The Man in the Iron Mask Read online

  The Château d’Exilles. The Tour Grosse can be seen on the right behind the smaller tower. Here, Eustache shared a cell with La Rivière.

  Floor plan of the Château d’Exilles. The Tour Grosse is the larger of the two towers situated on the southwest corner. Saint-Mars’s apartment is situated on the northwest corner.

  The prison buildings on the Île Sainte-Marguerite.

  Floor plan of the buildings on the Île Sainte-Marguerite. The cell occupied by Eustache is on the left-hand side of the block overlooking the sea. Saint-Mars’s apartments run above at right angles to the prison block.

  The inside of the cell showing the barred windows. In fact, there is evidence that the cell walls were more highly decorated than this.

  The Bastille, Paris, the fourth and final prison in which Eustache was held.

  Page from Du Junca’s register describing the death and burial of the prisoner. Note the reference to the velvet mask in lines 3–4.

  Romantic image of the Man in the Iron Mask being attended by Saint-Mars.

  Romantic image of the Man in the Iron Mask with a musketeer standing guard.

  Romantic image of the Man in the Iron Mask, shown here with a ball and chain attached to his ankle.

  Liebig card showing the Man in the Iron Mask being handed a book by Saint-Mars. Another man, possibly Jacques Rosarges, stands in the background with more books for the prisoner.

  Unless otherwise noted, all photos are from the collection of the author.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  JOSEPHINE WILKINSON, a noted authority on French history, is the author of Louis XIV: The Power and the Glory. She received her PhD in History from the University of Newcastle and has been scholarin-residence at Gladstone’s Library. She lives in the Scottish Marshes.

  ALSO BY JOSEPHINE WILKINSON

  Louis XIV: The Power and the Glory

  Richard III: The Young King to Be

  Mary Boleyn: The True Story of Henry VIII’s Favourite Mistress

  Anne Boleyn: The Young Queen to Be

  The Princes in the Tower: Did Richard III Murder His Nephews, Edward V and Richard of York?

  Katherine Howard: The Tragic Story of Henry VIII’s Fifth Queen

  EDITED BY JOSEPHINE WILKINSON

  Anne Boleyn by Paul Friedmann

  ENDNOTES

  CHAPTER ONE: “ONLY A VALET”

  1 Maurice Duvivier, Le Masque de fer (Paris: Librairie Armand Colin, 1932), 113; Joseph Delort, Histoire de la Détention des Philosophes et des Gens de Lettres à la Bastille et à Vincennes, précédée de celle de Foucquet, de Pellisson et de Lauzun, avec tous les documents authentiques et inédits (Paris: Firmin Didot Père et fils, 1829), volume I, 155–156.

  2 To hold the survivance meant that Louvois would inherit the office in the event of his father’s death or retirement.

  3 Antoine de Brouilly, marquis de Piennes, was the governor-general of Pignerol.

  4 Jean-Christian Petitfils, Le Masque de fer: Entre histoire et légende (Paris: Perrin, 2003), 111; John Noone, The Man behind the Iron Mask (Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 1994), 151.

  5 Ibid.

  6 Pignerol is the French name for the town which, in Italian, is called Pinerolo. It is thought that it takes its name from the pine forests that surround it.

  7 Counter-gardes are V-shaped fortifications placed on the exterior faces of bastions and demi-lunes to offer further protection from the enemy.

  8 For the details of Saint-Mars’s early life, see Petitfils, Masque, 76; Noone, 257–258. Les Mesnuls is situated in the Yvelines to the southwest of Paris.

  9 Delort (1829), volume I, 87.

  10 Théodore Iung, La Verite sur le Masque de Fer (Les Empoisoneurs), d’après des documents inédits (Paris: Henri Plon, 1873), 149.

  11 One of Saint-Mars’s nephews, Guillaume Formanoir de Corbest, would inherit the château de Palteau from his uncle, and it was his son, born in 1712, who provided the information about the Man in the Iron Mask’s visit to Voltaire in 1763 and Fréron in 1768. See below, pp.193–194, 223.

  12 Many of Louvois’s letters to Saint-Mars were collected and printed by Arthur Stapleton Barnes, The Man of the Mask: A Study in the Byways of History (London: Smith, Elder & Co., 1912); Delort, Ravaisson, Pierre Roux-Fazillac, Recherches historiques et critiques sur l’homme au masque de fer (Paris: L’imprimerie de Valade, an IX [1800]); and Marius Topin, The Man with the Iron Mask, translated and edited by Henry Vizetelly (London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1870). Much of Saint-Mars’s correspondence has been lost, but its content can be reconstructed from Louvois’s replies.

