The Man in the Iron Mask

[Music] Europe is the cradle of Legends that resonate around the world ancient tales of Secrets mystery and horror but what's the reality behind the people and places that gave birth to these legends my name is Ronald talk and I'll be travelling the length and breadth of Europe seeking to unravel fact or fiction with me will be my team of legend detectives historian Tessa Donnelly psychologist Massimo Polidoro and psychic medium Tony Stockwell our quest will take us from Naples to Transylvania from the heart of England to the Mediterranean island's to answer questions that haunt us 300 years ago the small town of Pinot Rollo in Italian Alps 40 kilometers south of Turin allegedly housed Europe's most famous prisoner locked away in solitary confinement in the town's prison for 11 years the prisoners identity was never revealed the legend of the man in the iron mask remains one of the great unsolved mysteries and continues to exert a magnetic fascination not just for the local inhabitants were hold an annual festival in his honor but for historians and enthusiasts from all over the world according to legend the masked prisoner spent over 30 years behind bars in prisons across France dying in the bus D and paris in 1703 his fate has generated endless speculation and rumor but it he really exists [Applause] to investigate this intriguing legend I've brought my team of legend detectives to France here we will examine the latest theories including the astonishing claim of a British historian who says he hasn't covered new evidence that will finally solve the mystery of the iron mask it was the French novelist Alexandre Dumas who immortalized the legend and paved the way for Hollywood with his celebrated novel the man in the iron mask published in 1850 many people will leave the novel is based on fact especially as a key event in the story takes place here at the elegant 17th century château of wall of ecore an hour's drive from Paris [Music] in the novel the masked prisoner is none other than Philippe the identical twin brother of King Louie the 14th and thus a potential rival for the French throne wicked King Louis removes the threat by imprisoning his brother and concealing his identity under a mask but the heroic three musketeers release philip from prison and during a spectacular party here at the Chateau swap him with his corrupt twin brother phillipe becomes the new ruler while louis suffers the same cruel fate he imposed on his brother his face is encased in an iron mask and he is imprisoned in a remote part of France we've got a huge task in front of us we need to find out if there really was a man in an iron mask way wasn't prizant who put him behind bars [Applause] there have been quite a number of contenders of them absolutely I've read that there are something like 52 different candidates for the position like a full deck of cards actually some say it was the French playwright Moliere others say it was the illegitimate son of charles ii or oliver cromwell but I think we need to find out if our man was supposed to be a king or a nobody well I think the first thing we have to find out is whether Alexandre Dumas story about the twin brother of King Louie the fourteenth there's any truth so what's the evidence for the claim that the man in the iron mask was Louie dat 14th twin brother tes eyes meeting historian Roger MacDonald's in Paris at the bus T one of the city's most famous landmarks this historic monument marks the site of the former prison where legend has it that the man in the iron mask died in 1703 today the prison is long gone torn down by French revolutionaries as a symbol of tyranny in 1789 I'm curious to find out why this prison tied him with one of France's most famous prisoners well early in the 18th century rumours first started about the masked man in the Bastille and most of them were fermented by a very famous French writer called Voltaire and he was twice in prison here in 17 and 16 and 1726 himself Voltaire would have actually met people who'd been in contact with the man in the iron mark yes old waters and old legs I suppose Voltaire never actually said that the mask was the twin brother of Louie the forties but he certainly suggested he was an elder brother and the real point about this was that once the Revolution happened the revolutionaries milked the story for all it's worth [Applause] it's one day after the Bastille film was the first time that anyone who actually suggested between the rather of Louise authorities they created a kind of tableau for the tourists were flocking to Paris in their thousands to see the Bastille being pulled down and that tableau consisted of a skeleton with an iron mask conveniently placed on it it seems the theory that the man in the iron mask was louis xiv win was just an elaborate fantasy cooked up by the revolutionaries coming up as tessa continues to unravel fact from fiction i'll be experiencing what it's like to be the man in the iron mask first hand I don't like this at all [Music] I'm in France with my team of legend