Editing Man in the Iron Mask (section)

===King's relative===
Some of the most enduring theories about the prisoner's identity, outlined in the sections below, assume that he was a relative of Louis XIV, because of the importance attached to secrecy during his incarceration which, in turn, fed the legend that he must have been one of the most important persons in the realm.{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|p=42}} These theories emerged during the 1700s, long before historians were able to consult the archives revealing that the prisoner was "only a valet",{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|pp=181–182}} imprisoned for "what he was employed to do", and for "what he knew".{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|p=190}} These early theories arose solely from their author's imagination, and boosted the romantic appeal of a sensational elucidation of the enigma.{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|pp=40–52}} Historians such as Mongrédien (1952) and Noone (1988), however, pointed out that the solution whereby Louis XIV is supposed to have had an illegitimate brother&mdash;whether older, twin, or younger&mdash;does not provide a credible explanation, for example, on how it would have been possible for Queen [[Anne of Austria]] to conceal a pregnancy throughout its full course and bear, then deliver, a child in secret.{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|p=51}}{{sfn|Noone|1988|p=45}} Mongrédien concluded that "historians cannot give it the slightest credence."{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|p=52}}

====King's illegitimate son====
In 1745, an anonymous writer published a book in Amsterdam, ''Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire de la Perse'', romanticising life at the French Court in the form of Persian history. Members of the royal family and locations were given fictitious Persian names,{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|p=33}} and their key was published in the book's third edition (1759).{{sfn|Noone|1988|p=51}} In this tale, Louis XIV's illegitimate son, [[Louis, Count of Vermandois]], is alleged to have struck his half-brother, [[Louis, Grand Dauphin]], causing the King to banish him to life imprisonment, first at the Île Sainte-Marguerite and later at the Bastille. He was made to wear a mask whenever he was to be seen or attended to, when sick or in other circumstances.{{sfn|Anonymous|1745}}{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|pp=33–37}}{{sfn|Noone|1988|pp=51–54}} The theory of Vermandois as the prisoner in the mask was later mentioned by [[Henri Griffet]], in 1769, as having circulated during the reign of Louis XIV, therefore long before 1745.{{sfn|Griffet|1769|p=323}}{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|p=236}}

In reality, there are no historical records of gossip confirming that Vermandois ever struck the Grand Dauphin.{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|pp=37–38}}{{sfn|Noone|1988|p=54}} In the memoirs of Louis XIV's first cousin, the [[Anne Marie Louise d'Orléans, Duchess of Montpensier|Duchess of Montpensier]], there is mention of Vermandois having displeased the King for taking part in orgies in 1682, and being temporarily banished from court as a result. After promising to mend his way, he was sent&mdash;soon after his 16th birthday&mdash;to join the army in [[Courtrai]] during the [[War of the Reunions]] (1683–84), in early November 1683. He distinguished himself in the battle line, but died of a fever during the night of 17 November. The King was reported to be deeply affected by his son's death, and Vermandois' sister, [[Marie Anne de Bourbon]], was inconsolable while their mother, [[Louise de La Vallière]], sought solace in endless prayer at her [[Carmelites]] [[Couvent des Carmélites du faubourg Saint-Jacques|convent]] in Paris.{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|pp=38–39}}{{sfn|Noone|1988|p=51}}

====King's elder brother====
During his two sojourns in the Bastille in 1717–18 and 1726,{{efn|name=voltaire}} Voltaire became aware of the traditions and legends circulating among the staff at the fortress.{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|pp=40–41}} On 30 October 1738, he wrote to the [[Jean-Baptiste Dubos|Abbé Dubos]]: "I am somewhat knowledgeable about the adventure of the Man in the Iron Mask, who died at the Bastille; I spoke to people who had served him."{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|pp=41, 237}} In the second edition of his {{lang|fr|Questions sur l'Encyclopédie}} (1771), Voltaire claimed that the prisoner was an illegitimate first son of Anne of Austria and an unknown father, and therefore an older half-brother of Louis XIV.{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|pp=47–48}} This assertion was partly based on the historical fact that the birth of Louis XIV on 5 September 1638 had come as a surprise: since [[Louis XIII]] and Anne of Austria had been childless for 23 years, it was believed they were unable to conceive, despite evidence to the contrary of the Queen's well-known miscarriages.{{efn|name=annemisc}}{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|pp=47–49}} In fact, the royal couple had been living for years in mutual distrust and had become estranged since the mid-1620s. Furthermore, in August 1637, the Queen had been found guilty of treasonable correspondence with Spain and had been placed under house arrest at the [[Louvre Palace]].{{sfn|Noone|1988|p=42}} However, contemporary accounts nonetheless indicate that the royal couple shared a bed and conceived the future Louis XIV, either in early December 1637{{efn|name=dec1637}} or, as historians deem more likely, sometime during the previous month.{{efn|name=nov1637}}{{sfn|Kleinman|1993|p=194}}{{sfn|Mansel|2022|p=17}} The Queen's pregnancy was made public on 30 January 1638.{{sfn|Mansel|2022|p=17}}

