In his letter, Louvois informed Saint-Mars that a prisoner named "Eustache Dauger" was due to arrive in the next month or so. Matthiole was an Italian count who was abducted and jailed after he tried to double-cross Louis XIV during political negotiations in the late-1670s. Evidence has been produced to suggest that the arrest was actually made in Calais and that not even the local governor was informed of the event – Vauroy's absence being explained away by his hunting for Spanish soldiers who had strayed into France via the Spanish Netherlands.[5]. French actor Gerard Depardieu, holding mask to his face, at the premire party for the motion picture The Man in the Iron Mask. New introductions commissioned from today's top … The True Story of the Man in the Iron Mask | Ancient Origins The prison's second-in-command, de Rosarges, was to feed him. Hundreds of different candidates have been proposed ranging from a member of the royal family to a disgraced French general and even the playwright Molière. For other uses, see. German historian Wilhelm Broecking came to the same conclusion independently seventy years later. The Man in the Iron Mask. This theory would explain the secrecy surrounding the prisoner, whose true identity would have destroyed the legitimacy of Louis XIV's claim to the throne had it been revealed. Other sources, however, claim that Bulonde's arrest was no secret and was actually published in a newspaper at the time and that he was released after just a few months. The man in the iron mask, French l’homme au masque de fer, (born c. 1658?—died November 19, 1703, Paris, France), political prisoner, famous in French history and legend, who died in the Bastille in 1703, during the reign of Louis XIV. One of the most mysterious prisoners in all of Europe was the Man in the Iron Mask. The records show that during the inquiry the investigators were told about a supplier of poisons, a surgeon named Auger, and Duvivier became convinced that Dauger de Cavoye, disinherited and short of money, had become Auger, the supplier of poisons, and subsequently Dauger, the man in the mask. https://www.livescience.com/54669-man-in-the-iron-mask-identified.html He was sure that they had communicated through this hole without detection by him or his guards and thus that Lauzun must have been made aware of Dauger's existence. There is no record as to what happened to Dauger, but in 1665, near the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, he allegedly killed a young page boy in a drunken brawl involving the Duc de Foix. It was also claimed,[by whom?] [1][2] They show that some of the 800 documents in the possession of the jailer Saint-Mars were analysed after his death. To make the context clearer, note that at the time there was a controversy over which one of twins was the elder: The one born first, or the one born second, who was then thought to have been conceived first. The theory then suggests that Cardinal Richelieu, the king's minister, had arranged for a substitute, probably an illegitimate son or grandson of Henry IV, to become intimate with the queen and father an heir in the king's stead. The most popular of all the legends regarding this prisoner pertains to his lineage. In 1801, revolutionary legislator Pierre Roux-Fazillac stated that the tale of the masked prisoner was an amalgamation of the fates of two separate prisoners, Ercole Antonio Mattioli (see below) and an imprisoned valet named "Eustache d'Auger". He went there, taking Dauger and La Rivière with him. Fouquet was never expected to be released; thus, meeting Dauger was no great matter, but Lauzun was expected to be set free eventually, and it would have been important not to have him spread rumours of Dauger's existence or of secrets he might have known. Another story says that the prisoner was indeed the king’s brother, but not his twin. By all accounts, it was a debauched affair of merry-making, with the men involved in all sorts of sordid activities, including attacking a man who claimed to be Cardinal Mazarin's attorney. Still later commentators have presented their own theories, possibly based on embellished versions of the original tale. His death is also recorded as happening in 1709, six years after that of the man in the mask.[5]. Historians have also argued that 17th-century protocol made it unthinkable that a man of royal blood would serve as a manservant, casting some doubt on speculation that Dauger was in some way related to the king.[3]. In 1675, Louvois gave permission for such an arrangement on condition that he was to serve Fouquet only while La Rivière was unavailable and that he was not to meet anyone else; for instance, if Fouquet and Lauzun were to meet, Dauger was not to be present. What little is known about the historical Man in the Iron Mask is based mainly on correspondence between Saint-Mars and his superiors in Paris. Later, many people such as Voltaire and Alexandre Dumas[7] suggested other theories about the man in the mask. This theory was notably disputed[when?] The Man in the Iron Mask: Etext 2759 (our next text)—Chapters 209-269 of the third book of the D’Artagnan Romances. The Man in the Iron Mask has also appeared in many works of fiction, most prominently in the late 1840s by Alexandre Dumas. A poem written by Louis-Henri de Loménie de Brienne, an inmate at the time, indicates that Eustache Dauger de Cavoye died as a result of heavy drinking in the late 1680s. These documents confirm the reputed avarice of Saint-Mars, who appears to have diverted the funds paid by the king for the prisoner. But in 1768, a writer named Saint-Foix claimed that another man was executed in his place and that Monmouth became the masked prisoner, it being in Louis XIV's interests to assist a fellow Catholic like James who would not necessarily want to kill his own nephew. Mattioli, extracted from documents in the French archives (London, J. Murray, 1826), Learn how and when to remove this template message, The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later, https://sergearoles-documents-archives.com/, "Crimes célèbres : Alexandre Dumas : Free Download & Streaming : Internet Archive", https://www.livescience.com/54669-man-in-the-iron-mask-identified.html, https://www.ranker.com/list/the-real-man-in-the-iron-mask/, The Secret of Queen Anne or Musketeers Thirty Years After, The Return of the Musketeers, or The Treasures of Cardinal Mazarin, Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, Touché: The Adventures of the Fifth Musketeer, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Man_in_the_Iron_Mask&oldid=1016673265, Articles needing additional references from October 2016, All articles needing additional references, Pages using infobox criminal with known for parameter, All articles with vague or ambiguous time, Articles with specifically marked weasel-worded phrases from July 2010, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2019, Articles needing additional references from May 2019, Wikipedia articles with PLWABN identifiers, Wikipedia articles with SUDOC identifiers, Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 8 April 2021, at 13:39. Only the Man in the Iron Mask, Philippe, is worth emulating. James Whale takes the task of telling Alexandre Dumas père's legendary story The Man in the Iron Mask (1939)!And it gives Louis Hayward one of his biggest challenges of his career, playing dual roles as the king(s). However, in 17th-century French avec un masque would mean "in a mask". Alexandre Dumas (1802 - 1870). Dauger was to be told that if he, Dauger, spoke of anything other than his immediate needs he would be killed, but, according to Louvois, the prisoner should not require much since he was "only a valet". Still, evidence indicates that only two prisoners were in custody during the same timeframe as the “Mask”: Ercole Matthiole and Eustache Dauger. He was held in the custody of the same jailer, Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars, for a period of 34 years. Louis XIV instructed Saint-Mars to prepare a cell with multiple doors, one closing upon the other, which were to prevent anyone from the outside listening in. "It's a lovely gesture, but I can't eat them with this mask on my fac… But legend has it that one day, his jailer, Gaston de la Garde, shoved a plate of pork chops between the bars. Directed and written by Randall Wallace, based on the novel by Alexandre Dumas An MGM release of a United Artists presentation, 1998 Cast: Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gabriel Byrne, Anne Parillaud, and Gerard Depardieu Later, Saint-Mars elaborated upon instructions that the prisoner should not be seen during transportation. Historians have noted that the name Eustache Dauger was written in a handwriting different from that used in the rest of the letter's text, suggesting that a clerk wrote the letter under Louvois' dictation, while someone else, very likely Louvois, added the name afterward. Applied for permission for Dauger to act as servant for Fouquet little is about! To provide food and whatever else he needed argued that the man in the Iron is... 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