Who was the Real Man in the Iron Mask?

hello I'm Simon Whistler you're watching today I found out in in the video today we're looking at who exactly was a man in the iron mask and just before you get started with the video today I do want to say that it's brought to you by back place you can get a free 15 day trial by going to Backblaze com forward slash brain food all over the nineteen seventy no three a tomb in the Bastille simple cemetery welcomes the corpse of a man who had spent almost the last four decades of his life in various prisons of France he is without a doubt the most famous prisoner in French history even though nobody knows why he had to spend over thirty five years in prison during this time he was reportedly kept in near perfect isolation and often had his face covered the first known record of the man dates back to July of sixteen sixty nine when Marquis de la voix in a letter to the governor of pigna robbed prison been Jean de Verano Samar's stated a prisoner by the name of a stash do--she would be arriving who was only a valet this man would go on to be the man in the iron mask but was this his real name this is uncertain and in the letter it is clear that the name was added by a different person than the person who wrote the letter why this is the case is one of the many mysteries surrounding this prisoner from here we have numerous references of the man some more credible than others for instance Voltaire mentions him in its work Alessia called a louis xiv Voltaire was imprisoned in the Bastille for about a year in 1717 where he met many inmates who had supposedly come into contact with the mysterious prisoner while he was still alive incidentally another fun fact about the famed Enlightenment thinker is the Voltaire made his fortune by helping to rigged the lottery in any event the existence of the man in the iron mask is also noted by other historical references such as alum memoir secret for service de l'histoire de la Percy by an unknown author it's also mentioned by the writings of our most famous journalists of the French Revolution Frederick Markkula Baron von Grimm and the personal diary of Etienne Juncker deputy of the Bastille during the time of the famous prisoners death the source that made the prisoner famous among the masses though was the book by Alexander Duma the man in the iron mask which was the third and final book in the series that began with the three musketeers de Mars Burke although considered to be mainly fiction seems to contain some useful historical data with the author having conducted quite a detailed investigation into the case the Frenchman's novels were often inspired by real people's stories which he then created fictional stories around this is also the case with Count of Monte Cristo which was loosely based around a supposedly real man at least according to the author of the work dumar read this work was that of police archivist Jacques the show we're getting to touched on this in the bonus fact it's in just a minute as mentioned the order for douches imprisonment was given by Marquis de la voix louis xiv Secretary of State for war among other things the author mentioned that duje had to be kept in a high-security prison and that he was not to come into contact with anyone except a very few select people they also stated that if he dared to speak of anything other than his immediate needs he should be executed immediately towards this end he at the same keep over the rest of his life the aforementioned French prison warden been ashamed of Wanda Samar's who was extremely ambitious but purportedly not particularly bright or capable but as with most things concerning the real man finding the truth among all the early reports is exceedingly difficult for instance while it is claimed that he was ordered never to come in contact with other prisoners nor speak of anything that his immediate needs at one point some Mars is known to have received permission for doubter to become a servant in prison to former superintendent of finances and fellow prisoner Nicholas for Kane when his normal servant was ill the only stipulation was that he was not to meet with anyone else other than for K if others were around Dahlia was not to be there so why was for K granted such access well it has been speculated that it was because for K was expected to spend the rest of his life in prison though of course this wouldn't preclude him writing letters or meeting with others making the whole lifting of the supposed restrictions even more curious the fact that dagger was initially named a valet and later served as one in the prison is also significant if true given the protocols of the age had he been royalty or even just someone who had royal blood this would probably not have been allowed someone of royal blood in prison for life on dubious charges well perfectly fine they were often given servants and many of the perks of nobility while in prison but subjected to becoming a servant by fellow royalty well that'd have been unthinkable whatever the case the main reason we all remember this particular prisoner stead of numerous others who bore a similar fate is this mask why was his face covered and hidden from public view some historians claim that this was nothing but a trick by the ambitious Mars who came up with the idea during the inmates transfer to Sin Margaret in 1687 this is so that he can impress the crowds with the importance of the prisoner the king himself had entrusted him to guard it was after this journey that the idea that the prisoner was forced wear an iron mask first started to circulate so really hope you enjoying this video so far and before we continue with it I did want to give a quick mention to our great sponsor for today's episode and that is Backblaze now you've heard me talk about backing up before and Backblaze specifically and why it's important and all of that stuff I think I relayed a story to you about me spilling coffee all over my computer and the thing 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governor of the Bastille in Paris at which point dagger once again was moved with him according to Voltaire and in turn the prisoners who supposedly saw the man in the iron mask at the Bastille the prisoner had to wear the mask at all times however it should be mentioned that the aforementioned lieutenant Juncker who worked at the Bastille he noted that the mask was actually made from black felts when he observed it ultimately daga died in prison on November the 19th 1703 Samar's described him as disposed to the will of god and to the king unlike most of the other prisoners if it is true that he was forced to wear a mask at all times at the logical conclusion in conjunction with the fact that he was allowed to be a servant of Fuquay is this perhaps it wasn't a big secret he was aware of but that the man behind the mask was recognizable or had an obvious resemblance to another person most likely one in power whether by relation or pure unlucky coincidence but the question remains if he was just a lowly servants who either had the ill fortune to witness something the king did not want widely known or had a face that displeased the king