France was the most powerful country of the last century and had the most colonies. The history of France's development can be said to be very rich. France was originally the French Empire, the country that was first born in the war, and began to grow and develop from the sixteenth century.
In the history of France, a very strange thing is recorded, that is, in the middle of the sixteenth century, the bastille, the most famous prison in France, held such a particularly mysterious figure, the Iron Mask. After 34 years in captivity, all traces of his existence were destroyed due to his death due to illness, so who is this Man in the Iron Mask?
The appearance of the Man in the Iron Mask
In France in 1661, an uninvited guest came to the island of Saint-Margaret. This person was wearing a helmet made of iron on his head, and this helmet was particularly well wrapped, and it was not clear from the outside that the appearance of the person could not be seen at all.
The soldier who sent this man turned out to be the king's bodyguard. The guards told the guards of the castle that this man was very important, an important prisoner whom the king had asked for to be closely guarded. Moreover, the prisoner's hood could not be taken off by himself, and if he did so, he would be killed on the spot.
And if someone wants to open the prisoner's hood, regardless of identity, he can cut it off first. The guards were surprised by the requirements of the guards, for it could be seen from the man's actions and attire that the man was certainly not a commoner, but a nobleman.
And the most important point is that this person did not go to prison when he committed a crime, but to live in the castle. Instead, it doesn't look like you're trying to punish the man but just put him under house arrest.
The guards were puzzled, but they couldn't ask too much, because curiosity would kill the cat. In this way, this man in the Iron Mask lived here for eight years, during which time many ministers of state visited him, but they did not talk, and often just looked at him and left.
Be transferred to the Bastille
During these eight years, the identity of the Man in the Iron Mask has become increasingly mysterious. He was then ordered by the king to be sent to the Bastille for incarceration. The Bastille is one of France's most famous prisons, and it houses either political prisoners or people who have committed serious crimes.
The Man in the Iron Mask, on the other hand, looks more like a political prisoner. When he was transferred from the castle to the Bastille, he was escorted by the Minister of Defence. After the Minister of Defence sent him to the Bastille, he said a particularly soft word to him.
After saying this, the Minister of Defense went so far as to respectfully let the Man in the Iron Mask go first. How the Minister of Defense said that he was also a minister in the country, and he had such respect for the Iron Mask Man, which meant that the Iron Mask Man was either a relative of the Emperor or an official who was bigger than the Minister of Defense.
After being imprisoned in the Bastille, the Iron Mask did not live in the room where ordinary prisoners lived. Rather, the interior of the prison has already decorated a room, which is the single room of the Man in the Iron Mask. This room looks no different from the room of an ordinary person.1
But this treatment is already different from other prisoners. And unlike the other prisoners, the Iron Mask had no time to move, that is, he could only stay in his room twenty-four hours a day, and did not have the opportunity to see the outside world.
The Iron Mask doesn't look like he's in prison, but rather enjoying life. During this period, there were still many ministers and nobles who came to visit the Iron Mask. In the long run, the Man in the Iron Mask seemed particularly lonely, and there were some unusual behaviors.
The royal family didn't seem to want any accidents to the Man in the Iron Mask. The Iron Mask was ordered to live with some death row inmates, during which time the Iron Mask and the death row inmates had an exchange, but these death row inmates were eventually executed in secret, so no one knew who the Iron Mask was.
Suddenly, one day, the Man in the Iron Mask fell seriously ill and died not long after. The Iron Mask was imprisoned for a total of 34 years and was secretly buried by the royal family after his death. The soldiers who participated in the burial were also secretly executed afterwards, and the burial place of the Iron Mask man became a mystery.
Who the Iron Mask really is
After the death of the Iron Mask, the guards who had previously been in the castle had long disappeared, and it was estimated that they had been dealt with privately by the royal family. The same is true in Bus Hell, where everyone and everything about the Man in the Iron Mask has been erased as if this man had never lived here.
Regarding the identity of the Iron Mask, several speculations have been raised later. This first identity is that of Louis XIII, the father of King Louis XIV. According to the records, Louis XIV was not the successor of the royal family, that is to say, the king would not be Louis XIV, but someone else.
But Louis XIV's mother wanted him to be king, so she plotted a conspiracy with her confidante to make Louis XIII disappear. Louis XIV was still very young when he succeeded to the throne, so he had to let his mother rule, and Louis XIII was placed under house arrest.
In order not to make others suspicious, Louis XIV's mother found someone to make a special iron hood, and then let Louis XIII wear it. Louis XIII was then sent out of the palace and became known as the Man in the Iron Mask.
From the thirty-four years of treatment of the Iron Mask Man, it can also be known that the royal family's treatment of the Iron Mask Man is not like treating ordinary people, but giving him the treatment of ordinary people, only to restrict his freedom.
The most important thing is that there are many ministers and nobles who have come to visit the Iron Mask. Some of these people are of high status, and if they are not important people, how can these big people come back to visit? And most importantly, the Man in the Iron Mask is not allowed to be taken off by anyone, including himself.
If discovered, they would be punished with death. All these indications show that the Iron Mask man is not small, and is a particularly important person, because behind the iron mask man, it is likely to be a huge political conspiracy, so the iron mask man is most likely Louis XIII.
But in addition to Louis XIII, there is also a great possibility of another person, that is, Louis XIV's brother Philippe. Philippe was also one of the princes, and one of his best points than his brother Louis XIV was that he was the heir approved by Louis XIII.
Louis XIV himself wanted to monopolize power, so after Louis XIII abdicated, Philippe was originally king. But Louis XIV hid for many years, training a part of the ministers. With these conditions in place, Louis XIV mutinied, imprisoned Phillips, and then replaced him as king.
Or another possibility is that the Man in the Iron Mask was Louis XIV, who himself had failed in the plot and had not defeated his younger brother Philippe. His brother then imprisoned him and transformed himself into Louis XIV. Because in the records, Philippe and Louis XIV were twin brothers and looked particularly similar.
But the Iron Mask, whether it was Louis XIV or Philippe, was less likely than Louis XIII. Because the sudden abdication of Louis XIII is a mystery in itself, and the royal family is silent about the whereabouts of Louis XIII, louis XIII is most likely the man in the iron mask.