The True History of the State Prisoner, commonly called the Iron Mask

After the decease of Matthioli, every thing was done to endeavour to destroy all trace even of his former existence. His clothes were burnt, as was all the furniture of his room; the silver plate, the copper, and the pewter, which had been used by him, were melted down; the walls of his chamber were first scraped, and then fresh white-washed; the floor was new paved; the old ceiling was taken away and renewed; the doors and windows were burnt; and every corner was searched in which it was thought any paper, linen, or other memorial of him might be concealed.152

Thus were continued, to the very last, the same extraordinary precautions against discovery, which marked the whole imprisonment of the mysterious prisoner: a circumstance, which of itself certainly affords a strong confirmation of the fact, that the Iron Mask of the Bastille, was one and the same person with the Count Matthioli, who had been so secretly introduced into Pignerol, and so mysteriously conveyed from place to place by St. Mars. But the actual proof of this is only to be found in the documents which form the groundwork of the preceding narrative; and which, undoubtedly, do present a most convincing and satisfactory chain of evidence upon the subject.

An important corroboration of this evidence is also derived from the well-attested fact, that Lewis the Fifteenth, who is allowed, on all hands, to have known the history of the Iron Mask, affirmed, more than once, that he was the minister of an Italian sovereign. He told the Duke de Choiseul,153 on one occasion, that he knew who the Iron Mask was; and, upon the Duke’s questioning him further, would only add, that all the conjectures hitherto made upon the subject were erroneous.154 The Duke then begged Madame de Pompadour155 to ask the King who it was; she did so, and his reply was, “The minister of an Italian prince!”156 The Duke de Choiseul, unsatisfied by this reply, which he considered to be only an evasion, took another opportunity of again applying to the King upon the subject, who again answered, “He believed that the prisoner was a minister of one of the courts of Italy!”157

Thus has the ill-fated Matthioli been identified with the Iron Mask, and traced through his long and dreary prison to his grave. It is probable that much of the illusion and interest, which accompanied the mysterious appellation of the Iron Mask, will be destroyed by the certainty of who he really was; as well as by the comparative insignificance of the personage who has successfully laid claim to the title. Still it is surely satisfactory that truth, after being so long overwhelmed by error, should be at length triumphant.

The lovers of romance, who still wish to know more of the magnificent conjectures of former days; or who desire to be made acquainted with the reasons that induced a belief, that the Iron Mask was either the Duke de Beaufort; or the Count de Vermandois; or the Duke of Monmouth; or an elder or a twin-brother of Lewis the Fourteenth; or a son of Oliver Cromwell; or Arwediks, the Armenian Patriarch; are referred to Voltaire, Dutens, St. Foix, La Grange Chancel, Gibbon, the Père Papon, the Père Griffet, the Chevalier de Taulés, and Mr. Quintin Craufurd. Of these accounts, perhaps Voltaire’s is the least curious, find Mr. Craufurd’s the most so; because the first did not seek for truth, but only wished to invent a moving tale; while the latter was most anxious to arrive at the truth, and had all the advantage in his researches of the former writers upon the same subject.

APPENDIX

No. 1

ESTRADES TO LEWIS THE FOURTEENTH

Commencement of the Negociation. – State of the Court of Mantua. – Influence of the Spaniards there.

Venice, Dec 18th, 1677.

Sire,

As the grief I felt at having displeased your Majesty was extreme, so my joy is not less to learn from M. de Pomponne, that your Majesty has had the goodness to pardon me my too great facility; and that you have been graciously pleased to listen to the reasons, which I took the liberty to offer to you, in justification of the innocence of my intentions; however, Sire, this misfortune will oblige me, in future, to act in all things with so great a circumspection, that your Majesty will, I hope, never have cause to be dissatisfied with my conduct.