detectives at the Chateau of vole of ecole outside Paris we're on the trail of the legendary man in the iron mask our first task is to find out if he was a real person and not just a fictional character tessa has already discovered that the story of a mysterious masked prisoner was circulating long before Dumas novel of 1850 a hundred years earlier the French writer Voltaire was discussing the rumors describing the mask in detail how it had a hinged lower jaw held in place by Springs that made it possible for the prisoner to eat the legend caught the public imagination and was given credibility when the French mob stormed the Bastille during the 7089 Revolution rumors swept through the city that a skeleton had been found in a prison cell with an iron mask attached this grim tableau became a major tourist attraction but it was no more than a clever trick by the revolutionaries to discredit the monarchy by portraying them as monsters a similar tourist attraction is to be found in the dungeon of auravie comb for team psychologist massimo Polidoro it's a good opportunity to show me just what it would have been like to have worn the mask which some people claim was not made of iron but of bone or of ivory or as I'm about to experience of fabric this is how we usually mention buffet nice to be yeah well this looks very unpleasant isn't it more impressive than you think I just hear this fabric mask they were frequently used during Louie's the 15-time to hide the identity of a prisoner to be carried a trainer [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's it's a bit hot I must tell you you can knock the head right move but in that in a hot day it would be pleasant yeah but try this one this is very happy at first I don't like this at all imagine we're in this day in the table this is very heavy very very happy as a punishment this would drive a prisoner crazy oh you're very strong historian Roger McDonald has no doubt that the man in the iron mask really did exist he's uncovered the vital document in a library of surgeon of year that in Paris it's a 17th century eyewitness account of a sighting of the masked prisoner which Roger believes establishes beyond doubt he had a life outside the world of fiction the bibliothèque sashimi around the corner is copied for me this vital page of a document that proves once and for all but a man in the iron mask really existed because in 1687 the mask was seen by a priest at Gua town at Provence in the South of France in the square a masked prisoner was held underneath an oilskin in a sedan chair it was a very very hot day and they had to take the cover off to prevent him from suffocating and this document shows that that was the point of which the clerics saw a mask of dossier sulla visage a mask of steel on his face so in other words who liked the Voltaire when they wrote about this it's masked with a hinged jaw and something that maybe wasn't even taken off while a man ate it's actually based on historical fact it is and Voltaire mentioned it as a steel mask and this document confirms that it was indeed a steel mask must have been quite a sight a man in a mask in a sedan chair in the center of attack now that's weird about all this if you go to the elaborate arrangement of putting your man in a heavy expensive mask and you've got a library Sakura see people all around him carrying him in a sedan chair why then do you let anyone and everyone take a look at him our discovery that the man in the iron mask was seen in public is a major breakthrough it means we are now on the trail of a real person rather than a character from fiction searching for additional clues Massimo and I travelled to grass the small town in Provence in southern France were according to the records the sighting was made [Music] we follow the same route that the prisoner and his guard would have taken through these narrow streets 300 years ago according to the reports the masked prisoner was seen drinking at a fountain in the main square this is where you got a drink what because this is the center of the town and must have been very busy Dan as it is now must have been a modest quick way to give him a drink decision to stop here I wonder probably as jailor who wanted everybody to see that did the masked robber boys show enough you know just to let everyone know what a big prisoner he had what a better way to give yourself status Massimo suggestion that by allowing his mysterious masked prisoner to be seen in public his jailer was drawing attention to himself is an interesting one so our next task is to find out who the jailer was Tisa has joined Roger at the fortress of Vincennes in Paris a military archive containing thousands of confidential letters between louis xiv ministers and the present authorities roger has combed through the archives and found documents which identified the iron masks Jayla this is chateau de vincennes a former prison of paris is now where all the important documents relating to the man in the iron mask attempt including this rather interesting book from 1873 a very rare