considered the children of an immortal father and 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 spiritual principle of a person, his soul, while the other twin is mortal and personifies the bodily principle subject to destruction. For example, in the Greco-Roman mythology of the Dioscuri, the mortal Castor and the immortal Pollux were the sons of Leda and, respectively, the king Tyndareus and Zeus. There is an ancient Indo-European cult of twins. Its characteristic features are the connection of twin characters with horses (Ashvins - “possessing horses” - were depicted as two horses), with the sun and with the change of day and night (the Dioscuri appear in the sky in the form of the morning and evening stars of the Gemini constellation, the 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
The truth about the man in the iron mask
Who doesn't love detective stories? An intriguing plot, mysterious characters and absolutely unexpected decision seemingly unsolvable problem. All this attracts the attention of fans of the detective genre.
However, unfortunately, most detective stories are short-lived, and only a few of them have been able to drag on for centuries. One of them is history iron mask”, a gloomy secret of a prisoner doomed to the end of his days not to remove the black mask from his face.
More than 300 years have passed since the time when the Unknown appeared for the first time in one of the gloomy royal castles in a black velvet mask that covered his face (later, popular rumor replaced velvet with iron). What versions of the man in the Iron Mask have not been put forward over the years.
According to one version, the king of England, who had miraculously escaped execution, was hiding under the mask. Another nominates for this unenviable role the illegitimate son of Anne of Austria, the mother of Louis XIV. There was also an assumption that the mysterious prisoner is the "king of the Parisian markets" the Duke de Beaufort.
Each of these versions, as a rule, refutes the others, and none of them can withstand a comparison of the facts known from historical documents. For years researchers tried to find out the truth. For two whole centuries, an army of detectives and historians fought to unravel this mystery. And it would have remained undiscovered if not for the Moscow scientist Yuri Borisovich Tatarinov. It was he who managed to shed light on the mysterious story of the prisoner in the Iron Mask.
Tatarinov began his investigation with the selection real facts. In his hands were dozens of historical documents. Thanks to them, the scientist immediately discarded all “literary versions” and came to the conclusion that the search for the Iron Mask should be carried out among those prisoners who arrived in Paris on September 18, 1698 from the Mediterranean island of Sainte-Marguerite, accompanied by the new commandant of the Bastille.
At the beginning of the investigation, the Moscow scientist identified 8 "suspects", but later 5 characters of the "detective story" disappeared for various reasons. There are three most reliable contenders for the role of the Iron Mask. This is Nicolas Fouquet, the former superintendent of finance of King Louis XIV, the mysterious "servant" Eustache Dauger and the minister of the Duke of Mantua, Count Mattioli. Now, out of the three "suspects" it was necessary to choose one - the one who for many years hid his face behind a mask.
The task was not easy, and the scientist first decided to find out the reasons and circumstances of the arrest of each of the three possible candidates for the role of the Iron Mask.
Having studied many historical documents, the scientist learned:
Nicola Fouquet, fantastically rich in trade and speculation, a rival of the “sun king” himself, was convicted of dirty fraud and, by order of the king, was arrested on September 5th. Accused of financial fraud and sedition (Fronde conspiracy), Fouquet was sentenced to indefinite imprisonment. In January 1665, Fouquet crossed the threshold of the castle of the Pignerol fortress.
Next on the list was the mysterious "servant" Eustache Dauger, who was brought to the castle on August 24, 1669. Eustache Dauger was arrested on the orders of Louis XIV as having caused royal discontent. Together with the prisoner, an order came to keep this prisoner in complete secrecy in a special punishment cell with double doors, with disposable food. Under pain of death, he was forbidden to talk even with the commandant about something other than everyday needs, and to convey any news about himself. There is also a version that the name of Eustache Dauger is nothing but a pseudonym, since the draft orders for his arrest and delivery to Pignerol were nameless.
The third prisoner of the Pignerol castle was delivered on May 2, 1679, the minister of the Duke of Mantua, Count Mattioli. Accused of giving the rulers of Austria, Spain and Venice the secret of a deal between the king and the duke to sell the frontier town of Casale, Mattioli was taken to the castle in strict secrecy. His face was hidden by a black velvet mask. This was the beginning of the prison journey of the three main "suspects".