I have thus far deferred informing your Majesty of a project, which my anxiety for your service has suggested to me, because the success of it appeared so difficult that I did not venture to propose it, till I saw some chance of being able to accomplish it; but, as the affair is at present in a favourable state, I can almost assure your Majesty, that the conclusion of it will depend upon yourself. I shall now give you an exact account of it, in order that I may receive the orders it shall please you to send me; which I will take care to execute punctually. About four months ago, having become more particularly acquainted with the divisions at the Court at Mantua than before was the case, and having heard that the Duke of Mantua was not so abandoned to his pleasures, but that he still had some ambition, and much chagrin at the state to which he was reduced by his mother, and his suspicions of the Spaniards; I hoped that it would not be impossible, to detach him entirely from them, to induce him to enter into the views of your Majesty, and to persuade him really to treat respecting Casale. I have thought that I could not employ any one in this affair more proper to conduct it, than a certain Count Matthioli, who is entirely devoted to that prince; I had already known him for some time, and he had testified a great desire of rendering himself agreeable to your Majesty by some service. I knew that he had been Secretary of State to the late Duke of Mantua, that the present one had preserved much affection for him, and that he was well-informed of the different interests of the Princes of Italy; but as he had been much in the Milanese, and had had a good deal of access to the Spanish ministers, I would not put any confidence in him, till I had first tried him. I therefore charged the individual, named Giuliani, to whom your Majesty had the goodness to make six months ago a gratification, and who has a zeal for your service which prevents my having any doubt of his fidelity, to observe Matthioli attentively and secretly; and after I had been sufficiently informed that he was much discontented with the Spaniards, who had always amused him with hopes, and afterwards abandoned him, I sent Giuliani, in the month of last October, to Verona, where he went under pretext of his private affairs; but in fact, to put Matthioli, who was there, upon the subject of the Duke of Mantua, according to the instruction I had given him, and to represent to him that those who had an attachment for their prince, could not but be much afflicted to see him, at his age, still under the guidance of his mother; without money, without authority, always in a state of suspicion against those who are habitually about him; and what is worse, in so insensible a state, that he only thought of passing his life with actresses and women of the town; which had made him lose the esteem of every body, and the consideration which his rank ought to have given him: that so strange a way of life, as well as the opinion that was prevalent that he would never have children by his wife, though she was as young as himself, induced the Spaniards to foment the divisions that existed in this Court, in order to profit by them, and to try and obtain possession of Casale and of all the Montferrat; that the said Giuliani had heard me say, that I was well-informed that the Empress Eleanor had already declared her pretensions to put herself in possession of that part of the territories of Mantua; that the king of Spain supported strongly those of a Spanish nobleman, who, in virtue of his marriage with the niece of the Duke of Guastalla, by whom he has children, maintains that he is the sole heir of that duke, to the prejudice of the Duke of Mantua, who has married his daughter, and who is besides his nearest relation; that, on the other hand, the absolute control over all the territories of this prince, and all the revenues, were in the hands of his mother and of the monk Bulgarini; that, of all those who serve him as ministers, some are gained by the Spaniards, others by the Empress Eleanor, and the rest by the Duke of Guastalla; that his mother has also a part of them on her side, but that these are the smallest number, and in short, that it is a sort of miracle that he has not been already deprived of his territories, but that he runs the risk of it every day, and that the misfortune may happen to him when he is the least prepared for it; that he has no choice of the means to be made use of to guarantee himself against it, but that it is the protection of your Majesty which is alone able to give him complete security. Matthioli replied to him, that all he had been saying to him was quite true, and that he had long, with grief, seen the truth of it; but that there was still a remedy for so great an evil; that he was sufficiently acquainted with the Duke of Mantua to know that he had more talent and ambition than he was thought to have; that, if I approved of it, he would discover his real sentiments, and that he would charge himself with whatever negociation I wished. That, meanwhile, he would go to —158, in order to be nearer to Mantua, where he could not go without making himself suspected by the different parties who governed there, and that there he would wait till I made known to him my intentions. Some days afterwards, he sent me word that he had found means to have a secret interview with the Duke of Mantua; and that he wished me, in order that we might act in concert, to send him Giuliani, whom I have always made use of in the different journeys that were to be made, because his employment of sending the news through the different parts of Italy, gave him occasion to go from one town to another, and prevented any suspicion of him, as there would have infallibly been, if I had sent any one of my household. I despatched him, therefore, with a new instruction, and not only had he an audience of the Duke of Mantua, to whom he spoke as I had desired him, but this prince even approved very much of the proposition that was made him, to deliver him from the continual inquietudes caused him by the Spaniards, and that, for this purpose, Casale should be put into your Majesty’s hands, with the understanding that I should try to obtain from you in his favour all that he could reasonably ask for. Finally, he declared that his resolution was taken upon this subject, but, that things might be better adjusted, he wished to communicate it to two of his counsellors, in whom he had the most confidence, and that he gave the selection of them to Matthioli, in order that he might be quite secure of them. Matthioli named the Marquis Cavriani and Joseph Varano, in whom he has confidence. Meanwhile the Duke of Mantua sent Giuliani to me, to acquaint me with what had passed, and recommended him to return as soon as possible, in order to receive the draft of the plan, which would then be prepared – and to convey it to me. I was much pleased, Sire, to see the affair in so good a train. I sent Giuliani back quickly, and ordered him to tell the Duke of Mantua that I entreated him to allow me to have a conference with him; that your Majesty had not as yet any knowledge of the proposed treaty, because I could not venture to go so far as that, without being certain first that he would not disavow me in what I should have the honour of writing to your Majesty, and also that he would have sufficient power to execute what had been arranged.