book written by an army officer who had access to all the army records and he was the one who discovered that the iron mask had one single jailer throughout his captivity in four different prisons in different parts of France a man called Saint Mars so in other words this so Mars character was with the continuity the key to the secret of tonight yes and he had what amounted to his own private army of 45 former Musketeers to guard one man he was given huge sums of money in bribes and bonuses in one period of 30 months for example we know he received about the equivalent in today's terms of 400,000 pounds this mystery prisoner his anonymity was so important that he was kept behind bars he was kept behind a mask then he had to have his own Jana who in turn had his own private army who was paid a small fortune to make sure that absolutely all of this was kept on her ass yes if he was [Music] we're a long way from Alexander Dumas fictional story of the Kings twin brother aren't we yeah I think we can pretty much conclude that story was cooked up by French revolutionaries they really wanted to add gussto to their anti-monarchy campaign but I think we can also be equally certain that a man in an iron mask in fact a steel mask so that's turned out did really exist and what's interesting is it throughout his period in custody he was looked after by the same jailer a guy called Sanh Mars you know to tell you the truth I'm even more intrigued by the jailer than by the prisoner by now the jailer but you all this trouble to hide his identity in the massacre in a remote jail and then he brought him in the center of the wheel of grass in a hot summer day in front of everybody what was he up to was he extremely careless or did he have some other agenda was he drawing attention to the mask or to himself [Music] to follow up his hunch about the jailer having his own motives for displaying the iron mask in public Massimo is heading for Pinarello today this Alpine town is in northern Italy but during the 17th century Binda Rolo was part of France and it was then called Pina roll it wasn't a towns prison that the iron masks jailer for over 30 years the former musketeer Sam Mars began his career as a prison officer during the time of louis xiv pin euro prison housed some of france's most important prisoners the town was as far away from paris as it could have possibly been while still being in france clearly the prisoners detained here were to be kept far away from prying eyes all that remains of the prison is a small monument this is a memorial to the ancient fortress of Pinarello cause now the prison and the castle long gone but the tradition of the man in the iron mask still lives on in pinnawala the townspeople of pinroll are proud of their links to the man in the iron mask they celebrate his years of captivity here and even hold an annual festival in his honor under this mask is the artistic director of Pina Rollo's iron mask historical and cultural association much better community gusta tradición de la máscara de Faria pin are all Medici well it was born just like that from a group of friends we met and we thought of doing this commemoration and we started immediately in the first year with 500 participants has been a production that and this year we hope to celebrate with success in the seventh anniversary [Music] we set the Fatima via the computer based on a la máscara Farah no there are many hypotheses many have more value others less but it's certainly better that it's not because the day the identity of the man in the iron mask is revealed it will stop being a mystery because people finally know the person who really existed behind the iron mask there are no more clues to be found here about the man in the iron mask or his jailers and Mars it's quite a recent tradition in Pinarello and mainly a tourist attraction so I think I will need to investigate the main prison where both men were kept for 12 years [Music] Massimo is on his way to some agar heat the island where the masks spent 12 years in prison under the ego eye of his longtime jailer Sun Mars the island lies just across the sea from the result of camp playground of the rich and famous khun is also the home of leading iron mask scholar John noon he's convinced he knows who the prisoner was noon believes that far from being famous he was in nonentity a humble servant called Eustace dulce or possibly dong Jie in the last 20 years one is not allowed a choice because documents have been discovered which force the conclusion that the prisoner is stashed on che that is because the only prisoner described as wearing an iron mask is the one who arrived in Sant Marguerite's in 1687 and we know from government dispatches and orders and all the correspondence that passed between Samar and Louvois the Minister of War over a period of nearly 20 years all that demonstrates proves beyond any doubt that that particular prisoner was - dollar in the order forest which exists there was no question of hiding his face there was only one special condition attached news - and that was