or someone else in power for whatever reason why didn't the French authorities simply choose to kill him those of the peasant class could easily be killed by those in power with as little as an accusation so why take the risk of leaving him alive and take the effort and expense of so carefully guarding him and if he was royal blood well why was he allowed to function as a servant for that matter if he had a big secret why was he allowed to come into contact regularly with fort Cray who he might have slipped the secret to then who in turn might have revealed it to others via letters needless to say the fact that little of it makes much sense has led to numerous theories and speculation with little in the way of hard evidence to back any of them up according to Voltaire the man in the iron mask was the older illegitimate brother of Louie the fourteenth fire Cardinal Mazarin and Anne of Austria while according to Tamar the mysterious prisoner was none other than louis xiv twin who was minutes older and thus the legitimate King of France another theory this that he was actually the real father of King Larry the 14th you see King Louis the 14th was quite old at the time of miraculous birth but an air was needed lest Louie the thirteenth brother Gaston door Leon become King something certain powerful entities like Cardinal Richelieu and the Queen herself would have likely been against for various political reasons thus this particular theory states that the Cardinal ins an arranged for another man's father the child as with the other theories though there is little in the way of actual evidence to back it up but at least it would explain why the prisoner would be so fond of the king despite that same king having had him in prison for all of his life of course would a king really a now his own father to function as a servant assuming he knew Bant if he didn't know why keep him alive or even imprison him at all now one of the more compelling theories to date comes from a coded message from king louie the fourteenth cent concerning general vivian dove belongs who invokes the ire of the king when he fled from approaching troops from austria abandoning supplies and even wounded soldiers once the coded message was cracked it was revealed that it stated his Majesty knows better than any other person the consequences of this act and he is also aware of how deeply our failure to take the place will prejudice our cause a failure which must be repaired during the winter his Majesty desires that you immediately arrest general belongs and caused him to be conducted to the fortress of ignore where he will be locked in a Cell under guard at night and finitude to walk the battlements during the day with a330 309 so now the question floating through your mind is probably well what's a 3:30 in a 309 while the theory goes that the 3:30 meant mass scans the 309 meant . but the evidence for this is mostly speculation whether or not the mask part is correct or not the main problem with this theory is that records indicate that general Vivian D Balaam's didn't die until 1709 whereas the man in the iron mask died in 1703 so what of the given name who stashed duchesne does this provide any clues or was it simply made up it is known that a real a statue Jade to convoy the son of a captain and cars and Orisha knows guards did exist and he was born in 1637 further he ultimately joins the army but eventually was forced to resign in disgrace after killing a young boy in a drunken brawl later he was incarcerated after complaining to his sister about his treatment in prison in 1678 and shortly thereafter complaining to King the king did issue an edict that attack avoid no longer be allowed to communicate with anyone and less a priest was presence the problem with the DECA voice it read is that he was being held in San lázaro n the man in the iron mask was in pigna role further beyond the fact that cowboy does not fit the description of Samar's disposed to the will of god and to the king among other accounts there is significant evidence that he died in the 1680s well before the more famous dis - - or so in the ends while we know quite a bit about man in the iron mask whether it was actually guilty of a legitimate crime who he really was or even whether he truly was forced to wear an iron mask all the time well it may never be known it's even possible he really was to some guy named dis - douche a man that he simply was a valet who angered the king but not enough to have him killed though why such trouble should be had on the valets accounts well that would be anyone's guess maybe an affair with the Kings favourite mistress but who really knows now on the positive side though sure let's make an interesting story and now for a bonus fact the specific story that inspired the Count of Monte Cristo it was that of a shoemaker at the epic Court the Jack Paar show stated lived in 1807 the story goes that he had the good fortune of being said to be married to a wealthy woman which would have significantly raised his status in life at which point some of his companions became jealous and accused him of being a spy for England during his imprisonment he was made to serve an extremely wealthy cleric who ultimately grew to love the court as a son the cord was then left the execs fortune when he died at which point the court used his newfound wealth to attempt to get away with revenge only three of it accused him of being a spy Poirot stated the police reports on the matter claims the court ultimately murdered the first by stabbing him then poisoned the second the worst fate of all was left for the third man who had married the cords former fiancee first picaud convinced the man's son to turn to a life of crime to his doom he then coerced the man's daughter ins becoming a prostitute before stabbing and killing the man himself whether any of this story is true or not is anybody's guess but at the least it inspired damar to write his great work The Count of Monte Cristo so I really hope you enjoyed that video if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below and don't forget to subscribe also book recommendation for this one it couldn't be anything other than The Count of Monte Cristo you can find a link to that in the description below it's a long book but absolutely worth a read it's fantastic also I'd like to take this minute to thank our patrons on patreon if you're interested in supporting us here and I'm to make these daily videos that tell a great story just like you heard please do consider helping us out with a small donation you can head over to patreon comm forward slash today I found out to set that up and as always thank you for watching you

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Views: 606,456

Rating: 4.7576284 out of 5

Keywords: today i found out, tifovidz12, tifo, awesome, facts, didn't know, Man in the Iron Mask, Who was the Man in the Iron Mask, Alexandre Dumas, The Truth About The Man In The Iron Mask, The Count of Monte Cristo, man in the iron mask, Eustache Dauger, King Louis XIV, Marquis de Louvois

Id: LEk66OXuKmM

Length: 13min 37sec (817 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 29 2017