Historians have noted that the name Eustache Dauger was written in a handwriting different from that used in the rest of the letter's text, suggesting that a clerk wrote the letter under Louvois' dictation, while someone else, very likely Louvois, added the name afterward.ĭauger was arrested by Captain Alexandre de Vauroy, garrison commander of Dunkerque, and taken to Pignerol, where he arrived in late August. Dauger was to be told that if he, Dauger, spoke of anything other than his immediate needs he would be killed, but, according to Louvois, the prisoner should not require much since he was "only a valet". Saint-Mars was to see Dauger only once a day to provide food and whatever else he needed. Louis XIV instructed Saint-Mars to prepare a cell with multiple doors, one closing upon the other, which were to prevent anyone from the outside listening in. The town of Pinerolo, previously Pignerol, in Piedmont, Italy In his letter, Louvois informed Saint-Mars that a prisoner named "Eustache Dauger" was due to arrive in the next month or so. The earliest surviving records of the masked prisoner are from late July 1669, when Louis XIV's minister, the Marquis de Louvois, sent a letter to Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars, governor of the prison of Pignerol (which at the time was part of France). 5.2 Historians of the Man in the Iron Mask.3.6.3 Dauger de Cavoye in prison at Saint-Lazare.This retrospective approach was adopted by many subsequent authors, and new works have continued to appear on the subject. Dumas also presented a review of the popular theories about the prisoner extant in his time in the chapter "L'homme au masque de fer", published in the sixth volume of his non-fiction Crimes Célèbres. In it, the prisoner is forced to wear an iron mask, and is portrayed as Louis XIV's identical twin. A section of his novel The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later, the final installment of his D'Artagnan saga, features the Man in the Iron Mask. The Man in the Iron Mask has been the subject of many works of fiction, most prominently in the late 1840s by Alexandre Dumas. This solution, however, was disproved in 1953 based on previously unpublished family letters discovered by French historian Georges Mongrédien, who added that the enigma remained unsolved owing to the lack of reliable historical documents about the prisoner's identity and the cause of his long incarceration. In 1932, French historian Maurice Duvivier proposed a logical theory whereby the prisoner was simply Eustache Dauger de Cavoye, a nobleman associated with several political scandals of the late 17th century. Official documents reveal, however, that the prisoner was made to cover his face only in the final years of his incarceration, and modern historians believe the measure was imposed by Saint-Mars solely to increase his own prestige at the end of his career, thus initiating persistent rumours about this supposedly important prisoner.
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Legend has it that no one is known to have seen his face, as it was hidden by a mask of black velvet cloth, later misreported by Voltaire as an iron mask. What little is known about the historical prisoner is based on contemporary documents that surfaced during the 19 th century, mainly the correspondence between Saint-Mars and his superiors in Paris. This assertion of a royal connection was echoed later by authors who proposed variants of this aristocratic solution. Among the leading theories is one proposed by the French philosopher and writer Voltaire, who claimed in the second edition of his Questions sur l'Encyclopédie (1771) that the prisoner was an older, illegitimate brother of Louis XIV. The true identity of this prisoner remains a mystery, even though it has been extensively debated by historians, and various theories have been expounded in numerous books, articles, plays, and films.
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When he died there on 19 November 1703, his inhumation certificate bore the pseudonym of "Marchialy". Known for remaining unidentified throughout his time in prison, he was held in the custody of the same jailer, Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars, in four successive French prisons, including the Bastille.
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The Man in the Iron Mask ( French L'Homme au Masque de Fer died 19 November 1703) was an unidentified prisoner of state, arrested in July 1669 under the pseudonym of "Eustache Dauger" and incarcerated for a period of 34 years during the reign of King Louis XIV of France (1643–1715).