LEGENDS OF THE PAST_A EUROPEAN HERITAGE

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Wednesday, June 23, 2010

The Tyrant in the Golden Mask


During the time of Louis XIVth, around 1662, Parisians were struggling with hunger and poverty, while the tyrant was wasting the wealth of the kingdom in unnecessary wars and he was kidnapping the young daughters of his subjects. Of all the girls he had kidnapped, he liked only one. This was Parilland’s daughter, his right hand. No one suspected that Louis was the one who was kidnapping the girls. Their parents were worried as they did not know what had happened to their daughters.
Seeing that his subjects could work no more, the tyrant released the girls but he kept Anne, Parilland 's daughter, for him. Years passed and no one knew anything about her, they all believed that she was dead. Louis had closed Anne in a cell in Estilon prison. No one was allowed to enter there, the king himself took food to the girl every day.
When the girl turned 21, Louis decided to bring her out from the prison and to introduce her to the entire kingdom as his future wife. In order not to be recognized by anyone, Louis put a golden mask on her face, covering it entirely.
Life in prison had turned Anne into a mean woman. Therefore, right from the moment when she was released from prison, Anne proved to be mischievous, causing sufferance to many of the people around her. She was vindictive and she would have been capable of killing everyone who did not please her. Also, the fact that she knew she could never remove her mask made her an evil human being. So, Louis had managed to transform the gentle girl into a tyrant, like him. All the subjects from the court feared her and her cruelty, calling her “The tyrant in the golden mask”.

Written by Birgitte Costinar, Raluca Danciu and Anita Sitar

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