Man in the Iron Mask arrested in Calais in 1669 further to the execution of Roux, who would have denounced him when being tortured. Hugh Ross Williamson argues that the man in the iron mask was the natural father of Louis XIV. According to this theory, the "miraculous" birth of Louis XIV in 1638 would have come after Louis XIII had been estranged from his wife Anne of Austria for 14 years. Furthermore, Louis XIII was old, weak, ill, and not expected to live much longer, and thus may have been impotent at the time, implying that he was not the father. The theory then
Man in the Iron Mask that they had been provoked by the boy, who was drunk, but the fact that the killing took place near a castle where the king was staying meant that this was not a good enough explanation and, as a result, Dauger was forced to resign his commission. Dauger's mother died shortly afterwards. In her will, written a year previously, she passed over her eldest surviving sons, Eustache and Armand, leaving the bulk of the estate to their younger brother Louis. Eustache was restricted in the amount of money to which he had access, having built up considerable debts, and left