{"id":806,"date":"2010-06-03T05:08:13","date_gmt":"2010-06-03T05:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=806"},"modified":"2021-08-05T22:20:13","modified_gmt":"2021-08-05T20:20:13","slug":"lhomme-au-masque-de-fer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/lhomme-au-masque-de-fer\/","title":{"rendered":"L&#8217;Homme au Masque de Fer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Today, we will\u00a0evoke <em>une\u00a0<strong>\u00e9nigme<\/strong> de <strong>l&#8217;histoire de France<\/strong><\/em>, and it is not\u00a0related to\u00a0a fiction character (fans of &#8220;Iron Man&#8221;, <em>d\u00e9sol\u00e9<\/em>, but stick around nevertheless.)<\/p>\n<p>Usually, <em>les secrets d&#8217;\u00e9tats <\/em>(state secrets) take a few decades before they are <em>divulgu\u00e9s<\/em> (divulged) to <em>le public<\/em>, but it seems that some secrets are never really meant to be unveiled &#8211;or at least, not so easily.<\/p>\n<p>This one secret goes back to <em>le XVIIe si\u00e8cle<\/em>, the century of <em><strong>Louis XIV<\/strong><\/em>, known to the world\u00a0as <em>&#8220;<strong>Le Roi Soleil<\/strong>&#8221; <\/em>(&#8220;the Sun King.&#8221;)\u00a0Ever since,\u00a0it\u00a0has elicited\u00a0a considerable amount of\u00a0speculation, inflamed the passion and imagination of so many <em>\u00e9crivains<\/em> (writers) and\u00a0<em>historiens<\/em>, but none could\u00a0determine\u00a0<em>avec certitude<\/em>\u00a0(with certainty) who was &#8220;<em><strong>l&#8217;Homme au masque de fer<\/strong><\/em>&#8220;, or the &#8220;<strong>Man\u00a0in the Iron Mask<\/strong>.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"L&#039;homme au masque de fer\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/5NTMVB6_z1g?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Qui est donc\u00a0l&#8217;Homme au masque de fer ?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This post is only\u00a0destined to present the historical\u00a0enigma to you in very\u00a0broad terms, and the &#8220;task to unmask&#8221; him, if you will,\u00a0and thus\u00a0<em>former votre propre opinion sur le sujet\u00a0<\/em>(to form your own opinion on the subject)<em>\u00a0<\/em>is\u00a0entirely yours, <em>bien entendu<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>So,\u00a0having established that, what\u00a0are <em><strong>les faits connus<\/strong> <\/em>(the known\u00a0facts), and where does <em><strong>la sp<em>\u00e9<\/em>culation<\/strong> <\/em>begin?<\/p>\n<p><em>C&#8217;est un fait <\/em>(It is a fact)\u00a0that\u00a0by the winter of <strong>1703<\/strong>, the mysterious prisoner\u00a0who was to be later known to us\u00a0as\u00a0the\u00a0<strong>Man in the Iron Mask <\/strong>had passed away, after having spent <strong>34 years<\/strong> of his life detained in prison cells. His <em>ge\u00f4lier<\/em> (jailer), a man by the name of\u00a0<strong>B\u00e9nigne D.<\/strong> <strong>de Saint-Mars<\/strong>, kept\u00a0him in complete\u00a0seclusion,\u00a0at three different prisons,\u00a0the last of which\u00a0being the famous -or rather infamous, actually-\u00a0<strong>Bastille <\/strong>prison. He was to wear at all times a mask, which was first thought to be of iron, but according to most historians today, it was most likely made of black velvet.<\/p>\n<p>34 years earlier, in a letter exchange between\u00a0<em>le Secr\u00e9taire d&#8217;\u00c9tat de la Guerre<\/em> (the Secretary of State for War), the shadowy <strong>Louvois<\/strong> (who was\u00a0to be\u00a0closely involved in\u00a0another\u00a0sinistrous affaire known as &#8220;<em>l&#8217;affaire des poisons<\/em>&#8220;, which is yet\u00a0another story in its own right) and the\u00a0jailer <strong>Saint-Mars<\/strong>, there was a mention of a new &#8220;low profile&#8221;\u00a0prisoner, named\u00a0&#8220;<strong>Eustache Dauger<\/strong>.<strong>&#8220;<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Was that only a pseudonym, or the real name of <strong><em>l&#8217;Homme au masque de fer\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>? And why was it so important for the\u00a0 King\u00a0to conceal\u00a0his real\u00a0identity from the public?<\/p>\n<p>It is at this point that\u00a0the speculation begins <em>per se<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>The most\u00a0privileged, if not most publicized,\u00a0hypothesis presents him\u00a0as being<em>\u00a0rien d&#8217;autre que<\/em>\u00a0<em><strong>le fr\u00e8re<\/strong> <\/em>(none other than the <strong>brother<\/strong>) of the &#8220;Sun King&#8221; himself!