In 1669, a carriage arrived at the fortress of Pignerol in the French Alps carrying a prisoner no one was allowed to see. His face was covered — not with the iron mask that legend would later give him, but with a velvet one. His jailer, a man named Saint-Mars, had orders directly from King Louis XIV, the most powerful ruler in Europe. The instructions were simple and terrifying: keep this man alive, keep him comfortable, and make sure no one ever learns who he is.
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Riddles of the Past·1/2·1′
The place
Palace of Versailles
The Man in the Iron Mask
France’s greatest mystery — the prisoner a king kept hidden for 34 years
Reign of Louis XIV (1669-1703)Palace of Versailles
Moral of the Story
“Some secrets are protected so fiercely that hiding them becomes more famous than the truth ever could.”
Characters
T
The masked prisonerK
King Louis XIVS
Saint-Mars (jailer)V
VoltaireA
Alexandre DumasSource
Voltaire, Le Siècle de Louis XIV; Dumas, Le Vicomte de Bragelonne; French state archives