Publisher's Synopsis
Various historians and writers have recounted how the mysterious life of "The Man in the Iron Mask" was. The main one was Voltaire, who, while in the Bastille as a prisoner, received accounts from older prisoners who spoke of the existence of the mysterious character. According to legend, the character died in 1703 and was buried in the Saint Paul Cemetery, in Paris, under the pseudonym Marchiali, but his real name and the reasons for which he had been locked up were considered a state secret. Some consider him to be the origin of a union between Ana and Cardinal Mazarin, or as an out-of-wedlock son of Charles II of England. Over time, such arguments contributed to the myth of its existence. Alexander Dumas narrates that the man in the iron mask was probably a brother of Louis XIV, of France, born twin, or from extramarital affairs of Anne of Austria with the Earl of Buckingham, which added popular imagination to the matter. Furthermore, this is the play in which the famous D'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis are seen together for the last time.
