Man in the Iron Mask Dumas also presented a review of the popular theories about the prisoner extant in his time in the chapter "L'homme au masque de fer" in the sixth volume of his non-fiction "Crimes Célèbres". The earliest surviving records of the masked prisoner are from late July 1669, when Louis XIV's minister, the Marquis de Louvois, sent a letter to Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars, governor of the prison of Pignerol, which at the time was part of France. In his letter, Louvois informed Saint-Mars that a prisoner named "Eustache Dauger" was due to arrive in the next month or so. Louvois instructed
Man in the Iron Mask the Iron Mask is based mainly on correspondence between Saint-Mars and his superiors in Paris. Recent research suggests that his name might have been "Eustache Dauger", a man who was involved in several political scandals of the late 17th century, but this assertion still has not been completely proven. The National Archives of France has made available (online) the original data relating to the inventories of the goods and papers of Saint-Mars (one inventory, of 64 pages, was drawn up at the Bastille in 1708; the other, of 68 pages, at the citadel of Sainte-Marguerite in 1691). These documents have