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 Man in the Iron Mask (1939 film) The Man in the Iron Mask (1939 film) The Man in the Iron Mask is a 1939 American film very loosely adapted from the last section of the novel "The Vicomte de Bragelonne" by Alexandre Dumas, père, which is itself based on the French legend of the Man in the Iron Mask. The film was Peter Cushing's screen debut. It was also notable for being the source of several subsequent remakes. The film was directed by James Whale and stars Louis Hayward as royal twins, Joan Bennett as Princess Maria Theresa, Warren William as d'Artagnan, and Joseph Schildkraut as Nicolas