  13 Roux-Fazillac, 105. The original document was destroyed by fire during the Paris Commune.

  CHAPTER TWO: NICOLAS FOUCQUET

  1 For the summation of charges against Foucquet and the verdict of Olivier Lefèvre d’Ormesson, whose opinion carried the day, see Vincent J. Pitts, Embezzlement and High Treason in Louis XIV’s France. The Trial of Nicolas Fouquet. (Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2015), 141–147, 157.

  2 Antonia Fraser, King Charles II (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1979), 203.

  3 Jean-Christian Petitfils, Fouquet (Paris: Perrin, 1999), 329. Foucquet chose La Bastide de La Croix, a man fluent in English, as his negotiator. Edward Hyde was created earl of Clarendon in April 1661.

  4 Cited in Jules Lair, Nicolas Fouquet (Paris: Librairie Plon, 1890), volume II, 407.

  5 Foucquet had married twice, the first time to Louise Fourché, who left him a widower with a small daughter in 1641. Ten years later, he married Marie-Madeleine de Castile, by whom he had five children, the eldest of whom had died. Foucquet’s youngest child, another son, was born some three months before his arrest.

  6 Marie de Rabutin-Chantal Sévigné, Lettres de Mme de Sévigné, de sa famille et de ses amis (Paris: J. J. Blaise, 1818), volume 1, 477. Madame de Sévigné states that Foucquet was escorted by fifty musketeers, but official accounts state one hundred. See François Ravaisson, Archives de la Bastille (Paris: Durand, 1866), volume II, 392.

  7 It is not certain in what capacity La Forêt served Foucquet. In some sources he is described as an equerry; in others he is a valet de chambre.

  8 Sévigné (1818), volume I, 480.

  9 Ibid., 481.

  10 Annales des Alpes. Recueil périodique des Archives des Hautes-Alpes, III année (Gap: Archives Départementales, 1899), 54–55.

  11 Sévigné (1818), volume I, 482. Foucquet and d’Artagnan were of a similar age. While d’Artagnan’s exact date of birth is unknown, he is generally believed to have been born c. 1610–1615. Foucquet was baptized on January 27, 1615, the probable day of his birth.

  12 Sévigné (1818), volume I, 482.

  13 Ravaisson, volume II, 397.

  14 Louis XIV. Œuvres de Louis XIV (Paris: Chez Treuttel et Würtz, 1806), 371–372.

  15 Delort (1829), volume I, 90.

  16 Ibid., 93–94.

  17 When news of Foucquet’s miraculous escape reached Paris, his friends rejoiced. It was universally agreed that God must have rejected the verdict of the court and released the prisoner: “very often those who appear criminal before men are not criminals before God” (Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve, Causeries du lundi, second edition [Paris: Garnier fréres, 1852], volume 5, 247). Olivier d’Ormesson, the lawyer who had sacrificed his own career to defend Foucquet, felt entirely vindicated (Olivier Lefèvre d’Ormesson, Journal [Paris Imprimerie impériale, 1860], volume II, 372). Inspired by Madame de Sévigné and Mademoiselle de Scudéry, the poet Ménage pleaded with Louis to complete God’s work and release the former superintendent: “In your turn, oh Louis, image of the Divinity, imitate the supreme God and pardon this unfortunate man” (cited in Lair, volume 2, 427). Alas, Louis remained unmoved.

  18 Delort (1829), volume I, 104.

  19 Ibid., 105.

  20 Ibid., 95. Today, la Pérouse is known by its Italian name, Perosa Argentina. The ruins of the fortress, which was called “the bastion,” lie just beyond the town i
n a place called the Bec Dauphin.

  21 Georges Mongrédien, “Le problème de Masque de fer,” in Pinerolo: La Maschera di Ferro e il suo tempo (Pinerolo: L’Artistica Savigliano, 1976), 214.

  22 Delort (1829), volume I, 157.

  23 Ibid.; Petitfils, Fouquet, 463, note 12.

  24 See below, p. 132.

  25 Delort (1829), volume I, 157.

  26 Ibid., 158.

  27 Ibid., 91.

  28 A full transcript of the Projet de Saint-Mandé can be found in Daniel Dessert, Fouquet (Paris: Fayard, 1987), 354–362, and Lair, volume I, 411–416.

  29 Foucquet’s assertion that he did not share his plan with anyone was not true, if his friend and colleague Jean Hérauld de Gourville is to be believed. In his Mémoires (Paris: Librairie Renouard, 1894), volume I, 171–173, he describes how Foucquet took him into his study at Saint-Mandé and showed him the document. Gourville said he thought the plan was foolish and advised Foucquet to burn it. Foucquet agreed and called for a candle, but just then someone entered the study and Foucquet hastily stashed the document behind a mirror and forgot about it. A year or so later, following Foucquet’s arrest, it was discovered when Colbert’s men made a search of the house.

