Historian Reveals Who The Man In The Iron Mask Likely Was

I remember Richard Chamberlain in “The 3 Musketeers” and also in “The Man in the Iron Mask”.

I spent this whole time scratching my head and ears, and rubbing eyes.

I had read that he didn’t wear an iron mask but a velvet mask. He was the father of the king, not the brother of the king. He would have revealed that the king was illegitimate.

The movie with Gene Kelly is the better version.

silly fiction story

Louis the 14th had been the longesr reigning monarch in history until Elizabeth the 2nd out lasted him by 2 yrs. You had that backwards. She now has the title of the worlds longest reigning monarch. ( u go girl !)

(Guy Pearce was 'The Baddy' in "The Count of Monte Cristo" in 2002.)

You seem quite certain Voltaire made a fiction about the governor personally bringing the man in the iron mask his dinner, but allow me to tell you why it might not be: you said Voltaire heard stories of a masked prisoner from other prisoners and made notes. I think it's entirely plausible that while this story was still oral only, OTHER prisoners embellished it and added to his fame, because it assuaged their misery and gave them something to think about and project into. I also think it's plausible that the governor really did serve the prisoner, because if the governor also didn't know the social rank of the prisoner (which at the time was zero but who knew what the future held?) and thought it best not to take a chance. Also, the governor might have thought being in the presence of the prisoner might satisfy the curiosity the mask engendered in everyone.

Twins in Royal families have always been a problem in past history. The second born is killed. I see two possibilities- the actual site of the Prince or an identical twin male.

The twin brother theory makes no sense. People in those days were not as uneducated about the possibility of a twin birth as we think. There would have been witnesses to the birth of the second baby as well, and in that era of high child mortality, it is very unlikely that a "spare" would have been callously left unacknowledged, or forced into a life of anonymity and even possible penury. Finally, primogeniture was determined by the order of birth rather than conception! All in all, a twin would have been seen as a double gift from God, hardly to be discarded!

I always think it’s cool to have discussions about this and theories, but at the end of the day, we’re never going to know and it’s always gonna remain a mystery lol

Great episode, as always ! As others, I would personally bet for someone of higher social position than "just" a valet. It seems making no sense a valet - whatever the person would know - to be given such importance (lettre de cachet, the mask, the correspondence around it, etc).

That was great! Thanks 😊

Lenny DeCrappio

He was Louis's twin.

My late husband was French. He told me that the Comte de Paris knows the identity of the man in the velvet mask, who, of course was the model for the man in the iron mask. Apparently this secret is passed from father to son, down the male line.

don't we have another recorded date which could be when this valet died(assuming he isn't the one with the mask?) Has his body never been exhumed now that we could identify him by his DNA? (to clear whether he was of royal linage). Why would his imprisonment be such an important secret, necessitating that his face is never seen so as not to be recognised ? It doesn't seem to make much sense. This man's imprisonment and the fate of the Dauphin (Louis XVI's son) are 2 mysteries of the French history.

I always like the films prose that it was a twin brother.

Get your facts straight before doing your thing, please. Oliver Reed portrayed Athos.

"If it's brilliant material for a novel it probably didn't happen" GRRM would disagree

I don't even need to watch your video to know the answer, its our glorious lord Doom clearly. Glory to Latveria, glory to Doom

🇧🇧I love the identical twin angle🕵

They claim the older twin pushes out the younger one, to kind of check things on the outside😂

A couple of questions for you: 1), wouldn't a twin, who had been secreted away, be able to be classified in your 'no person of importance had been reported missing' theory? If no one knew about the twin, except the midwife, doesn't it make sense that no one would be aware of his importance?
I believe the Musketeers' account of Philip being the prisoner. That's just me.
Maybe he did go by that Eustache name. If he was the twin, they couldn't call him Philip.

Next question, 2), Is there any proof that Ann may have slept with Athos?
You did say there seemed to be proof that she did have twins, the second born 4 hours later than the first. Right?
Next, 3), where was that unmarked grave that you spoke of? Dig it up and do all the scientific tests on the bones! Sequence the dna and find out if any of those unknown skeletons have relations to known French families! The unmarked grave, if the person was in a steel mask, or and iron mask, either should set off a metal detector. Ground penetrating radar should help find metals and deposits of rust, concentrated chemicals, and a casket's remains. If this prisoner truly was important, would he be buried without a good box? I don't think so.