Giuliani returned here yesterday, bringing me as favourable answers as I could possibly desire. He told me that the two counsellors of the Duke of Mantua had, with every sort of precaution, commenced their negociation with Matthioli; that they had approved of the resolution of their master, and that they had put down in the schedule, with which they had charged him, and which I join to this letter, what the Duke requests your Majesty to grant to him; that afterwards the Duke of Mantua called him to him; that he ordered him to beg me to assure your Majesty of his respect and of his attachment to your interests, and to acquaint me that he had entirely put himself into the hands of the Count Matthioli; that he would soon go to Venice, where we might see one another conveniently and without being observed, on account of the Carnival, during which, all the world, even the Doge, and the oldest senators, go about in mask; that he wished me not to lose any time in acquainting your Majesty with this affair, because he feared some surprise from the Spaniards; but that if I wished him to keep his word with me, I must not, on any account, communicate the project to the Cardinal d’Estrées, because there was so strong a report in Italy, that he had your Majesty’s orders to negociate with the Princes there, of which the Spaniards had so great a jealousy, that, upon the least suspicion they should have of him (the Duke,) they would ruin him before he could receive assistance from your Majesty, who would, at the same time, lose all hope of getting possession of Casale; that he would take measures to tranquillize them, and to prevent their having any suspicions of his conduct; and that if the Cardinal d’Estrées made him any propositions, he would only receive them in full council, and give general answers, which would not render him suspected by any body. I thus find myself precluded from the confidence which I intended to make of this business to the Cardinal d’Estrées, who I believe will soon be here, and am obliged to keep the secret scrupulously, till I have received the orders of your Majesty. The Duke of Mantua also offers to raise a regiment, provided it be at your Majesty’s expense, and he represents, that by recruiting at Mantua and Casale he shall do much injury to the Spaniards, who are raising troops there daily; that Joseph Varano, who is one of the two before-mentioned counsellors, promises to get a good many soldiers from the Ferrarese, where he possesses interest, being Lord of Camerigo. He also implores your Majesty to make an effort to send a sufficiently strong army into Italy, to be able to undertake something considerable; and he assures me, that, in this case, he will not content himself with having delivered Casale into the hands of your Majesty, but will obtain for your Majesty other great advantages, through the means of his intimate connexions with the other states of Italy; that the Duchy of Milan was never so feeble, nor so devoid of all means of defence, as at present; but that, in order to obtain more particular intelligence upon this head, he has given orders to Matthioli to go to Milan, to observe every thing there with attention, and especially to discover the intention of the Genoese, with regard to the report which has now been for some time afloat in Italy, that your Majesty intends sending an army there next Spring, at the latest. As some accident might happen to the packets, I have not ventured to put into mine the letter that the Count Matthioli, who has certainly served your Majesty well upon this occasion, does himself the honour to write to you, but have had it turned into cypher, as well as the memoir of the demands of the Duke of Mantua; and I keep the originals, together with the plan of Casale, which I do not send to your Majesty for the same reason. I can assure your Majesty, that I have never told either Giuliani or Matthioli that you intend to march troops towards the Milanese; but the latter speaks of it in his letter, because he has taken for granted the report which was purposely spread abroad in order to lead the Duke of Mantua to the determination I wished him to take; knowing that he desired to be generalissimo above all things, or rather that it was the only thing he was very anxious for, in order to be considered in Italy like the late Duke of Modena, and like the late Duke of Mantua, who at his age commanded in chief the Emperor’s army, with the title of Vicar-general of the Empire. When this Prince is here, there will only be at the conference we are to hold together, himself, Matthioli, (whom he has promised to re-establish in his post of Secretary of State, and to appoint his first minister, as soon as he shall see himself restored to his authority, and that the treaty he intends making with your Majesty shall have been executed,) the Sieur Giuliani, the Sieur de Pinchesne, (who is secretary of the embassy, and of whom M. de Pomponne, who placed him with me, can answer to your Majesty for the fidelity and secrecy,) and myself. So the secrecy, so necessary in this affair, will certainly remain impenetrable.

