From ancient times to the present, people wearing masks have always given people a mysterious color. It is said that one of the four beautiful men in ancient China, Lanling Wang, was handsome in appearance, but in order to deter the enemy, he often wore a vicious mask to fight on the battlefield.
And in France there was also a legendary Man in the Iron Mask, who spent 34 years in france's most heavily guarded prison, never taking off his iron mask, and even the French nobles could not tell who he really was.
Perhaps only the king and God knew the true identity of the Man in the Iron Mask, but what kind of person made the king hide his origins so much?
1
In 1661, King Louis XIV of France defeated his mother and regent and finally qualified for pro-government.
While the French royal palace was happily raising a glass to celebrate the king's victory, a man in the Iron Mask was escorted to the island of Saint-Margaret and strictly forbidden to take half a step out of the island.
The island holds special prisoners who are held by the king in the form of "sealed edicts", and once imprisoned, they cannot be overturned.
The people who guarded the island were very curious and asked the guards: Who is this? The guards scolded sternly, just take good care of it, don't ask so much.
The prisoner wore a special iron mask, very delicately made, and the opening was delicately springed so that he could breathe and eat without being affected by it.
Although he could not see outsiders in prison, his iron mask was still not allowed to be taken off, and if he secretly took it off himself, he would be executed on the spot. If someone else moves his mask, that person will also be silenced.
So no one ever dared to move his mask, and no one knew who he was.
Even the people who watched him every day had never seen him, and from the size of his voice, it was speculated that the man in the iron mask was no more than fifty years old.
In the prison on the island, he had a bed and a chair in his cell, and he stayed in his room every day except praying at the altar in front of the cell.
2
After spending eight years on the island, a new order came from the palace, calling for the Iron Mask to be sent to the Bastille for detention.
Almost all the prisoners held in the Bastille were royal nobles who were taken into custody for committing unforgivable crimes.
Is the Man in the Iron Mask also a royal nobleman?
What happened afterwards was even more surprising, when the Iron Mask man left St. Margaret's island, it was actually the French minister of defense who personally came to pick him up, and this minister was very respectful to the iron mask man, and when he saw him, he also saluted him.
The person who can make the defense minister condescend to the throne must be someone of higher rank than him.
After arriving in the Bastille, life began to improve for the Iron Mask.
Except for the absence of freedom, the Man in the Iron Mask could make any request, and the warden would try to accommodate it.
In order to relieve his boredom, the cell was filled with many books he liked, as well as paper and pencil for him to record, write, and so on.
The general prisoner could not enjoy the delicacies that he could also get. Fresh milk, bread etc. It is also possible to wear ornate aristocratic attire.
But the Man in the Iron Mask still can't talk to others, except with some death row inmates, so that even if the death row knows his secret, it won't be passed on, and he won't go crazy because of his long detention.
His favorite activity was to transcribe his books, sometimes he would draw unintelligible symbols on the walls, and he had written letters to people outside the prison, but they were all destroyed.
Although it was very depressing inside, I heard that the mysterious Iron Mask Man had never lost his temper. He was a gentleman with an aristocratic demeanor, quiet and easy-going.
There were also some big men who would come to see him every five to five minutes, and the guards did not understand why the king, while forbidding the Iron Mask to communicate with the outside world, acquiesced to such visits.
In 1703, the mysterious man who had spent most of his life in prison died suddenly and was buried that night in the diocese of St. Paul. All the items used before his death were also burned. At this point, the Man in the Iron Mask completely left with his mysterious identity.
3
Folk speculation about the Iron Mask has never stopped, and even the great thinker and literary artist Voltaire has written about the Iron Mask.
Some speculate that the Man in the Iron Mask was the chancellor of the exchequer at the time, Fouquet, who had been Louis XIV's confidante, but after Louis XIV came to power, his ambitions swelled rapidly, and he was corrupt and bribed. At one ball, he showed louis XIV the two hundred and fifty cities in his house, which completely angered the young emperor. After Louis XIV arrested him and imprisoned him, he soon announced that Fouquet had died suddenly in prison.
No one knows how he died, and no one knows where he was buried.
It has been speculated that Louis XIV, because he was so fond of Fouquet, was reluctant to execute him, and in order to give an account to the other ministers and the people, he could only let him live under the cover of a mask.
This is by no means speculation, when people later captured the Bastille, the name of Fouquet was found in the corner of the wall, which is likely to be left by the Iron Mask.
There is also speculation that the Man in the Iron Mask was Philippe, the twin brother of Louis XIV. Dumas also made bold conjectures in the novel The Three Musketeers. In dumas's Tale of the Man in the Iron Mask, the Man in the Iron Mask begins with Prince Philippe, who later overthrows his cruel brother Louis XIV and then spends the rest of his life wearing the Iron Mask.
The Iron Mask man in prison was very well fed and clothed, and he could even play the piano to relieve his boredom, and the marquis who occasionally came to visit him was also very respectful to him. This is also very much in line with the royal status of the Iron Mask.
Historically, however, Louis XIV did not have a twin brother. But he had a cousin named Philip, Duke of Orléans, who was three years younger than him. But the Duke of Orléans was never imprisoned and lived peacefully to the age of sixty.
The widespread and more popular claim that the Man in the Iron Mask was the biological father of Louis XIV was hot.
Louis XIII and Queen Anna were at odds after their marriage, and the two were married for many years without heirs. Rumor has it that Princess Anna had a secret lover and that Louis XIV was their child. Therefore, the doubt about whether Louis XIV was of royal blood has never been broken.
In order to keep the secret, the biological father of Louis XIV fled Paris and fled the country.
Later, Louis XIV ascended the throne, and Dore secretly sneaked back to the palace, asking his son for money and even wanting to confess. Louis XIV was very afraid that the secret of his non-royal blood would be exposed, causing royal strife, but he could not bear to harm his own father, so he imprisoned him, put on an iron mask, and let him "disappear" forever in this world.
More than 300 years later, no one still knows who the Man in the Iron Mask really is. Legends about the Man in the Iron Mask are still circulating, and speculation about the identity of the Man in the Man will never stop... Text/Little Happiness