In 1669, an enigmatic prisoner was arrested and brought to the prison of Pignerol under the pseudonym of Eustache Dauger. Upon handing the prisoner over to his jailers, Louis XIV’s minister instructed that the captive be placed in a cell with multiple doors closing in on one another and that he only be brought food once a day. The minister also told the jailers that if the prisoner spoke of anything other than his immediate needs, he was to be killed immediately. Over the years, the unknown man was transferred to four French prisons, including the Bastille, and always wore a mask—which was reportedly velvet, though the famed writer Voltaire would embellish it as iron in his later work about the mystery—so that no one would see his face. The identity of the prisoner is still hotly debated to this day: was he perhaps an illegitimate half-brother of the king? The king’s twin brother or true father? The valet of an important man who knew too much? Theories have swirled for centuries, but there’s still no definitive answer. In this fascinating and historical episode, Jenny and Tom take a deep dive into European history and try to get to the bottom of who the so-called Man in the Iron Mask might have been, and why his identity was such a closely guarded secret.

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