he should not be allowed to speak to anyone because he had some secret information the government didn't wish that he would share with anyone so he was held when he got to Pina roller he was held incommunicado he feeds a very ordinary person and in fact he was described by the war minister as only a valet it was a seven so at last we have a serious candidate in use - dorje the humble valet but we've discovered there were no instructions given at the time of his arrest to hide his identity under a mask it raises the question of who made the decision to mask him and why and what secrets did oj know that were so threatening to the French state that he had to be confined to a life of cruel isolation I've arranged to meet one of France's leading historians Jean Christie our petty fees who has spent 30 years studying the enigma he agrees with John knew that Dolce is our man - it was unquestionably us - dodgy he was a prison arrested in Cali in August 16 69 what exactly was he guilty of on clearing but it's only a theory is that he was involved in nightly secret negotiations which took place between France and England according to Monsieur petit fees the english king charles ii wanted to return his country to the catholic faith despite massive opposition so he began top secret negotiations with louis xiv seeking the French king's help Lipa bob is quite likely and he still only a theory but a stash dodgy became mixed up in his affair but is the documents which he shouldn't have seen and what he began to talk as the extremely severe instructions give another time to Monsieur the same mouth to keep his prisoner in a place where no one could hear what he might shut out and to feed him once a day and only to speak to him about absolute necessities never about anything else amid auto shows Samad was allowed to bring his prisoner to st. Margaret in 1687 charles ii died in 1685 when chose a second died it seems very possible that the secret information that miss - had ceased to be important when he moved to st. margaret there was no order to keep the prisoner secret but he wears an iron mask it is in the sedan chair to go to st. Margaret Island which brings us to the contradiction inside the mystery itself san ma was drawing attention to his prisoner by the very means he used supposedly to to render him anonymous by putting an iron mask on his head [Music] in part three I take to the water with Massimo and the fourth member of the legend detective team psychic medium Tony Stockwell we visit the island prison of some agreed and examined a cell where the mysterious prisoner spent 12 long years meanwhile in Paris Roger McDonald reveals to Tessa that his candidate isn't a mere valet but one of the most famous men in French history the man in the iron mask is a haunting mystery that has gripped the public imagination for generations finding a solution to the riddle is a challenge that's been taken on by writers and historians for 300 years the result a long list of candidates but very few who survive serious scrutiny I brought my team of legend detectives to France in an attempt to crack this haunting legend so far we've discovered that the mast was a real person spotted in public while being escorted through the town of Grasse in 1687 and dying in the Bastille nearly 20 years later in 1703 [Music] many of the experts we've consulted agree that the most likely candidate is the humble valet use - dodgy but not everyone accepts this at valla v comme historian roger mcdonald is eager to prove to Tessa that Dolce is the wrong man Roger claims that he died seven years before the sighting in 1687 one of the long-standing possibilities for that for the man behind this mask is a character called Eustace Thor Jay what do you make of it all I like to keep to the facts what we do know for certain is that he was arrested in 1669 this is his arrest warrant with his name in rather large letters but there's a much more interesting letter in 1680 which in my view proves conclusively in a postscript that Donghae committed suicide you say you're convinced he died and was eliminated by 1680 but a large number of contemporary historians have staked their reputation on him being really the most likely candidate for the man behind the mask well these very rare early books about the man in the iron mask that we've got in front of us contain correspondence over a period of 35 years relating to the masked prisoner and what is indisputable is that the references to use this Dhananjay n in 1680 why because he's dead you think he's dead I think he's dead that's my opinion [Music] so who is Rogers candidate he's revealed to Tessa that his solution involves none other than the famous d'Artagnan and the three musketeers legendary characters from the novels of Alexandre Dumas but for Roger claims they were real people [Music] we're in the sgt district of Paris why exactly because this is the heart of Musketeers territory and in real life just as in fiction the three musketeers play a key part in the true secret identity of the man in the iron mask now hang on