However, the clarification of the reasons and circumstances of the arrest of these three people, unfortunately, could not clarify anything. Then Yuri Borisovich decided to trace their further fate. And here Tatarinov discovered that the fates of these people intersect in a strange way.
1674, September - when one of Fouquet's servants, a certain Mr. Champagne, died, the commandant of the fortress of Saint-Mar gave the ex-minister none other than the prisoner Eustache Dauger to serve the ex-minister. At the same time, Saint-Mar warned Fouquet that no one, except for the ex-minister himself and his second servant La Riviera, should communicate with the Doge.
In January, Fouquet received a "personal message" from one of Louis XIV's associates, Louvois. “You will learn,” Louvois wrote, “the precautions mentioned by Saint-Mar, required by the king, which are applied to prevent Eustache Dauger from communicating with anyone other than you. The King expects you to make every effort, for you know why no one should know what he knows."
Fouquet agreed and was rewarded with permission, signed by Louis, to meet with his family. However, just a week after receiving the letter, the ex-minister fell ill. 1680, March - a rumor spread about the unexpected death of the former quartermaster of finance. But no one has ever seen the documents - death certificates, autopsies and funerals. (The date of Fouquet's official death is March 23, 1680, but his body was given to relatives for burial only a year later, so no one could accurately determine whether it was Fouquet. Along with this, Colbert's employees spread the legend that the ex-minister was supposedly released and died on the way to the capital in Chalon-on-Sone ...
After the mysterious death of Fouquet, exactly a month later, according to the documents, Count Mattioli died, and in one of the cells of the castle-prison an unknown prisoner appears, whose face is hidden under a black velvet mask. The strange death of Fouquet also affected the fate of the third prisoner, Eustache Dauger. 1681, September - the former "servant" was transported in a closed stretcher to Fort Exil, located in the Southwestern Alps (there was a rumor among the people at that time that Fouquet's servants were released after his death).
Dauger spent six years in Fort Exil and in 1687, accompanied by Saint-Mar, was transferred to Sainte-Marguerite, in a cell specially prepared for him. 1698, September - the last move in the life of Eustache Dauger took place. Saint-Mar arrived with him in the Bastille as governor, instead of the deceased Besmo. Five years later (November 19, 1703) Doge died. He was buried under a new false name - Marchioli, consonant with the name of the missing prisoner Pignerol Mattioli.
Perhaps Doge could know a lot about Fouquet, in particular the secret of the events of March 23, 1680 - the time of the possible "transformation" of Fouquet into an "unknown" prisoner of Pignerol. In addition, Doge possessed, according to historians, his own secrets.
Having carefully analyzed (using the method system analysis) all the data obtained, the scientist built a matrix to solve this problem. Its rows were a chronological list of events taken from the "nodal" documents, and the columns were the prisoners of Piñerol. At the intersections of rows and columns - the correspondence of one of the heroes of the tragedy to the event described in the document. But, having carried out thought experiments with all the "under investigation", Tatarinov could not come to any definite conclusion.
He could not reasonably put on an “iron mask” on any of the “suspects”; contradictions constantly appeared at some crossroads.
The version of "Mattioli - The Iron Mask" of the 16 most important documents did not touch 9 at all, and could not explain one.
The version, regarding Doge, did not intersect with four and could not explain one.
Fouquet's version passed over two documents in silence, did not explain one, and interpreted 5 documents with a stretch, that is, with certain assumptions. As a result, a cross was put on each of the versions. None of the "under investigation" came up.
Having made such a bleak conclusion, Yuri Borisovich was already ready to admit defeat and agree with the skeptics who categorically declared that the 300-year-old secret would never be revealed. But suddenly an original thought dawned on him: what if two or even three prisoners wore the mask one after the other?
Thus, the trio of "test subjects" Fouquet - Mattioli - Dauger chosen by him were ideally suited for solving this problem. After the death of the first prisoner with a black mask on his face - Fouquet - she was put on Count Mattioli. However, he died a month later. Then the mask was put on the Doge, who, having spent many years sitting next to Fouquet, knew too much.
It was Doge who was the very mysterious prisoner who was brought to Paris in the "iron mask". There, in solitary confinement in the Bastille, he lived out his last years. The "servant" paid two decades of secret solitary confinement for knowing the secrets of Fouquet, whom he happened to serve in Piñerol.
