Man in the Iron Mask Huguenot Roux de Marcilly. After his master's execution in 1669 the valet was taken to France, possibly by capture or subterfuge, and imprisoned because he might have known too much about his master's affairs. In "The Man of the Mask" (1908), Arthur Barnes presents James de la Cloche, the alleged illegitimate son of the reluctant Protestant Charles II of England, who would have been his father's secret intermediary with the Catholic court of France. Louis XIV could have imprisoned him because he knew too much about French affairs with England. One of Charles's confirmed illegitimate sons, the Duke of Monmouth,
The Iron Man (novel) later wrote a sequel, "The Iron Woman" (1993), describing retribution based on environmental themes related to pollution. The first North American edition was also published in 1968, by Harper & Row with illustrations by Robert Nadler. Its main title was changed to The Iron Giant, and internal mentions of the metal man changed to iron giant, to avoid confusion with the Marvel Comics character Iron Man. American editions have continued the practice, as Iron Man has become a multimedia franchise. Faber and Faber published a new edition in 1985 with illustrations by Andrew Davidson, for which Hughes and Davidson won