  30 Delort (1829), volume I, 160–162.

  31 Ibid., 159, 161–162.

  32 Ibid., 163.

  33 Ibid., 167–168.

  34 Ibid., 157.

  35 Ibid., 167–168.

  36 Ibid., 169.

  37 Iung, 153.

  38 Rissan will stay in post until September 1680, when illness will force him to take a long break. He will be temporarily replaced by Saint-Mars, who receives an extra 6,000 livres in wages. Jacques de Villebois will succeed Rissan in February 1682 (Delort [1829]), 171–172; Petitfils, Masque, 36, 48, 51.

  CHAPTER THREE: THE COMTE DE LAUZUN

  1 Ravaisson, volume III, 99.

  2 Ibid.

  3 Ibid.

  4 Delort (1829), volume I, 174.

  5 Lauzun was born in 1633, and so was aged thirty-eight when he entered Pignerol.

  6 Delort (1829), volume I, 176–178. Louvois’s letter is dated November 26, the day after Lauzun’s arrest.

  7 Ravaisson, volume III, 105.

  8 Ravaisson, volume III, 104. Although in his letter Saint-Mars stated that Lauzun’s apartment was above Foucquet’s, it will be seen that this is a mistake. He was actually lodged in the apartment below Foucquet’s.

  9 Ravaisson, volume III, 105.

  10 Mary F. Sandars, Lauzun: Courtier and Adventurer. The Life of a Friend of Louis XIV (New York: Brentano’s, 1909), volume 2, 361–362; Ravaisson, volume III, 104.

  11 Ravaisson, volume III, 108.

  12 Ibid.

  13 Lauzun was given to fits of melancholy (Sandars, volume 1, 111). Sévigné (1818, volume 2, 290) speaks of the “continual rages of Lauzun.”

  14 Sandars, volume 1, 111–112.

  15 Ibid., 125–126; Louis de Rouvroy Saint-Simon, Mémoires complètes et authentiques de duc de Saint-Simon, ed. A Chéruel and A. Régnier, fils (Paris: Librairie Hachette et Cie, 1873–1886), volume XIX, 175.

  16 Saint-Simon (Chéruel), volume XIX, 176.

  17 Roger de Rabutin Bussy-Rabutin, Histoire Amoureuses des Gaules, suivie de La France Galante (Paris: Garnier Frères, 1868), volume II, 64.

  18 Ravaisson, volume II, 451; Saint-Simon (Chéruel), volume XIX, 174. Some months after his release from the Bastille, Lauzun took further revenge on the princesse de Monaco. As she sat on the floor with her ladies watching a game, Lauzun came up to her, planted the heel of his shoe firmly on her hand, pirouetted, and calmly walked away (Saint-Simon [Chéruel], volume XIX, 175–176).

  19 Armand-Charles de La Porte, duc de La Meilleraye, duc de Mazarin (1632–1713), was the husband of the late Cardinal Mazarin’s favorite niece, Hortense.

  20 The story of Lauzun’s expected appointment as grand master of the artillery and his antics with Mme de Montespan is recounted in Saint-Simon (Chéruel), volume XIX, 172–173; see also Sandars, volume 1, 176–184.

  21 Sandars, volume 1, 286–287.

  22 Sandars, volume 2, 310; Louis’s letter is also reproduced in Anne-Marie-Louise d’Orléans Montpensier, Mémoires de Mlle de Montpensier: Petite-fille de Henri IV, edited by A. Chéruel (Paris: Bibliothèque-Charpentier, 1858), volume IV, 624–627.

  23 Sandars, volume 2, 311.

  24 Ibid., 312.

  25 Ibid., volume 1, 298–299.

  26 Ibid., volume 2, 312–313.

  27 Ibid., 313.

  28 Ibid.

  29 Marquis de La Fare, Mémoires et Réflexions sur les principaux événements du règne de Louis XIV in Michaud et Poujoulat, Series 3, volume 30 (Lyon; Paris: Guyot Frères, 1854), 270.

  30 Sandars, volume 2, 323.

  31 The marquis de Guitry was master of the royal wardrobe.

  32 The future marquise de Maintenon, Mme Scarron would go on to become Louis’s morganatic second wife following the death of Queen Marie-Thérèse.

  33 La Fare, 271.

  34 Montpensier (Chéruel), volume IV, 320.

  35 Known as le Petit d’Artagnan, he was not d’Artagnan’s nephew, as suggested by Sandars, but his cousin. With the mission accomplished, Pierre d’Artagnan would be sent to on ahead to Paris, where he would relate the details of the journey to Mademoiselle, who later included them in her Mémoires.