So, thanks to the “identification matrix” invented by Yu.B. Tatarinov, the secret of the many faces of the Iron Mask was revealed. But then the question immediately arises: why hide the Doge's face under a mask? After all, it is known that until March 23, 1680, he did not wear it. The scientist explains it this way: initially the mask was required to hide a well-known face, and then to hide that this person no longer exists.
However, having found the answer to one riddle, we immediately received another instead. Who is the "mysterious servant" Fouquet Eustache Dauger? After all, if Doge is a pseudonym, then who is he in reality? And if Fouquet actually died on March 23, 1680 from deadly disease, then is the Doge mask justified? Was a mask even necessary if Doge was a little-known person? After all, it is known that in Pignerol he did not wear a mask and walked freely with Fouquet around the castle grounds.
And at the same time, from the beginning of 1679, his exit from the cell was strictly forbidden. This man was subjected to a combination of precautions that had never been applied to any other prisoner. And again earned numerous versions. Who just did not offer for this role!
The Englishman A. Barnes suggested that it could be Abbé Pregnani, a secret agent of Louis XIV, who was sent from secret mission in March 1669 to Charles II of England, and whose disappearance coincided with the date of the Doge's arrest at Dunkirk. French historian E. Lalua suggested that the mysterious Iron Mask of the Bastille is a priest who witnessed the amorous adventures of the monarch with Madame Montespan. It has also been suggested that Eustache Dauger is none other than the twin brother of Louis XIV himself. And finally, lawyer P.-M. Dijol proposed a version that the little Moor Nabo, who was in the service of Queen Maria Theresa, became a prisoner of the Bastille. But none of these versions has yet found documentary evidence.
Thus, as a result of solving one riddle, historians received another, no less interesting one. And now they have to find the answer to the question: who was hiding under the guise of the mysterious "servant" Eustache Dauger? This mystery is still waiting for its researchers.
The legend of the Iron Mask, the most mysterious of all prisoners, has been around for more than two centuries. For the first time, Voltaire told the world about him, and his research formed the basis of stories about the Iron Mask.
“A few months after the death of Mazarin,” writes Voltaire, “an unprecedented event occurred ... An unknown prisoner, young, with the noblest posture, was sent to the castle on the island of St. Margaret (near Provence). On the way, he wore a mask with steel latches on the lower part of it, which allowed him to eat without removing his mask.An order was given to kill him if he removed his mask.He remained on the island until the trusted officer of Saint-Mar, governor of Pinerol, took command of the Bastille, in 1690 d. did not go to the island of St. Margaret and take the prisoner to the Bastille, where he was as well settled as could be possible in such a place.
The prisoner was addicted to extremely thin linen and lace - and received them. Played guitar for hours. The most exquisite dishes were prepared for him, 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 a little dark; his voice was already striking only with its intonations alone. This man never complained about his condition, never gave out his origin in any way. The unknown person 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, no doubt, a noble man. The governor himself set the table for him and then left, having previously locked the cell. Once a prisoner scratched something with a knife on a silver plate and threw it out the window to the boat, which was near 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 anxious, asked the fisherman if he had read what was scrawled here, and had anyone seen it in his hands? The fisherman replied that he could not read and no one had seen the plate.
Voltaire caught alive the last person who knew the secret of the Iron Mask - former minister de Chamiyar. 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. Shamiyar replied that it was a state secret and he swore 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 the nobles who died or disappeared under mysterious circumstances, he concluded that it was certainly neither the Comte de Vermandois nor the Duke de Beaufort, who only disappeared during the siege of Kandy and who could not be identified in the body decapitated by the Turks.
"The Iron Mask was no doubt the elder brother of Louis XIV, whose mother had that special taste for fine linen. After reading about it in the memoirs of that era, the queen's addiction reminded me of the same tendency in the Iron Mask, after which I finally ceased to doubt that it was her son, which all other circumstances had long convinced me of ... It seems to me that the more you study the history of that time, the more you are amazed at the coincidence of circumstances that testify in favor of this assumption, " Voltaire wrote.