a minute I know that Alexandre Dumas played the myth of the Musketeers alongside the legend of the man in the eye mask but I'm not sure Roger that means you can well maybe I can but a man called courtiers can and 150 years before Juma he wrote a book memoirs of d'Artagnan which accurately described how d'Artagnan arrived in Paris stayed as an inn just two streets from here the gallows in and the following day he helped the three musketeers Athos Aramis and Porthos defeat Cardinal Richelieu as guards in the most famous duel in history [Music] but all that all for one and one for all I thought it was a a flight of fantasy that came from Cortile that do Marvin lifts it a lot of people believe that for a very long time but in the last century three very distinguished French historians looked more closely into what course heels have written and they reached the conclusion that it contained amazingly accurate details about events and people so in other words the three musketeers are linked to the man in the iron mask absolutely right as Tessa continues to push Roger for his solution to the mystery I've gone to can in the South of France to join Massimo and the fourth member of the legend detective team psychic medium Tony Stockwell Tony's uncanny gifts mean he often comes up with leads in cases where the evidence has run dry we're going by boat to the tiny island of some agreed just across the sea site of the forbidding island prison where the mask was held in solitary confinement for 12 years [Music] the masked jailer Sun Mars brought his prisoner here in 1687 to the prison that would later become notorious for the important prisoners of stated held [Music] tony is checking out the fortress I've given him the minimum of information about the case he knows we're investigating the man in the iron mask but nothing about the possible candidates meanwhile Massimo concentrates on the prison security and the man who ran it the governor san Mars today the island fortress looks out on a very different view than it did during the 17th century the glamorous seaside resort of can was then a small fishing village and this was a truly remote region of France the perfect place to hide away powerful enemies of the state I'm taking Tony into the cell that once belonged to the man in the iron mask all furnishings from the time he was imprisoned here have long gone but I'm hoping that lurking in the atmosphere and then the depths of the stone walls there may be a residue of the man's spirit that Tony can find in this very cell in the state prison of Sam agreed the man in the iron mask was kept for twelve very very long years maybe traces of his personality are still here hopefully you can tell me more about it perhaps even solve the mystery so I'm gonna leave you for now speak to you later thank you [Music] the first impression I have was very much of the prisoners state of mind and it felt strongly to me that he would have lost his mind during his time of confinement there and strangely and I'm sorry but I did feel another thing and that was there was something on my hair but it certainly wasn't iron and you know if you can imagine what the the the cape of a monk or something like that there was something lighter and softer against me during the time I walked there possibly that the mass would have been used only from time to time maybe that's maybe it's more than more than the near near arrival is truth and would you say he moved around in higher circles or was he perhaps a nobody no certainly not a nobody I don't get that sense at all I really feel this man was of his day in the know he would have been privy to lots of different ideas secrets possibly something is the thing I got clearer that anything else was a sense of treaties like secrets folk for countries if you like and why do you think was he imprisoned what was his crime I'm not sure the crime maybe is to have knowledge and maybe that knowledge was seen to be dangerous if he had got into the wrong hands why he wasn't actually taken out or executed again that seems a little odd as well why keep this guy for so many years you know feeding and giving him medical attention tony has confirmed what many historians have suspected first that the prisoner was not permanently mask and that the mask was more likely to have been of a fabric like velvet rather than iron the second point that Tony has picked up is that the mystery man may have been imprisoned as many experts believe because he knew of a secret treaty between England and France which threatened the French state [Music] meanwhile Misawa has been investigating security at the prison it's clear that this was no cozy retreat the prison was surrounded by high walls even though the prisoners had nowhere to run the windows of the cells even have three separate layers of bars they were escape-proof and the huge scale of the prison suggests that the governor saw Mars was master of a sizeable and luxurious estate it's an extremely secure prison and there may have been like a carosone of 50 men Guardian six prisoners maybe about