Man in the Iron Mask: Louis XIV's Mysterious Prisoner (1669)

The Man in the Iron Mask was a state prisoner of Louis XIV who was held in total secrecy for more than three decades, from his arrest in 1669 until his death in the Bastille on 19 November 1703. Because his face was hidden from other people when he was moved or seen, rumours about his identity spread even in his lifetime. Voltaire and Alexandre Dumas turned him into one of the most famous mysteries in European history.

What the records show

Unlike many legends, this one rests on real documents. On 19 July 1669 the Marquis de Louvois, Louis XIV’s minister of war, wrote to Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars, governor of the prison at Pignerol in the Alps (today Pinerolo in Italy). He announced that a prisoner named Eustache Dauger would be sent to him and must be guarded with the greatest secrecy.

Louvois ordered that a cell be prepared with several doors so that no one could hear the prisoner, and that Saint-Mars should threaten him with death if he ever spoke of anything other than his daily needs. In the same correspondence the minister remarked that the man was only a valet and needed only simple furniture.

The prisoner was arrested near Dunkirk in late July 1669 by Captain Alexandre de Vauroy and reached Pignerol in August. Nothing in the surviving papers explains what he had done or what he knew.

A prisoner who followed his jailer

For the rest of his life the prisoner stayed in the custody of Saint-Mars, moving with him from post to post:

• Pignerol (1669–1681): Here he was eventually allowed to act as a servant to Nicolas Fouquet, the disgraced finance minister, who was imprisoned there. Fouquet died in 1680.
• Exilles (1681–1687): Saint-Mars was transferred to this Alpine fort with two special prisoners, one of whom was almost certainly Dauger.
• Île Sainte-Marguerite (1687–1698): Saint-Mars became governor of the fortress on this island off Cannes. Reports of the transfer mention a prisoner carried in a covered chair.
• The Bastille (1698–1703): In 1698 Saint-Mars was appointed governor of the Bastille in Paris and brought the prisoner with him.

The Bastille’s king’s lieutenant, Étienne du Junca, kept a register. He recorded the arrival on 18 September 1698 of an old prisoner who had been held at Pignerol and who was always masked, and he noted that the mask was of black velvet. In 1703 du Junca recorded the prisoner’s sudden death on 19 November and his burial the next day in the cemetery of Saint-Paul under the name “Marchioly”.

Key people

• Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars (c. 1626–1708): A former musketeer who became one of Louis XIV’s most trusted jailers. He guarded the prisoner for 34 years and was rewarded with promotions, ending his career as governor of the Bastille.
• François-Michel Le Tellier, Marquis de Louvois (1641–1691): Louis XIV’s powerful war minister, whose letters to Saint-Mars are the main evidence about the prisoner’s early years. After his death his son, the Marquis de Barbezieux, took over the correspondence.
• Nicolas Fouquet (1615–1680): The fallen superintendent of finances, imprisoned at Pignerol for life. That Dauger was allowed to serve him suggests the authorities did not fear what the two men might share, but that Dauger’s own secret had to be kept from the outside world.
• Antonin Nompar de Caumont, Duke of Lauzun: A courtier imprisoned at Pignerol at the same time, whose presence later fuelled rumours.
• Étienne du Junca: The Bastille officer whose register provides the only eyewitness description of the masked prisoner’s arrival and death.

Why the mask?

Wearing a mask was not a normal part of prison life, and it attracted attention. Many historians think the mask was used only on certain occasions, such as journeys or when the prisoner might be seen by outsiders. Some suggest that Saint-Mars himself encouraged the air of mystery, since guarding a prisoner who appeared to be important raised his own status.

The point that matters most is that the mask, as far as contemporary records show, was velvet, not iron. The iron mask came from later storytelling.

The prisoner’s treatment was strict but not cruel by the standards of the time. The surviving letters suggest he was adequately fed and clothed and, like other state prisoners, was allowed to practise his religion. He was simply never allowed to speak to anyone about who he was. His isolation, rather than physical suffering, is what made his case so unusual.

The theories

Over three centuries, writers have proposed dozens of candidates. The best known include:

• Eustache Dauger, a valet: The view of most modern historians is that the prisoner was the man named in Louvois’s letters. The name may have been false, and theories about why a valet mattered so much range from his having seen secret diplomatic papers to his involvement in some court scandal.
• Ercole Antonio Mattioli: An Italian diplomat who double-crossed Louis XIV over the sale of the fortress of Casale and was kidnapped and imprisoned at Pignerol in 1679. The burial name “Marchioly” led many to favour him, but most historians now think Mattioli died at Sainte-Marguerite in 1694.
• A brother of Louis XIV: Voltaire hinted at an older half-brother, and a twin brother theory appeared in the 1790s. There is no evidence for either.
• Others: Suggestions have included Louis de Bourbon, Count of Vermandois, an illegitimate son of Louis XIV who died in 1683; the Duke of Beaufort; Fouquet himself; and even the musketeer d’Artagnan. None fits the documents well.

Voltaire and Dumas: making a legend

The prisoner became famous through Voltaire, who was himself held in the Bastille in 1717–1718 and claimed to have heard stories there. In The Age of Louis XIV (1751) and later writings he described a tall young prisoner forced to wear a mask with a steel or iron chin-piece, treated with great respect, and hinted at royal blood.

During the French Revolution the Bastille became a symbol of royal tyranny, and the masked prisoner was an ideal emblem. Anonymous prints published in 1789 presented him as a victim of despotism. After the storming of the Bastille, people searched the fortress archives for the truth, but found little.

Alexandre Dumas sealed the legend in his novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne, serialised between 1847 and 1850. In it the prisoner is Philippe, the secret twin of Louis XIV, whom the musketeers try to place on the throne. Stage plays and films, including a well-known 1998 film, have kept this version alive.

Myths and facts

• Myth: He wore an iron mask for decades. Fact: Contemporary Bastille records describe a black velvet mask, probably worn only at certain times.
• Myth: He was the king’s twin. Fact: No evidence supports this; it is a later invention made famous by Dumas.
• Myth: Nobody knows anything about him. Fact: His arrest, transfers and death are well documented, even if his identity and crime are not.

Timeline

• 1669, 19 July: Louvois tells Saint-Mars to expect the prisoner Eustache Dauger.
• 1669, August: The prisoner arrives at Pignerol.
• 1681: Saint-Mars and the prisoner move to Exilles.
• 1687: They move to Île Sainte-Marguerite, off Cannes.
• 1698, 18 September: The masked prisoner arrives at the Bastille.
• 1703, 19 November: The prisoner dies in the Bastille and is buried the next day as “Marchioly”.
• 1751: Voltaire’s The Age of Louis XIV popularises the iron mask story.
• 1847–1850: Dumas’s The Vicomte de Bragelonne makes him Louis XIV’s twin.

Why it matters

The Man in the Iron Mask shows how a real but obscure prisoner of Louis XIV’s personal rule could become a powerful symbol. For Enlightenment writers and revolutionaries he stood for the secrecy and arbitrary power of absolute monarchy, and his story remains a classic example of how history and legend grow together.