Just some ideas and my questions. I love Dumas' stories. I would love to know the truth.

Griffith!!!

It was Tony Stark. 😎

Voltaire has the journalistic standards if the guardian. I'm not sure if I spat more tea across the room, or inhaled more....

Would have been more efficient to off him the valet

Reed is Athos.

It was, MacBeth

Look at the portraits. Louis XIV looks EXACTLY like Maria de Medici, his grandmother. Draw a mustache and black curly wig over her and you can't tell the difference. If Louis XIV's father wasn't Louis XIII (I'm not sold it was: a 37/39 year old suddenly having 2 healthy babies after 23 years of miscarriages? ) then I think the only other option would be Gaston, Louis XIII's younger brother. (Phillipe, Louis XIV's younger brother, looks just like their mother but with the same chin as both Louis XIII and Gaston). Louis XIII and Gaston looked so much alike that it wasn't much of a risk looks wise if that's what happened. But I'm convinced that, whichever was the bio father, Louis XIV was absolutely a grandson of Maria de Medici and Henri IV.

Not one word of the black servant Nabo Queen Maria Theresa's black page.
Typical so bloody typical.

Oliver Reed played Athos, not Porthos, in the Richard Lester-directed Musketeers movies. BTW why do English speakers read French characters in translation with bad French accents, when they’re speaking French to one another?

The funny thing is not only D'Artagnan is based on a real character (Charles de Batz de Castelmore, Count d'Artagnan), but so are Athos, Porthos, Aramis, and Monsieur de Tréville, the captain of the Royal Musketeers.
Athos = Armand, Seigneur de Sillègue, d'Athos, et d'Autevielle
Porthos = Isaac de Porthau
Aramis = Henri, Seigneur d'Aramitz
M. de Trévile = Jean-Armand du Peyrer, Comte de Troisville
Even funnier: contrary to what the book tells us, not only D'Artagnan was a Gascon — they all were!
In fact, the real Athos was a first cousin of the real Porthos and a first cousin once removed of the real M. de Tréville, who in turn was the uncle of the real Aramis and a personal friend of an uncle of the real D'Artagnan.

“The jailer is not a key player.” Awesome pun, lost to history!

This whole conversation is very interesting but disregards the mindset of these times.
If this man was such a threat to the king then why wasn't he simply killed? Why keep a threat alive when you can end it?
The only reason not to do that would have been that he was a royalty or at least of high nobility. This would explain why Louis himself took interest in him, why they went through so much trouble etc. Killing a royal was out of the question, killing a valet definitely not.

Great French accent 😂

what if was just a guy who flirted or had an affair with his lady? something totally petty ya know

What about this… he was privy to the details of the hidden treaty, so he couldn’t be allowed to roam around, but he could be called on by the king to verify the treaty as a witness if ever needed, and in exchange he would be allowed to live a relatively comfortable life, but in a prison. I don’t recall if they say it here or I read it somewhere else, but I recall someone saying he only wore the mask when we was transferred or if some came to see him.

The version that I heard was that the prisoner was the doppelganger of the king and was also the son of an officer of the guard.
The implication was that the officer had fathered both men and that's Louis the 14th may well have been considered illegitimate.
Louis could not bring himself to kill his innocent brother but he had to keep him under wraps. This would explain the mask but also the deferential treatment.

Oliver Reed played Athos.

Why hide a valets face?

When I was young I read that Eustache d'Auger looked similar to the king and used it for sexual affairs. And that was the explanation for the mask. On the other hand I read that Louis XV said that he felt sorry for this man as he did not deserve that sentence. So, we do not know.

Oliver Reed was Athos.

Are you mad! History is full of examples of incidents that are too improbable to be included in good novels.

It was Elvis

Not necessarily a French king maybe another European king or Tsar who had been replaced Russian style like Peter the great was replaced and Putin was in 2012