six prisoners what about the jailer saint-mars I was he living here that's interesting you know his own private island there's some private army really king of the island you may say the character of Sun Mars has become central to our investigation but what sort of man was the iron masks jailer for more than 30 years I'm hoping Tony can use his skills as a psychic to pick up clues from a portrait of Sun Mars by looking into the eyes of the subject invariably I can tell something about the impression obviously this is a painting rather than a photograph now I get a real Census man holds like his Commission sacred as a responsibility is so massively important to him hey I get the sense with him as well as though you certainly wouldn't want to cross him you know he holds his rank masses hold massively important and his position of society means everything to him I don't want to brand him as an evil person but I certainly get a sense that you I would need to be very careful we would need to be very careful to meet this guy and I think that when he wanted to be he could be actually quite a vicious character Samar's was a jailer for 44 years he only became a jailer at the age of 38 before that he'd been a musketeer Sam I set out to make a name for himself in the world with no backing of family or even some money he was an orphan raised by an uncle who who packed him off to the army at the age of 12 his real name was Benin Doven and he chose this extraordinary name Samaha which was a mixture of the Christian word Saint yes with the Roman pagan god of war this is a name to conjure with and it tells you a great deal about summer and some Mars at heart was always a musketeer he's a little man swash buckling little man who wanted to impress the draw attention to himself to cut a - he would brag about his past when he was a young man of 26 how he picked a fight with seven Dutchman how he killed four and disarmed the other three and continued on with their stories of how he had won a bullfight in Spain and soliton when you're telling me it was the jailors idea to put his Tosh inside this iron mask it was a la nobody else's sama made a kind of advanced publicity for this prisoner and he arrives then in this extraordinary stunt publicity stunt wearing a mask in his sedan chair and so on and so on and all the people in the region said Mike Cudlitz me this is a very important prisoner it must be a very important jailer to look after such a man the iron mask was put on this prisoners head not to hide who he was but who he wasn't he wasn't a prisoner of importance he wasn't a prisoner of any significance at all but the samar wished to keep that a secret he wished people to believe that it was important so that they would think that he was important one should remember that with this mixture of fact and fiction has always allowed people to forget the act of one man putting an iron mask onto another man's head seems to me it's an abnormal thing to do and anyone who does that kind of thing I'm saying might well be mentally disordered Joan Nunes highly original theory that some Mars placed the iron mask on the head of you stash doll J Amir Valley in order to make himself seem important is intriguing but Roger McDonald's researches point to another candidate a famous person who has been overlooked for more than three centuries a clueless here at the 17th century château of volary combed it was built by nicolas bouquet louis xiv brilliant finance minister and for a while the most powerful man in france in 1661 he hosted a spectacular party here that was so grand it put young king louis xiv to shame and signal the beginning of Fukase fall from grace two weeks later fou k was arrested by a man who will play a central role in Rogers theater well the man sent to arrest bouquet it was none other than d'Artagnan captain of the Musketeers head of royal security but he bungled the arrest and had to run after fook a down the street and this was the beginning of a period of two and a half years in which d'Artagnan proved to be an extremely lackadaisical jailer of fook a d'Artagnan period as jailer of fook a is for him a career disaster the king no longer trusts him and he's completely unable to cope with the machinations of the French Court I can imagine I mean if he's anything like the traditional stereotype of a musketeer he would have been straight down the line and honest of the day and from from what I can gather the fur is Liancourt was the the total office it was a den of iniquity the most deadly secret of all was that louis xiv was almost certainly illegitimate the son of Cardinal Mazarin and d'Artagnan as the head of royal security certainly knew this and all the other royal secrets and I think that what happened after that inevitably was they decided they would get rid of d'Artagnan they would give him some hero's funeral but I don't understand where you're going with this because I thought d'Artagnan died at the Battle of mastery well he was certainly at the Battle of mastery when he was certainly wounded coded letters show that