Man in the Iron Mask

1703 The death of the Man in the Iron Mask

Held for more than forty years in prison (the 19th Century folklorist Robert Chambers says only the last five years of his imprisonment were actually in Bastille) during the reign of King Louis XIV, the Man in the Iron Mask was an unknown prisoner. When travelling from prison to prison, he always wore a mask of velvet, not iron.

He was buried as ‘M. de Marchiel’, but his true identity has never been revealed – one suggestion was that he was the Duc de Vermandois, an illegitimate son of Louis XIV ...

Categories: mystery, literature, france