Who among us doesn't like detective stories? An intriguing plot, mysterious characters and an absolutely unexpected solution to a seemingly insoluble problem. All this attracts the attention of fans of the detective genre.
However, unfortunately, most of the detective stories are short-lived, and only a few of them could drag on for centuries. One of them is the story of The Iron Mask, a dark secret of a prisoner doomed not to remove his black mask until the end of his days.
More than 300 years have passed since the first time the Unknown appeared in one of the gloomy royal castles wearing a black velvet mask that covered his face (later popular rumor replaced velvet with iron). What versions of the man in the Iron Mask have not been put forward over the years.
According to one version, the king of England, Charles 1, who miraculously escaped execution, was hiding under the mask. Another promotes this unenviable role to the illegitimate son of Anne of Austria, mother of Louis XIV. There was also an assumption that the mysterious prisoner was the "king of the Parisian markets", the Duke de Beaufort.
Each of these versions, as a rule, refutes the others, and none of them can withstand the comparison of facts known from historical documents. For years, researchers have tried to find out the truth. For two centuries, an army of detectives and historians struggled to solve this mystery. And so it would have remained undisclosed, if not for the Moscow scientist Yuri Borisovich Tatarinov. It was he who managed to shed light on the mysterious story of the prisoner in the Iron Mask.
Tatarinov began his investigation by selecting real facts. In his hands were dozens of historical documents. Thanks to them, the scientist immediately threw away all the "literary versions" and came to the conclusion that the search for the Iron Mask must be carried out among those prisoners who arrived in Paris on September 18, 1698 from the Mediterranean island of Saint-Marguerite, accompanied by the new commandant of the Bastille.
At the beginning of the investigation, the Moscow scientist identified 8 "suspects", but later 5 characters in the "detective story" disappeared for various reasons. There are three more reliable candidates for the role of the Iron Mask. These are Nicola Fouquet, the former superintendent of finance of King Louis XIV, the mysterious "servant" Eustache Dauger and the minister of the Duke of Mantua, Count Mattioli. Now, out of the three "suspects", one should have been chosen - the one who for many years hid his face under a mask.
The task was not easy, and the scientist first decided to find out the reasons and circumstances of the arrest of each of the three possible candidates for the role of the Iron Mask.
Promotional video:
Having studied many historical documents, the scientist learned:
• Nicola Fouquet, fantastically rich on trade and speculation, a rival of the "sun king" himself, was caught in dirty machinations and by order of the king was arrested on September 5. Accused of financial fraud and incitement to mutiny (Fronde's conspiracy), Fouquet was sentenced to indefinite imprisonment. In January 1665, Fouquet crossed the threshold of the Pignerol castle.
• Next on the list was the mysterious "servant" Eustache Dauger, who was taken to the castle on August 24, 1669. Estache Dauger was arrested on the orders of Louis XIV as the one who caused the royal discontent. Together with the prisoner, an order came to keep this prisoner in complete secrecy in a special punishment cell with double doors, with one-time meals. On pain of death, he was forbidden to talk even with the commandant about anything other than everyday needs, and to transmit any news about himself. There is also a version that the name Eustache Doge is nothing but a pseudonym, since the drafts of the orders for his arrest and delivery to Pignerol were unnamed.
• The third prisoner of the castle of Pignerol was delivered on May 2, 1679 by the Minister of the Duke of Mantua, Count Mattioli. Accused of giving the rulers of Austria, Spain and Venice the secret of the deal between the king and the duke to sell the border town of Casale, Mattioli was taken to the castle in strict secrecy. His face was hidden by a black velvet mask. This was the beginning of the prison path of the three main "suspects".
However, the clarification of the reasons and circumstances of the arrest of these three people, unfortunately, could not clarify anything. Then Yuri Borisovich decided to follow their further fate. And here Tatarinov discovered that the fates of these people intersect in a strange way.
1674, September - when one of Fouquet's servants, a certain lord of Champagne, died, the commandant of the fortress Saint-Mar gave into the service of the ex-minister none other than the prisoner Estache Dauge. At the same time, Saint-Mar warned Fouquet that no one, except for the ex-minister himself and his second servant La Riviera, would communicate with Doge.
In January, Fouquet received a "personal message" from one of Louis XIV's close associates, Louvois. “You will learn,” Louvoie wrote, “the precautions mentioned by Saint-Mar, required by the king, which are attached to prevent Estache Dauger from communicating with anyone other than you. The King expects you to do your best, for you know for some reason no one should know what he knows."