<\/p>\n<p>The first champion of this <em>hypoth\u00e8se <\/em>was the famous philosopher <strong>Voltaire<\/strong>,\u00a0though he never offered any piece of serious evidence to support it.<\/p>\n<p>Then came <strong>Alexandre Dumas, <em>p\u00e8re<\/em><\/strong>,\u00a0the celebrated author of\u00a0\u00a0&#8220;<strong>The Three Musketeers<\/strong>&#8221; and &#8220;<strong>The Count of Monte Cristo<\/strong>&#8220;, who this time\u00a0portrayed\u00a0the mysterious prisoner, in his novel\u00a0&#8220;<strong><em>Vicomte de Bragelonne<\/em><\/strong>&#8220;, as the <em>fr\u00e8re <strong>jumeau<\/strong> du Roi\u00a0<\/em>(the <strong>twin<\/strong> brother of the King.)<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>Dumas<\/strong>\u00a0novel has subsequently\u00a0inspired several other works and movie adaptations, one of which is <strong>Randall Wallace&#8217;s<\/strong> (1998),\u00a0the director of <em>&#8220;<\/em>Braveheart<em>&#8220;<\/em>, &#8220;Pearl Harbor&#8221;, &#8220;We Were Soldiers&#8221;, and featuring <strong>Leonardo\u00a0Di Caprio<\/strong> as\u00a0<em>Louis XIV <\/em>(as well as\u00a0his alleged &#8220;twin&#8221; brother.)<\/p>\n<p>One <em>piste int<em>\u00e9<\/em>ressante\u00a0<\/em>(interesting track), and a likely candidate for the mysterious <strong><em>Homme au\u00a0masque de fer<\/em><\/strong>, (though officially declared dead earlier than 1703)\u00a0is <strong>Nicolas Fouquet<\/strong>:\u00a0A close\u00a0friend\u00a0of <strong>La Fontaine<\/strong> and <strong>Moli<em>\u00e8<\/em>re<\/strong> (to name but a few of his &#8220;BFFs&#8221; at the time),\u00a0who\u00a0was charged by the King of massive\u00a0embazzlement, in a long-running financial\u00a0scandal that\u00a0has\u00a0little to envy our latter-day <em>affaires de corruption<\/em>, ranging from <strong>ENRON<\/strong> in the US, to <em><strong>l&#8217;affair ELF<\/strong><\/em> in France, or the many mafia <strong>oligarchs<\/strong>-related scandals\u00a0in Mother Russia.<\/p>\n<p>If you wish to better explore this <em><strong>\u00e9nigme<\/strong>\u00a0<\/em>of<em> <strong>l&#8217;histoire de France<\/strong><\/em> (and\u00a0exercise your <strong>French listening skills<\/strong>),\u00a0here is a <em><strong>documentaire<\/strong> <\/em>you ought to check (in four parts.)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Secret  d&#039;histoire 1\/4 L&#039; Homme au masque de fer\" frameborder=\"0\" width=\"500\" height=\"337\" src=\"https:\/\/geo.dailymotion.com\/player.html?video=x8l5t1&#038;\" allowfullscreen allow=\"autoplay; fullscreen; picture-in-picture; web-share\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymotion.com\/video\/x8l5t1_secret-d-histoire-1-4-l-homme-au-ma\/\">Part 1 (click here)<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymotion.com\/video\/x8l5ac_secret-d-histoire-2-4-l-homme-au-ma\/\">Part 2 (click here)<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymotion.com\/video\/x8l4x2_secret-d-histoire-3-4-l-homme-au-ma\/\">Part 3 (click here)<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span class=\"Apple-style-span\" style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dailymotion.com\/video\/x8l4if_secret-d-histoire-4-4-l-homme-au-ma\/\">Part 4 (click here)\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Today, we will\u00a0evoke une\u00a0\u00e9nigme de l&#8217;histoire de France, and it is not\u00a0related to\u00a0a fiction character (fans of &#8220;Iron Man&#8221;, d\u00e9sol\u00e9, but stick around nevertheless.) Usually, les secrets d&#8217;\u00e9tats (state secrets) take a few decades before they are divulgu\u00e9s (divulged) to le public, but it seems that some secrets are never really meant to be unveiled&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/lhomme-au-masque-de-fer\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":49,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[9242,9235,9233,9241,9234,9230,9239,9229,9231,9240,9238,9232,9236,9237,604],"class_list":["post-806","post","type-post","status-publish","hentry","category-culture","category-vocabulary","tag-affaire-elf","tag-alexandre-dumas","tag-bastille","tag-enron","tag-eustache-dauger","tag-le-roi-soleil","tag-leonardo-di-caprio","tag-louis-xiv","tag-man-in-the-iron-mask","tag-nicolas-fouquet","tag-randall-wallace","tag-saint-mars","tag-three-musketeers","tag-vicomte-de-bragelonne","tag-voltaire"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/49"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34016,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806\/revisions\/34016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}