The Mammoth Encyclopedia of Unsolved Mysteries
“He had been imprisoned for thirty-four years, and even the king’s Lieutenant in the Bastille, Etienne du Jonca, did not know his identity. He made a note in his journal: “I have since learnt that they called him M. de Marchiel”. The unknown prisoner was buried the day after his death, under the name of Marchioly, and was quickly forgotten.
He became famous nearly half a century later, as a result of a book by Voltaire, The Century of Louis XIV, in which Voltaire finally exposed the mystery of t...he “man in the iron mask”. According to Voltaire, a few months after the death of Cardinal Mazarin (which occurred in 1661), a young prisoner wearing an iron mask – or rather, a mask whose chin was composed of steel springs, so he could eat without removing it – was taken to the prison on the Ile Sainte Marguerite. Orders were given to kill him if he removed the mask. This prisoner, “of majestic height . . . of a graceful and noble figure”, was allowed to have anything he desired.MoreLess
He became famous nearly half a century later, as a result of a book by Voltaire, The Century of Louis XIV, in which Voltaire finally exposed the mystery of t...he “man in the iron mask”. According to Voltaire, a few months after the death of Cardinal Mazarin (which occurred in 1661), a young prisoner wearing an iron mask – or rather, a mask whose chin was composed of steel springs, so he could eat without removing it – was taken to the prison on the Ile Sainte Marguerite. Orders were given to kill him if he removed the mask. This prisoner, “of majestic height . . . of a graceful and noble figure”, was allowed to have anything he desired.MoreLess
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