Fouquet agreed and as a reward received permission, signed by Louis, to meet with his family. However, literally a week after receiving the letter, the ex-minister fell ill. 1680, March - A rumor spread about the unexpected death of the former intendant of finance. But no one has ever seen the documents - death certificates, autopsies, and burials. (The date of Fouquet's official death is considered March 23, 1680, but his body was handed over to relatives for burial only a year later, so no one could determine for sure whether it was Fouquet. Along with this, Colbert's employees spread the legend that the ex-minister was allegedly released and died on the way to the capital in Chalon-na-Saone …
After the mysterious death of Fouquet, exactly a month later, according to documents, Count Mattioli died, and in one of the cells of the castle-prison an unknown prisoner appears, whose face is hidden under a black velvet mask. Fouquet's strange death also influenced the fate of the third prisoner, Estache Dauge. 1681, September - the former "servant" was transported in a closed stretcher to Fort Exil, located in the Southwestern Alps (at that time a rumor spread among the people that Fouquet's servants were released after his death).
At Fort Exile, Doger spent six years and in 1687, accompanied by Saint-Mar, was transferred to Saint-Marguerite, in a cell specially prepared for him. 1698, September - the last move in the life of Estache Doje took place. Saint-Mar came with him to the Bastille as governor, instead of the deceased Besmo. 5 years later (November 19, 1703) Doger died. He was buried under a new fictitious name - Marscioli, consonant with the name of the missing prisoner Pignerol Mattioli.
Perhaps Dauger could have known a lot about Fouquet, in particular the secret of the events of March 23, 1680 - the time of Fouquet's possible "transformation" into the "unknown" prisoner of Pignerol. In addition, according to historians, Dauger possessed his own secrets.
Having carefully analyzed (using the method of system analysis) all the data obtained, the scientist constructed a matrix to solve this problem. Its lines were a chronological list of events taken from the "key" documents, and the columns were the prisoners of Pignerol. At the intersections of rows and columns - the correspondence of one of the heroes of the tragedy to the event described in the document. But, having carried out mental experiments with all the "persons under investigation", Tatarinov could not come to any definite conclusion.
On none of the "suspects" he could reasonably put on an "iron mask"; at some crossroads, contradictions constantly appeared.
The version of "Mattioli - Iron Mask" of 16 most important documents did not touch 9 at all, and one could not explain.
The version regarding Doge did not intersect with four and could not explain one.
Fouquet's version passed over in silence two documents, did not explain one, and interpreted 5 documents with a stretch, that is, with certain assumptions. As a result, the cross was put on each of the versions. None of the "persons under investigation" came up.
Having made such a bleak conclusion, Yuri Borisovich was already ready to admit his defeat and agree with the skeptics, who categorically declared that the 300-year-old secret would never be revealed. But suddenly an original thought struck him: what if the mask was being worn by two or even three prisoners one after the other?
Thus, the trio of "subjects" chosen by him, Fouquet - Mattioli - Dauger, ideally suited the solution of this problem. After the death of the first prisoner with a black mask on his face - Fouquet - it was put on Count Mattioli. However, he died a month later. Then the mask was put on Doge, who, after sitting next to Fouquet for many years, knew too much.
It was Doge who was the very mysterious prisoner who was brought to Paris in the "iron mask". There, in solitary confinement in the Bastille, he lived out his last years. The "servant" paid with two decades of secret solitary confinement for knowing the secrets of Fouquet, whom he happened to serve in Pignerola.
So, thanks to the “identification matrix” invented by Y. B. Tatarinov, the secret of the many-sidedness of the Iron Mask was revealed. But then the question immediately arises: why hide Dauger's face under a mask? After all, it is known that until March 23, 1680 he did not wear it. The scientist explains it this way: initially the mask was required to hide a well-known face, and then to hide that this person no longer exists.
However, having found the answer to one riddle, we immediately received another in return. Who is Fouquet's “Mysterious Servant” Eustache Dauger? After all, if Dauger is a pseudonym, then who is he really? And if Fouquet actually died on March 23, 1680 from a fatal illness, then is Dauger's mask justified? Was a mask even necessary if Dauger was a little-known person? After all, it is known that in Pignerola he did not wear a mask and freely walked with Fouquet around the castle grounds.
And at the same time, from the beginning of 1679, his exit from the cell was strictly prohibited. A set of precautions was applied to this person that were never applied to any other prisoner. And again, numerous versions started working. Whoever was not offered for this role!
The Englishman A. Barnes suggested that it could be the Abbot Pregnani, a secret agent of Louis XIV, who was sent on a secret mission in March 1669 to Charles II of England and whose disappearance coincided with the date of the Douger's arrest in Dunkirk. The French historian E. Lalua suggested that the mysterious Iron Mask of the Bastille is a priest who witnessed the monarch's amorous adventures with Madame Montespan. It has also been suggested that Estache Dauger is none other than the twin brother of Louis XIV himself. Finally, the lawyer P.-M. Dijol suggested the version that the little Moor Nabo, who was in the service of Queen Maria Theresa, became a prisoner of the Bastille. But none of these versions has yet been documented.
Thus, as a result of solving one riddle, historians received another, no less interesting. And now they have to find the answer to the question: who was hiding under the guise of the mysterious "servant" Estache Doje? This secret is still waiting for its researchers.
O. A. Kuzmenko