 The French Revolution was one of the most bloody revolutions our world has ever seen. And even though a lot could be said about the revolution, there's one incident in particular that we want to focus on today. In 1789, the people of France overran the Bastille in Paris. The Bastille was a prison. And while they were in the midst of overrunning this prison, they found a very peculiar skeleton. This was a skeleton who was chained to a wall who had a rather torturous contraption on his head. The identity of this prisoner is still a mystery to this day. But before we go any further, you know what to do. Please hit that subscribe button and give us a like. Thank you again to all of our patrons who helped make this channel possible. If you would like to join our Patreon community, there is a link down in the description box below. Welcome to Esoteric Atlanta. My name is Bryce. And today on Mystery Monday, we are going to be talking about The Man in the Iron Mask. The story that we're going to go through today was recommended by Adam, one of our community members here at Esoteric Atlanta. With every video that we release, we always include a snippet of Adam's novel in the description box below. Adam has written a novel regarding multiverses, which is a topic we have covered on this channel. If you know anybody in publishing and you like Adam's work, please reach out to Adam. His email address is also in the description box below. Now we do know that during the French Revolution, the Bastille was overrun. However, we're not so sure that the story about the French people finding the skeleton chained to the wall with the Iron Mask is true or not. Yes, we do know that this person existed. We have letters that reference him during his time in captivity. In fact, the only factual stuff we know about The Man in the Iron Mask comes from letters written by his jailer, San Mar, to his superiors in Paris, France. But the popularity of the theory of The Man in the Iron Mask started with Voltaire in 1771 before the storming of the Bastille. You see, even during the time of this man's imprisonment, it seemed that nobody really knew who he was. He was moved around between multiple gels. And in fact, you can even tour some of these prisons today. We know that The Man in the Iron Mask was treated almost like royalty, even though he was kept very separate from other prisoners. In fact, before he got transferred to the Bastille, he was kept on an island in the south of France, just south of Cannes, called Santa Magrita. And I apologize if my accent is off with any of these French names. I am not a native French speaker. Now on this particular island, they actually built a prison specifically for The Man in the Iron Mask. And again, you can tour his prison cell. He had frescas on the wall. He had furniture. He had a toilet in his jail cell. This was not the normal jail situation for prisoners in France in that day. So already, even while he was in captivity, there were whispers about who this man could possibly be. Why was he treated so well by the prison staff? And why was it important that nobody could see his face? His identity was dangerous. And so in 1771, Voltaire suggested that The Man in the Iron Mask was the illegitimate older brother of the king at the time who was Louis XIV. Louis XIV's parents were Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. Louis XIII reigned from 1610 until 1643. And by Louis XIII's hand, France became one of the leading European dynasties. Louis XIII's father, King Henry IV of France had been assassinated when Louis XIII was quite young. This was the beginning or in the midst of a lot of the Protestant Reformation that we've talked about with our episodes on England as well. And in France, there was a huge strife and controversy between the Huguenots and the Catholics. And to make a long story short, that's why Louis XIII's father's reign was cut short. In 1612, Louis XIII was engaged to Anne of Austria. Now, Anne of Austria was actually from Spain, but she was a Habsburg. And we've talked about the Habsburgs on this channel many times. The Habsburgs were one of the most powerful families in all of Europe. And so for Louis XIII to marry Anne of Austria was definitely a huge political pull. By 1615, both the young kids were married. Now this was not a marriage made in heaven. In fact, it would be 23 years before Anne of Austria would give birth to Louis XIV or the Sun King. He was like this blessing from God. There were rumors that potentially Louis XIII was impotent, which we'll get into with a different theory, also that they didn't really like each other. So Anne of Austria and Louis XIII were never really together. Now, with the possibility of the man in the iron mask being Louis XIV's illegitimate older brother, there is a rumor that Anne of Austria got pregnant by a lover from England long before Louis XIV was born. Now, normally for a queen to get pregnant by another man who isn't the king would have been considered treason. But for people of royal blood like Anne of Austria was, again, she was a Habsburg, you couldn't kill her. There was no treason for royalty. But on the flip side, if she was pregnant with somebody's else's child, her pregnancy would have to be hidden. You see, for a queen to get pregnant, that was a royal event. There were celebrations people would have noticed. And so she again had to stay hidden to give birth to her illegitimate son. Now, the man in the iron mask was arrested in 1669 well into Louis XIV's reign. In fact, Louis XIV was crowned the king of France in 1643 at only five years old. So by 1669, if this person who was arrested was an illegitimate older brother, there was a reason why Louis XIV wanted his identity hidden. He didn't want people to know that there was a possibility that he himself, Louis XIV, wasn't the son of Louis XIII. That would challenge his reign. So he had to get rid of his mother's scandalous affair before any of his rightful inheritance was challenged by the people of France. Another theory about the man in the iron mask is that the man in the iron mask was actually Louis XIV's father. Again, I