saint-mars from hitherto had never been allowed to leave his prison of pinna role even for a single day was summoned to Maastricht in the form of crisis management and he was the one who took d'Artagnan who was injured not killed from Maastricht to Pinner oh why would they put d'Artagnan in an iron mask because who was saint-mars his company of orders former Musketeers if they'd known that it was d'Artagnan behind the mask they'd have been only certain to help him escape so you're saying that d'Artagnan was the man in the iron mask sometimes test truth really is stranger than fiction if d'Artagnan didn't die at the Battle of Maastricht in 1673 could he really have been the man in the iron mask imprisoned for the terrible secrets he knew about the French Court and what about John Lewis theory that the mask was a publicity stunt turned up by his ambitious jailer in a desire for status coming up.we subject Roger MacDonald's provocative new theory to cross-examination could the man in the iron mask really have been one of France's greatest heroes historian Roger McDonald has put forward the controversial theory that the man in the iron mask was none other than the famous musketeer d'Artagnan but the historical records repo d'Artagnan dying at the Battle of must list in 1673 so how could he have been the man in the iron mask who allegedly died in the Bastille in 1703 Roger claims d'artagnan death in battle was faked now Tessa and I are going to subject his theory to cross-examination Roger you're putting forward dot on your as your candidate for the man in the iron mask why I became convinced when I learned that d'Artagnan --zz biographer court seals from 1700 was imprisoned in the Bastille at exactly the same time as the man in the iron mask I had written this book which as we've heard how the French historians say contains amazingly accurate details about men and places it's the only explanation for how courtiers managed to write the book I have two problems with your theory Roger and the first is that d'Artagnan famously died at the Battle of Maastricht and this is backed up by three contemporary eyewitnesses I found two of those eyewitnesses I also was able to discredit them conclusively very quickly both of them proved to be completely unreliable and shown in effect not to be there at the time and the third was a drunken Irish Pierre my second issue is that the man in the iron mask died in 1703 if d'Artagnan had lived that long he would have been well into his late 80s at a staggering age for that time well one of the three musketeers Porthos we know for certain as we have his birth date and the date of his death lived till he was 95 and interestingly d'Artagnan Zelda brother pull the bats also lived till he was 95 it doesn't make sense to me to sense in Mars his jailer too must freeze drag him all the way back and put him in a mask very difficult actually disposing of someone as famous as as d'Artagnan the moment it was already proclaimed dead by the time d'Artagnan was discovered he was one of many anonymous casualties in the first French casualty stations where it was extremely difficult to dispose of anyone so they sent for Saint Mars and st. Mars was the least likely person to want to get rid of d'Artagnan first of all because he was his former commanding officer and only because he could see that he was the goose potentially laying the golden eggs well thank you Roger your theory is very interesting and and I think it will give us a lot to think about and I'm sure a lot of historians to roger's challenging theory that it was none other than the dashing musketeer d'Artagnan behind the mask that's one more name to the roll call of candidates possibly the most intriguing yet but is his theory more than just inspired speculation is the evidence strong enough for us to say that after 300 years the mystery of the identity of the man in the iron mask has finally been solved after all we've heard how much nearer to the truth have we come Tessa well Phil mark to Roger for coming up with really an extraordinary fairy you know the idea of fitting Darth Han you're the hero French history inside the myth about the man with the iron mask I mean it's phenomenal but for me it's a bit too good to be true really having said that I'd love to know what Hollywood will make of it Massimo what do you think yeah let's not forget John Moon's theory that maybe the whole point was not to hide who was behind the mask but who was not you know a big psychological play a big publicity stunt for the jailor to further his career wouldn't that be amazing what we know there was a man in the iron mask but we still don't know for sure who he was until somebody finds the smoking gun because maybe in an archive in a long-forgotten document it was saying golden letters the man in the iron mask is and until then the search for his identity will continue the

Channel: Hal Monroe

Views: 82,854

Rating: 4.2076373 out of 5

Keywords: Iron, Mask

Id: T0kbOzqDTqc

Length: 46min 13sec (2773 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 12 2017