But this is a legend. The only thing that can be stated with certainty is that after 1665 a prisoner came to 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 the documents of the archives concerning the prison, of which Saint-Mar 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 the prisoners, their names, the reasons for their imprisonment, diseases, deaths, liberation, if such happened occasionally.
It has been undeniably established that the masked man followed Saint-Mar 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. Jailer and prisoner grew old together. Finally, at the age of 72, Saint-Mar was appointed warden of the Bastille. The long-standing prescription nevertheless retained its force: no one should either see the prisoner or speak with him.
Minister Barbesio wrote to Saint-Mar: "The King finds it possible that you leave the island of St. Margaret and go to the Bastille with your old prisoner, taking every precaution to ensure that no one sees or knows about him."
But how do you keep the secret? Saint-Mars had an idea: why not just hide his face instead of hiding his prisoner? It was thanks to this "find" that the Man in the Iron Mask was born. We note again - never before this moment the mysterious prisoner wore a mask. Saint-Mar managed to keep his secret for a long time. The first time a prisoner put on a mask was during a trip to Paris. In this guise, he went down in history ...
Actually, the mask was black velvet. Voltaire supplied it with steel latches. Authors who took up this topic after him wrote about it as being made "entirely of steel." It got to the point that historians discussed the question of whether the unfortunate prisoner could shave; small tweezers, "also made of steel", were mentioned for removing hair. (Moreover: in 1885 in Langres, among the old iron scrap, they found a mask that perfectly matched the description of Voltaire. There is no doubt: the inscription in Latin confirmed its authenticity ...)
In August 1698, Saint-Mar and his prisoner set off. In the register for the registration of the prisoners of the Bastille, Monsieur du Junca, the royal lieutenant, made the following entry: "On September 18, on Thursday, at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, Monsieur de Saint-Mar, commandant of the fortress of the Bastille, arrived to take office from the island of St. Margherita, bringing with him his old prisoner, kept under his supervision back in Pinerola, who must wear a mask all the time, and his name should not be called; In the evening, I myself ... transferred the prisoner to the third cell of the Bertoller Tower.
Four years later Monsieur du Junc was forced to open the Bastille registry again. A sad event happened: Monsieur Saint-Mar lost his oldest prisoner. Du Junc wrote the following: "On the same day, 1703, November 19, this unknown prisoner in a mask of black velvet, brought by M. de Saint-Mar from the island of St. Marguerite and guarded by him for a long time, died about ten o'clock in the evening after the day before after Mass he felt a little unwell, but at the same time he was not seriously ill. Monsieur Giraud, our priest, confessed him. Due to the suddenness of death, our confessor performed the sacrament of confession literally at the last moment of his life; this prisoner, so long guarded, was buried in the parish cemetery of Saint-Paul; at the registration of the death, M. Rosarge, a physician, and M. Rey, a surgeon, designated him by a certain name, also unknown.
After some time, du Junc managed to find out under what name the prisoner was declared. Then he entered this name in a journal, and here we give the uncorrected text: "I learned that since M. de Marchiel was registered, 40 liters have been paid for the burial."
Monsieur de Marchiel... Isn't that 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, who was 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 of Marchiali or Marchioli. Here you can see a hint of a distorted Mattioli. Marie Antoinette's maid reported that Louis XVI once told Marie Antoinette that the Man in the Mask was "just a prisoner with a character that inspires fear in his penchant for intrigue; a subject of the Duke of Mantua." It is also known from the intercepted correspondence that Louis XVI said the same thing to Madame Pompadour: "It was one of the ministers of the Italian prince."
But the story of Mattioli was not at all a secret to anyone. His betrayal, arrest, imprisonment - newspapers carried 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. In addition, Mattioli died in April 1694, and the Iron Mask died in 1703.
Who was he? It is very likely that the Iron Mask was a certain Eustache Dauger. In 1703 he died in the Bastille after spending 34 years in prison. What crime the Doge committed is unknown. But it had to be serious in order to entail harsh treatment and painful isolation for so many years.