mentioned that it was believed that Louis XIII was possibly impotent and could not have children. Now, if Louis XIII had passed away without producing an heir, the throne of France would have gone to his younger brother. This was something that Louis XIII did not want to happen, nor did Anne of Austria. It seems that there was a lot of strife and turmoil between Louis XIII and his brother. And so there is a theory that Louis XIII's cardinal suggested to King Louis XIII that he get one of his royal musketeers to be a surrogate and to impregnate Anne of Austria so that an heir could be born. The story goes that it worked. That Anne of Austria got pregnant by this musketeer so that an heir could be born to take over the French throne. Now, something that gives this credibility is that Louis XIV apparently was nothing like his father. In stature, in personality, they were two very different people. Well, if it's true that Louis XIV's father was some random royal musketeer, if you will, after Anne of Austria was pregnant, this musketeer apparently went off to the new world, to America, to live his life. Well, the story goes that he fell on hard times. And so he made his way back to France to then try to extort the royal family out of money to keep the secret that he was actually the father of Louis XIV. The theory then goes that instead of just giving him money, they had him arrested and locked away with an iron mask on his face so that none of the prisoners or anyone passing by could ever see how much he resembled Louis XIV, the king of France. Although this theory does seem plausible, a lot of historians say in actuality it would not have happened that way. Because the musketeer that allegedly impregnated Anne of Austria was not of royal blood, if he had tried to extort the French family, they would have had no qualms with having him executed. So therefore they would not have taken the time to imprison him and make sure he was kept up well and clean and nice in prison with just his identity hidden. It had to be someone even more dangerous than a particular serigent father. Which leads us to our third theory and our most popular theory and historically probably the closest theory to the truth. And this is the theory that the man in the iron mask was none other than the twin brother of King Louis XIV. This theory first became popular in the 1800s by the French writer Alexander Dumas. In Dumas' third novel, which would go on to be his final novel, he follows the three musketeers and we're introduced to the man in the iron mask. Again, he follows the storyline that the man in the iron mask is none other than the twin brother of the Sun King or Louis XIV. In fact, in 1998, a movie was released, a movie called The Man in the Iron Mask with Leonardo DiCaprio. This movie followed Dumas' novel pretty closely. Now I have to be honest, when I first started to research this topic, I thought the theory that the man in the iron mask was his Louis XIV twin brother was just something that Hollywood had created for entertainment purposes. I was pretty shocked to find out that a lot of historians believe that this was the case, that the man in the iron mask was in fact the twin brother of Louis XIV. And what could be more dangerous to a dynasty than a twin brother of the heir to the crown of France? Now you might be thinking, oh cool, an heir and a spare. They give birth to two little boys. Done, done, done. We have the first born who's the heir and then we've got the second baby who will be the spare. However, back in the 1600s, it was a little bit more complicated than that. You see, when it came to twins, they believed that the first born baby was the one to be conceived second. And with the theory of divine right, that would mean that the second born twin was the first to be conceived. You see how this gets really complicated? Well, apparently after Louis XIV was born, because he came out first, his father, Louis XIII, brought him out to see the court while Anne of Austria stayed back. Did she stay back because she was about to give birth to a second baby? A second twin baby, an identical twin baby that as custom then would have noticed that he was most likely conceived before. His brother, Louis XIV, complicated indeed. Now we know that twins is heretical, that they're like, I don't have any twins in my family. My boyfriend has twins in his family. Actually, both of his parents are a twin. But in my family, there are no twins. Now, if we look back at the different dynasties associated with Louis XIV, we do see that there are twins. There are twins everywhere. So it means that there is a possibility, it's highly likely that Anne of Austria could have conceived twins. So the story goes that the youngest of the twins, the twin who was born second, was sent away from court after the birth of Louis XIV. He was raised with other people. Now again, Louis XIV took the throne when he was five years old. And over time, Louis XIV, who was called the Sun King, became a little bit too big for his britches. Meglomania, we could probably say, narcissism. Who knows? It was in the 1600s. But this King, Louis XIV, eventually started to take on totalitarian authority. In fact, we can definitely see the beginnings of what would snowball into the French Revolution with his grandson, who ended up getting his head chopped off during the French Revolution. Louis XIV was known for his decadence. He was the person that turned Versailles, which was a hunting lodge back in his father's time, into the magnificent palace that it is today. We're talking lavish things everywhere. In fact, Louis XIV was the French king who introduced chocolate into his court. He was definitely the poster child for sex drugs and rock and roll in the 1600s. And at 31 years old, he had the man in the iron mask arrested. Now, the interesting thing about the man in the iron mask is that we don't know what his actual charges are. We have no idea why he was arrested. This is why another reason why many historians believe that he was Louis XIV's twin brother. And Louis XIV's need for total control and total power, he could not have an