The Identity of The Man in the Iron Mask

Bastille, France—Historical mysteries are interesting because they often remain unsolved for centuries. In the case of most stories, speculation replaces factual accounts. This is definitely true in the case of the man in the iron mask, who was an unknown figure in history, likely imprisoned for political crimes against King Louis XIV.

France during King Louis XIV’s Rule

During King Louis XIV’s reign in France, there were massive cultural shifts in arts and religion. Meanwhile, the king worked to expand his control over government. At the same time, workers and peons of the kingdom suffered a great deal. According to folkloric tradition, times of strife create engaging stories. As in this case, the aristocracy in the country held a great deal of wealth, while the lower classes were taxed excessively.

There existed a massive wealth gap in the country, and the newly built Palace of Versailles exemplified the extravagance of the administration. There’s nothing quite like pouring out a chamber pot into a dirty street and looking up to see a resplendent castle that you’d never enter in your lifetime. The Palace exemplified rich life, as Louis held lavish feasts and grand balls.

Accordingly, the lower class lived horrible lives of work and toil. They had difficulty obtaining food and lived through cold winters where death lingered just outside the door. Their clothes and homes were drab and they lived in “homely villages.” The lives of the lower class were a plague unto itself.

As stated: “For those who called the Third Estate home in the 17th and 18th century, their state of living was not as desirable as that of the high nobility. Often taken advantage of due to high tax breaks given to the upper nobility, the largest percent of the population was mistreated despite making up the identity of France.”

It is important to highlight the unfairness of this period. This is so because it relates to King Louis’s lack of empathy toward people in French society. The following story shows this to be true.

History of The Man in the Iron Mask

Life and Times

Meanwhile, authorities during King Louis’s reign kept a prisoner in France’s dungeons for 30 years starting in 1669. The prisoner was forced to wear a mask around his head. While the name “The Man in the Iron Mask” is dramatic, it’s very misleading.

Instead of an actual Iron Mask as per images and depictions, he wore a black velvet mask. The creator of the mask had stiffened it with whalebone and used “steel springs which permitted its wearer to breathe, eat, drink, and sleep, without difficulty.” The mask was fastened on the back by a padlock.

J. A. Brendon writes that the prisoner was kept under lock and key. The mask became a part of his everyday life. He writes that, “He slept in it, prayed in it, ate in it; and two musketeers were detailed to shoot him at once should he ever dare to unmask,” Brendon states. “In the end he was buried, still wearing the mask.”

Throughout his life, the crown moved him between prisons that “corresponded with the successive postings of the prison governor Benigne d’Auvergne de Saint-Mars.” The prisoner was not allowed to speak with anybody at great length. The king and governor allowed words exchanged with an attendant to his cell and doctors over matters of health–but that was it as far as communication.

After his death, authorities went through great pains to remove his existence from the world. They scraped his cell of all markings, burned his cell door, along with his clothes, bedding and furniture.

But Who Was the Man in the Iron Mask?

Anna Blackwell writes in an 1860 edition of London’s Once a Week that the prisoner’s demeanor did not reflect the vulgarity and violence that one would suspect of such precautions.

She writes: “M. Nélaton described the masked patient as of dark complexion, possessing a voice so sweet and touching that it could not be heard without awakening sympathy; making no complaint of his position; grave and dignitied in manner, and having the air of a person of distinction: a description which tallies with that which was given of him to Voltaire by the son-in-law of the physician of the Bastille.”

Some sources allege that he was simply an Englishman, or the illegitimate son of Louis XIV known as Duc de Vermandois. Other identities have been hinted at as well, including kinship to Oliver Cromwell, the Duke of Monmouth, and the Duke of Beaufort.

As published in The Illustrated Magazine of Art, the prisoner could only have been “an Italian of the name of Matthioli.” Antonio Matthioli, according to the author, held the position of diplomat to the third Duke of Mantua. His dealings with King Louis resulted in charges of treason when he attempted to negotiate the sale of the fortress Casale to France. After the money for the deal was exchanged, Matthioli informed Spain and the Holy Roman Empire of what has transpired. As some have claimed, this led to his imprisonment as the man in the iron mask.

Regardless of conjecture, historians still debate the identity of the man in the iron mask.

Works Cited

“Matthioli: The Iron Mask.” The Illustrated Magazine of Art, vol. 2, no. 10, 1853, pp. 222–23. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20538126. Accessed 11 Feb. 2025.

Brendon, J.A. “The Man in the Iron Mask.” Historical Periodical. Feb. 1922.

Blackwell, Anna. “The Man in the Iron Mask.” Once a Week, vol. 3, Iss. 61, 25 Aug. 1860.