Who was the Man in the Iron Mask?

Question

Im doing a research project and I have to find out all the theorys and rumurs of who this man was. and I have searched and searched. but I cant find the real answer. It always comes to different ends.. please help me if you know

Answer 1

According to Louvois' letter, the man's name was
Eustache Dauger
and he had been arrested in Dunkirk. Louvois instructed Saint-Mars to prepare a cell with multiple doors which were to prevent anyone from the outside to listen in. Dauger was also to be told that if he spoke of anything other than his immediate needs he would be killed.

The arguments in favor of Dauger:
In 1687, when Saint-Mars went to the fortress-prison of Sainte Marguerite, he brought Dauger with him in a sedan chair covered over with oilcloth. Saint-Mars did not use a litter because he feared it might break down and Dauger could be seen. Thus, Saint-Mars wanted to keep Dauger's face hidden. The twelve-day journey in a closed chair nearly killed Dauger, and his arrival at Sainte Marguerite in this way aroused a great deal of excitement, curiosity, and speculation.

Dauger accompanied Saint-Mars through all his prison postings, unlike Matthioli. If the prisoner was to be handled so confidentially by Saint-Mars, it makes sense that he would stay with Saint-Mars all that time. This is consistent with the Man in the Mask being called Saint-Mars' "longtime" prisoner.

We already noted the letter to Saint-Mars from the secretary of state, cautioning that he not ever "explain to anyone what it is your longtime prisoner did." While everyone knew what Matthioli did, no one knew what Dauger had done--in fact, no one knows to this day.
http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mmaninmask.html

Answer 2

He was the "rumored" twin brother of King Louis. He was put into the Bastille Prison by his evil twin brother. His identity was hidden by an iron mask. You might want to view the 1998 movie with Leo DeCaprio as a study tool.

Answer 3

Leo DeCaprio

Answer 4

Jason Voorhees

Answer 5

The Bulonde explanation seems the most probable one..

No king in his right mind would allow a twin brother to live and be a danger to his throne. (even in a mask !!!!!)

Answer 6

You simply cannot come to a realistic conclusion on this question. For practical reasons....we assume alot....to come to a decent answer. But the dude could have easily been some Russian prince for all we know.

Answer 7

you're right.Internet search gives you different people
as i remember from the movie,he was the king's twin brother

Answer 8

Leonardo diCraprio

Answer 9

The Man in the Iron Mask was a prisoner held in a number of prisons, including the Bastille, during the reign of Louis XIV of France. The identity of this man has been thoroughly discussed, mainly because no one ever saw his face as it was hidden by a black velvet mask, which later re-tellings of the story have said to have been an iron mask.

The first surviving records of the masked prisoner are from July 1, 1669, when Louis XIV's minister the Marquis de Louvois sent a masked prisoner to the care of Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars, governor of the prison of Pignerol, then part of France.

According to Louvois' letter, the man's name was Eustache Dauger and he had been arrested in Dunkirk. Louvois instructed Saint-Mars to prepare a cell with multiple doors which were to prevent anyone from the outside to listen in. Dauger was also to be told that if he spoke of anything other than his immediate needs he would be killed. Saint-Mars was to see Dauger only once a day in order to provide him with food and whatever else he required. But since the prisoner was "only a valet" he should not require much, according to Louvois.

The first rumors of the prisoner's identity (as a Marshal of France) began to circulate at this point. According to many versions of the legend below, the prisoner wore the mask at all times, it is more probable that he was masked only during transport - such as when he was transported from prison to prison - and when there were outside guests in the prison.

Saint-Mars' other prisoners at Pignerol included Nicholas Fouquet and the Marquis de Lauzun. Fouquet's cell was above that of Lauzun.

Dauger was not always isolated from the other prisoners. Wealthy and important ones usually had manservants; Fouquet for instance was served by a man called La Riviere. Since La Riviere was often ill, Saint-Mars applied for permission for Dauger to act as servant for Fouquet. In 1675 Louvois gave permission for such an arrangement, the conditions being that he was only to serve Fouquet while La Riviere 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.

The fact that the man in the mask served as a valet is an important one. 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. This might explain why he was allowed contact with one man but not the other. Also some historians have pointed out that 17th-century protocol made it unthinkable that a prince should be a servant. This alone discredits the romantic idea that he was the twin brother of Louis XIV.

After Fouquet's death in 1680, Saint-Mars discovered a secret hole between Fouquet and Lauzun's cells. He was sure that they had communicated through this hole without supervision by him or his guards and thus that Lauzun must have been aware of Dauger's existence. Louvois instructed Saint-Mars to move Lauzun to Fouquet's cell and to tell him that Dauger and La Riviere had been released. In fact they were held in another cell on the opposite side of the prison, their presence there being highly secret.

Lauzun was freed in 1681. Later that same year Saint-Mars was appointed governor of the prison fortress of Exiles. He went there, taking Dauger and La Riviere with him. La Riviere's death was reported in January 1687 and in May Saint-Mars and Dauger moved to the island of Sainte-Marguerite, one of the Lérins Islands.

It was during the journey to Sainte-Marguerite that rumors spread that the prisoner was wearing an iron mask.

On September 18, 1698, Saint-Mars took up his new post as a governor of the Bastille prison, bringing the masked prisoner with him. The prisoner was placed in a solitary cell in the pre-furnished third chamber of the Bertaudiere tower. The prison's second-in-command, de Rosarges, was to feed him. Most of the details of the masked man (continuous wearing of a mask and preferential treatment) come from Lieutenant du Junca of the Bastille, who noted that the prisoner wore "a mask of black velvet".

The prisoner died on November 19, 1703, and was buried the next day under the name of Marchioly. All his furniture and clothing were reportedly destroyed afterwards.

The fate of the mysterious prisoner—and the extent of apparent precautions his jailers took—created much interest and many legends.

One example dates from 1890 when Louis Gendron, a French military historian, came across some coded letters and passed them on to Etienne Bazeries in the French Army's cryptographic department. After three years Bazeries managed to read some messages in the Great Cypher of Louis XIV. One of them referred to a prisoner and identified him as General Vivien de Bulonde. One of the letters written by François de Louvois made specific reference to de Bulonde's crime.

At the siege of Cuneo, Bulonde was concerned about enemy troops arriving from Austria and ordered a hasty withdrawal, leaving behind his munitions and wounded men. Louis XIV was furious and in another of the letters specifically ordered him "to be conducted to the fortress at Pignerole where he will be locked in a cell and under guard at night, and permitted to walk the battlements during the day with a mask". The dates of the letters fit the dates of the original records about the man in the mask.

Some believe that the evidence of the letters means that there is now little need of an alternative explanation for the man in the mask. However, other sources claim that Bulonde's arrest was no secret and was actually published in a newspaper. His death is also recorded as happening in 1709, six years after that of the man in the mask.

There are almost a hundred theories in existence and some others were propounded after the existence of the letters was widely known. Later commentators have still presented their own theories, possibly based on embellished versions of the original tale, mixed with details from stories of other famous contemporary prisoners.