identical twin out there in the world looking just like him that could possibly challenge his authority anytime during their life. And so he had him put away with an iron mask nailed to his head. Now, the thing about the iron mask, though, it was Voltaire that said the mask was iron. Many people believe it could have been black velvet. I really hope it was black velvet and not an iron mask. However, Voltaire might have been correct that it was actually an iron mask. You see, there's a city that's three hours south of Paris called Langraux. And in Langraux, there is a museum that claims to have the iron mask. Apparently, after the French Revolution, the iron mask was kind of sold from person to person to person, a bit like Oliver Cromwell's head in our episode on Oliver Cromwell's head. Well, in 1895, the iron mask showed up in a flea market and somebody bought it and brought it to the museum. They claimed that you can see a slight inscription inside this iron mask. Allegedly, the inscription said that the mask was removed from the twin of King Louis XIV upon his death in 1703. If this mask is truly the mask that was worn by the prisoner, then we have some pretty hardcore evidence and proof that the prisoner was the brother of Louis XIV. And unlike the theory of the man in the iron mask being Louis XIV's biological father, with a twin brother Louis XIV under the customs and laws of royal blood would not have been at liberty to kill his brother. So therefore, he had to keep him imprisoned for 34 years until his death. Other evidence that point to the proof that this might have been Louis XIV's brother is the jailer San Mar himself. Apparently, he was his jailer throughout his whole time being moved from jail to jail. They had one person that was responsible for keeping him separated and isolated from all the other prisoners. It is reported that whenever San Mar went into visit with a prisoner or other musketeers came into visit with the prisoner, they always took their hats off in respect to him. It is also reported that San Mar would refer to the prisoner as my prince. Very interesting to treat a prisoner with such dignity as if that prisoner was born of higher ranking than you, as if that prisoner was also of royal blood. Now there is one other theory that I want to explore today, and this theory could potentially bleed into the theory that the man in the iron mask was Louis XIV's twin brother. And this is the prisoner Astuge Doge. Now Doge himself was allegedly a valet. He was not a man of significant importance. Well, apparently Doge was involved in a political scandal to try to overthrow King Louis XIV. So therefore, in the same year, 1669, there was an arrest warrant written out for Doge. Notes associated with Doge say that he is not allowed to speak to any other prisoner about who he is. He's only allowed to ask for his basic needs. But the thing about Astuge Doge is that nobody would have known or recognized his face. In fact, the only face that would have been recognizable by every single person in the country of France from peasant to nobility would have been the face of Louis XIV. So if the man in the iron mask was Astuge Doge, a valet, why the hell did they have to cover up his identity and separate him from all the other prisoners? Another interesting fact about Doge is that he is listed as having the same death date as the man in the iron mask. That is the 19th of November, 1703. So who was Astuge Doge? And why does his arrest follow a very similar pattern to the rest of the man in the iron mask? Well, my theory on this is that there was somebody named Astuge Doge that had been arrested for maybe inciting a riot against the government. Now, I believe that King Louis XIV was so desperate to hide the man in the iron mask true identity. They used the identity of this lowly valet to be the official identity of the man in the iron mask who was really Louis XIV's brother. So what happened to the real Doge? He probably got executed. It was like a happy happenstance for Louis XIV. He could go arrest this lowly valet and then give him this identity to the twin brother that was really powerful and could have destroyed Louis XIV's dynasty. Very handy. Very, very handy timing indeed. All in all, whoever the man in the iron mask was, my heart goes out to him. I cannot imagine living most of my life with an iron mask on my face being forced in captivity, strictly because of my own identity. I do hope that the man in the iron mask is resting in peace and it's stories like this that make me really believe and hope that there is such thing as reincarnation and that that poor soul would have been able to come back again and live a more fulfilling life. The French royal family is one of the most scandalous families in all of the European dynasties. We know that they are the birth or the origins of the Paisour family, which is a family that even haunts us to this day. Eventually, when more evidence is available, we will go over the Paisours in a future video. So what are your thoughts on the man in the iron mask? Again, thank you so much to Adam for recommending this story. I had a lot of fun researching this. It's very scandalous and very, very sad. And when I'm able to get back to France one day, I do hope to visit some of these prisons where the man in the iron mask was held. Make sure to leave your comments down in the comment section below and your thoughts on this very strange and intriguing mystery. Don't forget that tomorrow night, I will be back on The Dark Outpost with David Zuplik to go over more of the Gospel of the Holy Twelve. Again, make sure you send me any questions you have for David for when I interview him for this channel as well. So anything you're wondering about David and how we got started or anything into this line of truthing work, just make sure you send those to me at esotericatlanta.com. Again, my contact is also in the description box below. Thank you so much to Josh McKay for doing our music and to Todd Broderick for helping me get this video out there for you guys to watch. I hope you all have a fantastic week and I will talk to you soon. Bye.