On July 19, 1669, Saint-Mar from Paris received an order for the arrival of a prisoner in Pinerol: “Mr. Saint-Mar! The sovereign ordered a certain Eustache Dauger to be sent to Pinerol; with his maintenance, it is extremely important to ensure careful protection and, in addition, to ensure the impossibility of transfer I will notify you about this prisoner so that you prepare for him a securely guarded solitary cell in such a way that no one can penetrate the place where he will be located, and that the doors of this cell securely closed so that your sentries could not hear anything.It is necessary that you yourself bring everything the prisoner needs once a day and under no circumstances listen to him if he wants to say anything, threatening him with death in the event that he will open his mouth in order to say something, unless it is related to the expression of his requests.You will furnish the camera for the one who is brought to you with everything thinking that this is just a servant and does not need any significant benefits ... "
What crime would result in such a punishment? This man was "only a servant", but no doubt he was involved in some serious business. He had to know certain secrets that were so important that no one, not even Saint-Mar, knew the true guilt of this man.
Doge was constantly in complete silence and absolute solitude. The fear that the Doge would speak became an obsession with the jailers and ministers. Saint-Mares was repeatedly asked from Paris in fear: had the Doge betrayed his secret?
Researcher Maurice Duvivier identifies Eustache Dauger with a certain Eustache d\"Auger de Cavoie, who, as a child, played with Louis XIV. It was the latter circumstance that caused the king not to hand him over 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? This we do not know. In any case, he was not the brother of Louis XIV.
The date of birth of the mysterious character in the iron mask is unknown. But the date of death is fixed exactly: he died on November 19, 1703. In general, the history of the Iron Mask begins in July 1669, when the minister of Louis XIV sends a letter to the head of the prison in the city of Pinerolo with a request to accept and provide Special attention a mysterious masked prisoner.
Since then, evidence of the Man in the Iron Mask has been surfacing in personal letters, then in philosophical treatises. Even Voltaire did not ignore the existence of the Iron Mask and hinted that he knew much more about him than many, but, like a true Frenchman, he would remain silent. From these words of the philosopher it somehow followed by itself that the imprisonment of the enigmatic prisoner is connected with state secrets.
And really, why bother with ordinary person? It's easier to kill, especially since it's in the 17th century. But the prisoner was not only not killed: in all places of his stay, including in the Bastille, he was created as much as possible comfortable conditions existence. The main inconvenience of his life was (besides, of course, the fact of confinement) wearing a mask around the clock. Although here the story slightly thickened the colors: the mask was not made of iron, but of black velvet. Agree, the material is qualitatively different.
The legend of the Man in the iron-velvet mask did not subside over the centuries, but acquired new details. Main question- who the prisoner was - is relevant to this day. There are at least 52 versions in total. But we will not torment you with everything, we will introduce you only to the most, in our opinion, entertaining ones.
Mysterious lady
No wonder the expression "cherchet la femme" was coined by the French. They always see a woman behind every secret. The version arose after the prisoner (prisoner) was in prison on the island of Sainte-Marguerite and, probably, made a romantic impression on the head of the prison.
theory that appeared at the end of the 19th century. Like, Molière (sorry for the pun) was already so tired of the authorities with his accusatory plays that it was most convenient to put his talent in a mask. Although the writer had, strictly speaking, cultural relations with the king: Molière even held the honorary position of bed king.
skin cancer patient
1933 version. A terrible disease struck skin some high-ranking person, and therefore this person had to be covered with a mask.
Twin brother of Louis XIV
Until the death of the de facto regent Mazarin, the young Sun King had no interest in politics at all. He only danced, changed clothes and, so to speak, flaunted with the ladies. But the next day after the death of the cardinal, the behavior of the king changed dramatically (and again, pardon the pun) changed: he became serious, preoccupied with running the state. Just a different person! What if this is the twin brother of our king, hidden immediately after the birth? Well, exactly. And there is. And the king, I suppose, is now in prison and in a mask. The version gained popularity thanks to Dumas and the 1998 film The Man in the Iron Mask with Leonardo DiCaprio (yes, he didn’t get an Oscar for this film either).
Black son of Maria Theresa
A child born from an inappropriate relationship between a queen and her Negro page. The excuse “well, with whom it doesn’t happen” did not work in the royal families, and the criminal fruit of love had to be imprisoned forever.
Iron Mask - under this name, the most mysterious prisoner of the era of Louis XIV remained in history. All that is reliably known about this man is the number under which he was listed in the Bastille (64489001). Presumably, he was born in the 40s of the XVII century. He was held in various prisons. In 1698 he was finally placed in the Bastille, where he died.
