For more than 300 years the legend of the man in the iron mask has held a place on the stage of human enquiry and debate. From the time of his incarceration during the reign of Louis XIV right through to modern day the awful fate of the man condemned to live a lifetime with his face encased in iron has inspired, depending on the era, anger, horror, pity and fascination. The author presents all the known facts of the prisoner's existence chronologically as they have been discovered, together with all the myths that have flourished, from the preposterous stories put about by his gaoler in 1669 to the famous legend immortalized in the 19th century by Alexander Dumas, and on into modern times with the supposed discovery of his skeleton in an old tower in Cannes in 1977. As the prospective candidates, including the twin brother of Louis XIV, the Duke of Monmouth, Richard Cromwell, Moliere, Nicholas Fouquet, an Armenian archbishop, an Italian astrologer and the mysterious Eustache Dauger, are brought before the reader's attention.