UNMASKING THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK: COLD CASE REVIEW

Unmasking the Man in the Iron Mask. A 350 year old mystery finally solved.In his latest book, Peter Curran presents new evidence and research that reveals the identity of this enigmatic character. The legend of the Man in the Iron Mask has been popularised over the centuries, from Voltaire's 18th century history of Louis XIV and Dumas's 19th century musketeer novels, to the plethora of popular films in the 20th century and in the 21st century, the BBC drama series "Versailles". The Iron Mask legend depicts the masked prisoner as the twin brother of Louis XIV. Whilst historians have long since debunked this fiction, nevertheless it is based on a true history. There really was a Man in an Iron Mask who was secretly imprisoned by Louis XIV in 1669 and closely guarded so that he could not speak to anybody about what he knew until his death in the Bastille prison thirty four years later in 1703. For centuries researchers and historians attempted in vain to identify the true face behind the Mask and reveal what he had done to warrant being imprisoned in such an unusual manner. Whilst researching a separate, but equally intriguing secret history, Peter Curran uncovered the solution to this enduring enigma. In 1663, just twelve years after a long and bloody English Civil War that resulted in the public beheading of Charles I, King of Great Britain and Ireland, his son the newly restored King Charles II, devised a secret plan for the religious conversion of his subjects to the Roman Catholic Faith. To achieve his aim, Charles II joined the French in a war against the Dutch. In return Louis XIV agreed to provide Charles II with huge subsidies so he could rule without Parliament. With all effective opposition removed, Charles II would then audaciously use his royal prerogative to impose religious conversion on his unsuspecting subjects. Even more astounding, as part of this secret agreement Louis XIV would send his army to England to put down an anticipated English uprising, doubtlessly resulting in yet another bloody Civil War, This time Parliament would succumb to the power of a ruthless and arrogant absolute monarchy. Whilst undertaking research into this little known secret history, Curran uncovered documents in the English, French and Vatican national archives that also shed new light on the Man in the Iron Mask. Curran's Cold Case examination of the contemporary evidence provides a gripping narrative of the life and events surrounding the Man in the Iron Mask and explores the seedy secret agreements between closely related European monarchs in the Early Modern Period, as well as providing a revelatory insight into the underbelly of spying and espionage in France and England during the seventeenth century.