Based on the assumption that the royal couple were unable to conceive, Voltaire theorised that an earlier, secret birth of an illegitimate child persuaded the Queen that she was not infertile, in turn prompting [[Cardinal Richelieu]] to arrange an outing during which the royal couple had to share a bed, which led to the birth of Louis XIV.{{sfn|Voltaire|1770–1771}}{{sfn|Carra|1789|pp=315–321}}{{sfn|Craufurd|1790|pp=254–356}}{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|pp=40–49}}

The theme of an imagined elder brother of Louis XIV resurfaced in 1790, when French historian Pierre-Hubert Charpentier asserted that the prisoner was an illegitimate son of Anne of Austria and [[George Villiers, 1st Duke of Buckingham]], supposedly born in 1626, two years before the latter's death.{{sfn|Charpentier|Manuel|1790|pp=140–162}}{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|p=50}}{{sfn|Noone|1988|pp=43–45}} Louis XIV was presumed to have had this elder brother imprisoned upon the Queen's death in 1666. According to Charpentier, this theory had originated with a certain Mademoiselle de Saint-Quentin, a mistress of the [[Louis François Marie Le Tellier|Marquess of Barbezieux]], son of Louvois and his successor as War Minister to Louis XIV in 1691.{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|p=50}} A few days before his sudden death on 5 January 1701, Barbezieux had told her the secret of the prisoner's identity, which she disclosed publicly to several people in [[Chartres]] towards the end of her life in the mid-1700s. Charpentier also stated that Voltaire had heard this version in [[Geneva]], but chose to omit Buckingham's name when he began to develop his own variant of this theory in the first edition of ''[[The Age of Louis XIV]]'' (1751),{{sfn|Charpentier|Manuel|1790|pp=140–162}} finally revealed in full in {{lang|fr|Questions sur l'Encyclopédie}} (1771).{{sfn|Charpentier|Manuel|1790|pp=140–162}}

====King's twin brother====
Many authors supported the theory of the prisoner being a twin brother of King Louis XIV: [[Michel de Cubières]] (1789), [[Jean-Louis Giraud Soulavie|Jean-Louis Soulavie]] (1791), [[Emmanuel, comte de Las Cases|Las Cases]] (1816), [[Victor Hugo]] (1839), Alexandre Dumas (1840), Paul Lecointe (1847), and others.{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|p=51}} 
<!-- Aligned with this theory, a thorough examination of the French Kings' genealogy shows many twin births, in the [[Capetian dynasty]], as well as in the [[House of Valois]], the [[House of Bourbon]], and the [[House of Orléans]].{{sfn|Kermabon|1998}}
-->

In a 1965 essay, ''Le Masque de fer'' (revised in 1973 under the title ''[[Le secret du Masque de Fer]]''), French novelist and playwright [[Marcel Pagnol]], proposing his hypothesis in particular on the circumstances of Louis XIV's birth, claimed that the Man in the Iron Mask was indeed a twin brother, but born second, who would have been hidden in order to avoid any dispute over the throne holder.{{sfn|Pagnol|1973|pp=19–22}} At the time, there was a controversy over which one of twins was the elder: the one born first, or the one born second, who was then thought to have been conceived first.{{sfn|Pagnol|1973|pp=289–290, 334}}

Historians who reject this hypothesis (including [[:fr:Jean-Christian Petitfils|Jean-Christian Petitfils]]) highlight the conditions of childbirth for the queen: it usually took place in the presence of multiple witnesses—the main court's figures. According to Pagnol, immediately after the birth of the future Louis XIV at 11 a.m. on 5 September 1638, Louis XIII took his whole court (about 40 people) to the [[Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye|''Château de Saint-Germain'']]'s chapel to celebrate a ''[[Te Deum]]'' in great pomp,{{sfn|Pagnol|1973|pp=19–22}} contrary to the common practice of celebrating it several days before childbirth.{{sfn|Dumont|1739}} Pagnol contends that the court's removal to this ''Te Deum'' had been rushed to enable the queen to deliver the second twin in secret and attended only by the midwife.{{sfn|Pagnol|1973|pp=19–22}}