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1

“L’homme au masque de fer.”

2

M. Roux (Fazillac) published several of the documents, since republished by M. Delort, but he does not appear to have seen the whole series; and therefore his reasoning upon the subject is inconclusive. M. Delort has, however, copied a great deal from him in his narrative – whole sentences sometimes, word for word, without any acknowledgment of the plagiarism.

3

Delort.

4

The Abbé d’Estrades, Ambassador for a considerable time from Lewis the Fourteenth, to the Republic of Venice, was son of Godfrey, Count d’Estrades, so long employed in negociations and embassies in Holland, and who was one of the eight Marshals of France made upon the death of Turenne. Madame Cornuel called them, “La Monnoie de M. de Turenne.”

5

Ferdinand Charles IV., Duke of Mantua, a weak and unfortunate Prince. Died July the 5th, 1708, as it is said of poison, administered by a lady he was in love with.

6

Casale did not come into the possession of the French till 1681. In 1695, it was taken by the Allies, and its fortifications demolished. It was, however, retaken by the French, and fortified again. The King of Sardinia, (Victor Amadeus,) made himself master of it in 1706. His successor, Charles Emmanuel, lost it again to the French in 1745, but regained it the following year.

7

The strong fort of Pignerol, acquired to the Crown of France by the negociations of Richelieu, continued in their possession for 68 years. In 1696, it was restored by treaty to Victor Amadeus II., Duke of Savoy; its fortifications having been previously dismantled.

8

Victor Amadeus I., Duke of Savoy, a prince of great bravery and considerable talent. He married Christina, daughter of Henry IV., King of France, by whom he had two sons, Francis Hyacinth and Charles Emmanuel II., successively Dukes of Savoy. Died October 7th, 1637. He was the first Duke of Savoy, who appropriated to himself the title of Royal Highness.

9

Isabella Clara, of Austria, daughter of the Archduke Leopold, who was grandson of the Emperor Ferdinand III. Married June 13th, 1649, to Charles III., Duke of Mantua.

10

Appendix, No. 1.

11

Appendix, No. 1.

12

The Empress Eleanor was daughter of Charles, Duke of Rhetelois, who died in the life-time of his father, Charles I. Duke of Mantua, in spite of which he is generally denominated by historians, Charles II., Duke of Mantua. She became, on the 30th of April, 1651, the third wife of Ferdinand III., Emperor of Germany, whom she survived many years, and died December 5th, 1686. She was the aunt of Ferdinand Charles IV., Duke of Mantua.

