On September 18, 1698, a man was transferred from the Piedmont prison to the Paris Bastille, whose face was hidden by an "iron mask"
The prisoner was taken to the Bastille in a dark sedan chair, and, according to the order, was imprisoned in one of the most remote casemates of the Bastille, it was forbidden to talk to him. The prison authorities knew about the man in the iron mask only that he had arrived from the island of Saint-Marguerite, and before that he had been kept in the fortress of Pignerol.
He lived in silence for 5 long years in his solitary confinement and died in 1703. He was buried in the Saint-Paul prison cemetery under the name Marchiali. The personal belongings of the deceased were burned. In his cell, they ripped open the walls and dismantled the floors, so that no inscriptions or walled up notes remained. Then they forgot about him.
86 years later, the people of Paris took the Bastille by storm. The Great French Revolution made it possible to publish the archives of the terrible fortress-prison. The age-old secrets were revealed, the fates of many victims of royal tyranny were clarified. But the mystery of the Iron Mask remained unsolved. All sheets of the prison book related to this prisoner were destroyed.
Historians and writers have built different hypotheses about the identity of the mysterious silent man. Some saw in him the Count of Vermandois, the son of Louis XIV from Lavalier; others thought it was Quartermaster Fouquet; other persons were also named. But the versions that considered the "Iron Mask" the half brother of the "Sun King" were especially stable. It was also assumed that the Bastille prisoner could be the brother of Louis XIV, his twin, who was isolated for fear of civil strife in the country. This option, which seemed especially romantic, entered fiction.
The history of the "Iron Mask", which has been exciting the imagination of scientists, writers and filmmakers for three centuries, began in the 80s of the 17th century. Voltaire was the first to touch on this topic in 1732 in his "Age of Louis XIV". A century later, Alexander Dumas the father turned to the riddle of the "iron mask".
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There is no need to list other hypotheses that have arisen at different times in connection with different circumstances. All of them, like those just cited, have one common drawback: they are not supported by facts, and often directly contradict them.
And only one version, first proposed in 1795, and then finding a number of confirmations, can claim a certain degree of probability. This version is very far from the above romantic fabrications. Its author proceeded from two indisputable truths: the name of the fortress, in which the unknown was first imprisoned, and the name under which he was buried.
We remember this name: Marchiali. Of course, the name is fictitious. However, it is very reminiscent of another name that belonged to a real historical figure - Mattioli. A man named Mattioli was well known to his contemporaries. His mysterious disappearance became no less famous.
Count Girolamo Mattioli was born in Bologna in 1640. He made his diplomatic career at the court of the Duke of Mantua. Quickly climbing the ladder of the career ladder and becoming prime minister, Count Mattioli found himself in the midst of a major political game played by the great powers in rich but fragmented Italy.
With his assistance, a secret treaty was concluded between Mantua and France. The treaty was very beneficial to the French king, who, if implemented, received the opportunity to annex important territories to his possessions. For this deal, Louis XIV paid Mattioli a big jackpot - 100 thousand scudi. But the Mantuan diplomat wanted even more and sold the secret to the interested governments of Savoy, Spain and Austria. The French government's scam has failed.
Angry Louis XIV decided to punish the corrupt politician. He was lured into the border area and thrown into the fortress of Pignerol. After that, he disappeared forever. The French king refused to participate in this matter. To all inquiries, the Foreign Ministry replied that it knew nothing about Mattioli. They decided that he was killed.
Meanwhile, Louis XIV chose such revenge for the hapless diplomat, which seemed to him more terrible than the death penalty. Count Girolamo was doomed to die during his lifetime: he had to lose his name, lose face and, in the darkness of eternal imprisonment, day and night, think about the terrible consequences of his betrayal.
He was transferred to the island of Saint-Marguerite, and then to the Bastille. His features were forever hidden by an iron mask. The version about Mattioli is confirmed by chronological data: his disappearance coincides in time with the appearance of the unknown in the fortress of Pignerol.
And yet this is only a hypothesis, albeit the most probable, in comparison with others. There is no convincing evidence and, apparently, there never will be any more. The man in the iron mask took his secret to the grave.