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,
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