Man in the Iron Mask has also been proposed as the man in the mask. A Protestant, he led a rebellion against his uncle, the Catholic King James II. The rebellion failed and Monmouth was executed in 1685. But in 1768, a writer named Saint-Foix claimed that another man was executed in his place and that Monmouth became the masked prisoner, it being in Louis XIV's interests to assist a fellow Catholic like James who would not necessarily want to kill his own nephew. Saint-Foix's case was based on unsubstantiated rumours and allegations that Monmouth's execution was faked. Other popular suspects have included men known
Man in the Iron Mask He was placed in a solitary cell in the prefurnished third chamber of the Bertaudière tower. The prison's second-in-command, de Rosarges, was to feed him. Lieutenant du Junca, another officer of the Bastille, noted that the prisoner wore "a mask of black velvet". The masked prisoner died on 19 November 1703 and was buried the next day under the name of "Marchioly". All of his furniture and clothing was reportedly destroyed afterward, the walls of his cell were scraped and whitewashed, and everything of metal which the man had possessed or used was melted down. In 1711, King Louis's sister-in-law,