  36 For Lauzun’s journey, see Montpensier (Chéruel) volume IV, 313–324; Sandars, volume II, 350–355.

  37 Montpensier (Mémoires), volume III, 73.

  38 Ravaisson, volume III, 114.

  39 Delort (1829), volume I, 181.

  40 Ravaisson, volume III, 113.

  41 Ibid., 117.

  42 Ibid., 117–118.

  43 Ibid., 106–107.

  44 Ibid., 118.

  45 Ibid., 120.

  46 Delort (1829), volume I, 186.

  47 Sévigné (1818), volume II, 369.

  48 Ravaisson, volume III, 134.

  49 Ibid., 134, 136.

  50 Ibid., 134.

  51 Sandars, 375.

  52 Petitfils, Masque, 104 note; Ravaisson, volume III, 131. Louis Foucquet mentions a suicide in his letter, see Xavier Azema, Un prélat janseniste: Louis Foucquet évêque et comte d’Agde (1656–1702) (Paris: Librairie philosophique J. Vrin, 1963), 150; Petitfils, Masque, 103–104, 190.

  53 Delort (1829), volume I, 191.

  54 Ravaisson, volume III, 136.

  55 Delort (1829), volume I, 195–196; Ravaisson, volume III, 137. Although she would eventually engage a businessman to help her, she still had to defer to her husband for certain matters. Mme Foucquet had received her reply by January 10, 1673, several weeks after it had been sent (Ravaisson, volume III, 141).

  56 Delort (1829), volume I, 195, 196–197.

  57 Ibid., 191–193, 197, 199. Plassot was given 20 crowns out of charity as he returned to the world (Sandars, Lauzun, volume 2, 378).

  58 Delort (1829), volume I, 200.

  59 Quoted in Sandars, volume 2, 382; see also Ravaisson, volume III, 147.

  60 Quoted in Sandars, volume 2, 383.

  61 Delort (1829), volume I, 207.

  CHAPTER FOUR: THE FATEFUL ENCOUNTER

  1 Ravaisson, volume III, 121.

  2 Iung, 199–200.

  3 Ravaisson, volume III, 141. Saint-Mars became the chevalier de Saint-Mars. Pierre-Marie Dijol, “L’Homme au Masque de Fer” (Cannes: Office Municipal de l’Action Culturelle et de la Comunication de la Ville de Cannes, 1989), 62.

  4 Iung, 217.

  5 Ibid., 219. The order for Butticari’s release was dated August 11, 1675.

  6 Topin, 195. Letter dated May 6, 1673.

  7 Unpublished letter, March 17, 1673, Topin, 195–196.

  8 Petitfils, Masque, 260.

  9 Sandars, volume 2, 384–385.

  10 Sandars, volume 2, 386.

  11 Ravaisson, volume III, 151; order dates February 11, 1673.

  12 Notwithstanding Louvois’s promise that
no more would be said, several attempts were made to force Lauzun to resign, all of which he refused. In the end, the post was awarded to Luxembourg without the formality of the resignation of its previous incumbent. Lauzun would eventually sign a formal letter of resignation, but as Louvois told him, it was four years too late and so of no use. See Sanders, volume 2, 387.

  13 Ravaisson, volume III, 142–143.

  14 Delort (1829), volume I, 218. Foucquet had also sent a compliment to Louvois, a polite note of greeting, but Louvois did not wish to receive it, thinking that Foucquet might take advantage of any friendship that might develop between them. Louvois sent it back to Saint-Mars, saying he could either return it to Foucquet or burn it in front of him (Delort [1829], volume I, 217).

  15 Ravaisson, volume III, 175.

  16 Ibid., 176.

  17 Ibid., 177.

  18 Petitfils, Masque, 44–45. Saint-Mars lost track of which prisoner was which, and he referred to Castanieri as Lapierre (see Ravaisson, III, 171, 173). They were, however, two different people.

  19 Rupert Furneaux, The Man behind the Mask: The Real Story of the “Ancient Prisoner” (London: Cassell & Company, 1954). 72. Furneaux confuses Lapierre with Dubreuil, who will enter Pignerol as a prisoner in 1676.

  20 Delort (1829), volume I, 229.

  21 Dessert, Fouquet, 365–368; Chéruel, Fouquet, volume II, 452–460; Lair, Foucquet, volume II, 447–451.

  22 Delort (1829), volume I, 233.

  23 Ibid.

  24 Sandars, volume 1, 176.

  25 Delort (1829), volume I, 234.

  26 Louis de Rouvroy Saint-Simon, Memoirs of the duc de Saint-Simon on the times of the regency, translated and edited by Katharine Prescott Wormeley (Boston: Hardy, Pratt & Company, 1902), volume 1, 106.

  27 Delort (1829), volume I, 230–232; Bussy-Rabutin, volume II, 91; Sandars, volume II, 388–389.