Historical information
In fact, prisoner No. 64489001 wore not an iron mask, but only a velvet mask. She was supposed to hide his identity from outsiders, but not serve as a means of torture (like iron). Even the guards themselves did not know what kind of criminal was wearing this mask. Its mystery gradually became the reason for the emergence of numerous legends and conjectures.
For the first time, a prisoner in an iron mask is mentioned in the Secret Notes of the Persian Court, published in Amsterdam in 1745. The author of the notes indicates that under the number 64489001, the illegitimate son of the royal Louis XIV and his beloved, the Duchess de La Vallière, was kept in the casemate. He bore the title of Count of Vermandois. In conclusion, he fell for a slap in the face, which he gave to his brother, the Great Dauphin.
This version is absolutely untenable, since the real Count of Vermandois died at the age of 16 in 1683. Before that, he managed to take part in the war with Spain, so he simply did not have time for such a long imprisonment. The Jesuit Griffe, who served as confessor at the Bastille, recorded that the first mysterious prisoner was brought to the Bastille in 1698, and he died in 1703.
Elder brother or twin of Louis XIV
Later, Francois Voltaire suggested that the half-brother of Louis XIV himself could be the gentleman in the iron mask. The king did not need rivals, so he imprisoned his brother in the Bastille, after obliging him to wear a mask on his face. Obviously, all that mystery with which this prisoner was surrounded could be connected with this. Voltaire expressed this conjecture in his 1751 work The Age of Louis XIV.
Anna of Austria for a long time considered infertile. Then she gave birth to an illegitimate son, after which the legitimate heir to the throne, Louis XIV, was born. The latter, having learned about the presence of an older brother, decided to end him. In addition, there were rumors that Louis himself was not the king's own son. This called into question his right to the crown.
Execute the son of the French queen and sibling Louis XIV could not, so he preferred to imprison the unfortunate young man forever. Wearing a mask is a way to hide a secret that could cause a coup d'état. History has not preserved the name of this supposed older brother.
There have also been speculations that the Iron Mask is actually the twin brother of Louis XIV. The appearance of male twins in the royal couple spontaneously gave rise to a lot of problems with the succession to the throne. One of the queen's sons had to be sacrificed in order to maintain stability in the country. The boy was brought up in secret. Growing up, Louis XIV learned about his twin brother, who looked like him like a reflection in a mirror. Fearing for his crown, Louis ordered the elimination of his opponent.
Ercol Mattioli
The fourth version was the assumption that the famous Italian adventurer Ercol Antonio Mattioli was hiding under the mask. In 1678, an agreement was concluded between him and Louis XIV: Mattioli undertook to persuade his overlord to give the king the fortress of Casale. The Italian successfully sold this state secret to several countries for a handsome reward. For this, he was sentenced to life imprisonment by the French government.
General Bulond
The reason for the emergence of another version was the secret notes of Louis XIV. The French king kept encrypted diaries, which, several centuries later, were deciphered by the famous cryptographer Etienne Bazeri. It turned out that the masked prisoner could also be the French General Vivien de Boulogne, who covered himself and France with indelible shame in one of the battles of the Nine Years' War. This version, like all others, has not been proven 100%.
The real Peter I
Various historians and researchers, intrigued by the great mystery, continued to put forward all sorts of versions regarding the identity of the prisoner in the iron mask. Most historians came to the conclusion that he could be one of the conspirators who dared to threaten royal power. Among them: the Lorraine Armois, the royal minister Fouquet, Cardinal Mazarin, etc.
Another version even concerned Russia. According to her, Peter I himself was imprisoned in the Bastille, moreover, the true king. In 1698, exactly when prisoner No. 64489001 appeared in the Bastille, the Russian tsar was supposedly replaced. Peter I then carried out a diplomatic mission ("Great Embassy") in Europe.
The true, Orthodox went abroad Russian tsar, sacredly revered traditions. The European returned back, dressed in a “basurman dress” and with a whole heap of innovations wild for patriarchal Rus'. After that, they began to say that Peter the Great was replaced abroad with an impostor. This substitution was later associated with the Iron Mask. It is still not known who actually wore it.