Pagnol's solution&mdash;combining earlier theories by [[Jean-Louis Giraud Soulavie|Soulavie]] (1790),{{sfn|Soulavie|1790}} [[Andrew Lang]] (1903),{{sfn|Lang|2002}} [[Arthur Barnes (monsignor)|Arthur Barnes]] (1908),{{sfn|Barnes|1908}} and Edith Carey (1924){{sfn|Carey|1924}}&mdash;speculates that this twin was born a few hours after Louis XIV and grew up on the Island of [[Jersey]] under the name [[James de la Cloche]], believing himself to be an illegitimate son of [[Charles II of England|Charles II]]. During a hypothetical, secret meeting in January 1669, Charles is assumed to have recognised the twin for his resemblance to the French king and revealed to him his true identity.{{sfn|Pagnol|1973|pp=330–334}} Shortly thereafter, the twin would supposedly have adopted the new identity of "Martin" as a valet to [[Roux de Marcilly]], with whom he conspired against Louis XIV, which led to his arrest in Calais in July 1669.{{sfn|Pagnol|1973|pp=137–165}} Historically, however, the real valet Martin (distinct from Pagnol's reinterpreted "Martin") could not have become "Eustache Dauger" because he had fled to London when the Roux conspiracy failed; this is well known because his extradition from England to France had at first been requested by Foreign Minister [[Hugues de Lionne]] on 12 June 1669, but subsequently cancelled by him on 13 July.{{sfn|Noone|1988|p=187}} Pagnol explained this historical fact away by claiming, without any evidence, that "Martin" must have been secretly abducted in London in early July and transported to France on 7 or 8 July, and that the extradition order had therefore been cancelled because it was no longer necessary, its objective having already been achieved.{{sfn|Pagnol|1973|pp=155–156}}

====King's younger brother====
In 1791, Jean Baptiste De Saint-Mihiel proposed that the prisoner was an illegitimate younger brother of Louis XIV, fathered by [[Cardinal Mazarin]].{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|p=51}} This theory was based on the fact, mentioned by Voltaire in {{lang|fr|Questions sur l'Encyclopédie}} (1771), that the prisoner had told his doctor that he "believed himself to be about 60 years old", a few days before his death in 1703. De Saint-Mihiel extrapolated that the prisoner was therefore born around 1643, and could therefore only be a younger brother to the King, born in 1638.{{sfn|Petitfils|2004|pp=224–225}} It is a historical fact that, four days after Louis XIII's death on 14 May 1643, the Queen was declared Regent and appointed Mazarin as her chief minister and head of government that evening.{{sfn|Dethan|1959|pp=50–51}} Mazarin was soon believed to be her lover, and even her secret [[Morganatic marriage|morganatic husband]].{{sfn|Treasure|1984|pp=216–217}} The theory of the prisoner being an imagined, younger son of the Queen and Mazarin was rekindled in 1868 by Charles-Henri, baron de Gleichen.{{sfn|Gleichen|1868||pp=46–50}}{{sfn|Mongrédien|1961|p=51}}

====King's father====
In 1955, Hugh Ross Williamson argued 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.{{sfn|Williamson|2002|p=245}}

The theory then suggests that Cardinal Richelieu had arranged for a substitute, probably an illegitimate grandson of [[Henry IV of France|Henry IV]],{{sfn|Williamson|2002|p=247}} to become intimate with the queen and father an heir in the king's stead. At the time, the [[heir presumptive]] was Louis XIII's brother [[Gaston, Duke of Orléans]], who was Richelieu's enemy. If Gaston became king, Richelieu would quite likely have lost both his job as minister and his life, and so it was in his best interests to thwart Gaston's ambitions.{{sfn|Williamson|2002|p=246}}

Supposedly, the substitute father then left for the [[New France|Americas]] but returned to France in the 1660s with the aim of extorting money for keeping his secret and was promptly imprisoned. This theory would explain the secrecy surrounding the prisoner, whose true identity would have destroyed the legitimacy of Louis XIV's claim to the throne had it been revealed.{{sfn|Williamson|2002|pp=247–248}}

This theory had been suggested by British politician [[Hugh Cecil, 1st Baron Quickswood]], who nonetheless added that the idea has no historical basis and is entirely hypothetical.{{sfn|Williamson|2002|p=245}} Williamson held that: "to say it is a guess with no solid historical basis is merely to say that it is like every other theory on the matter, although it makes more sense than any of the other theories. There is no known evidence that is incompatible with it, even the age of the prisoner, which Cecil had considered a weak point;{{sfn|Williamson|2002|pp=249–251}} and it explains every aspect of the mystery."{{sfn|Williamson|2002|p=245}}  His time spent as a valet to another prisoner renders this idea doubtful, however.{{efn|name=valet}}