13

Thomas de la Cerda, Marquis of Laguna, in Spain, married April 22, 1672, to Maria Louisa, only daughter of Vespasian Gonzaga, only brother of Ferdinand III., the reigning Duke of Guastalla.

14

The Monk Bulgarini appears to have been the confessor and favourite of the Duchess-mother of Mantua; and to have been entirely devoted to the Spanish interests.

15

The profession of Giuliani was, that of an editor of newspapers, in which capacity he was in the habit of travelling from town to town, to collect and convey news. See Appendix, No. 98.

16

Alphonso IV., Duke of Modena, succeeded his father Francis I. in his territories, and in the command in chief of the French army in Italy, in 1658. Died in the 29th year of his age, July 16, 1662, having married, May 27, 1655, Laura Martinozzi, niece of Cardinal Mazarin.

17

Charles III., Duke of Mantua, father of Ferdinand Charles IV., the reigning Duke, had the command of the Imperial Army in Italy, and took upon himself the office of Vicar General of the Empire in Italy, during the interregnum which followed the death of the Emperor Ferdinand III. in 1657, in virtue of a diploma, lately granted to him by that Prince. His right was contested by the Duke of Savoy, who, upon the ground of old usage, claimed the office for himself. The Electors of the Empire annulled the appointment of the Duke of Mantua.

18

Appendix, No. 1.

19

Appendix, No. 1.

20

Appendix, No. 1.

21

Cæsar Bishop of Laon and Cardinal d’Estrées, son of the first Marshal of France of that name, was employed in various negociations with the Princes of Italy; but is now more remembered for his courtier-like reply to Lewis XIV. That Monarch one day at dinner complained of having lost all his teeth. “And who is there, Sire, that has any teeth?” said the Cardinal (Sire, et qui est-ce qui a des dents?) What made the flattery the more ludicrously gross was, that the Cardinal, though an old man, had remarkably fine teeth, and showed them very much whenever he opened his mouth.

22

Appendix, No. 2.

23

Appendix, No. 8.

24

1677.

25

Simon Arnaud de Pomponne, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 1671 to 1679, when he was dismissed from his office, but retained the title of Minister of State, with permission to attend the Council. A man, like so many of his race, who united considerable talents to great excellence of character. Madame de Sévigné says, in speaking of the eminent station he had filled, that “Fortune had wished to make use of his virtues for the happiness of others.”

26

Ferdinand III., Duke of Guastalla, descended from a younger branch of the House of Gonzaga; and the heir to the Duchy of Mantua, if he survived Ferdinand Charles; which however was not the case. He died of dropsy, January 11th, 1678.

27

Anne Isabella, eldest daughter of Ferdinand III., Duke of Guastalla, married August 13th, 1671, to Ferdinand Charles IV., Duke of Mantua, by whom she had no offspring.

28

This is evidently a mistake, and should be read niece instead of second daughter. It alludes to Maria Louisa, only daughter of Vespasian Gonzaga, only brother of Ferdinand III., Duke of Guastalla, married to a Spanish nobleman, Thomas de la Cerda, Marquis of Laguna. At this time neither of the daughters of Ferdinand had children, and she, consequently, after them, was the heiress of their claims upon the Duchies of Guastalla and Mantua. The second daughter of Ferdinand III., Maria Victoria, married June 30th, 1769, Vincent Gonzaga Count of St. Paul – the person who is here erroneously described as having been the means of marrying her to another person.

29

Vincent Gonzaga, Count of St. Paul, afterwards Duke of Guastalla, was descended from a younger son of Ferrant II., first Duke of Guastalla. After contesting for many years his right to that Duchy with Ferdinand Charles IV., Duke of Mantua; during which they were both merely made use of, by turns, as the instruments of the French and Austrian domination; he was finally successful in establishing himself at Guastalla in 1706, where he died April 28th, 1714. By his wife, Maria Victoria, second daughter of Ferdinand III., Duke of Guastalla, he left two sons, who successively succeeded him in the sovereignty of that Duchy.