The Man in the Iron Mask

The Man in the Iron Mask

In 1698 a mysterious man was imprisoned in the Bastille. Almost no one seemed to know who he was, although residents of the French prison were usually important people who had fallen out of favor with King Louis XIV. This man had been a captive of the government since at least 1687, and for all that time his face had been hidden by a mask.
The philosopher and writer Voltaire was confined to the Bastille in 1717. He spent almost a year there, and later told a friend that he had spoken to people who had served the Man in the Iron Mask. In his book, The Age of Louis XIV, published in 1751, Voltaire said that the prisoner was forced to wear an iron mask as early as 1661, when he was held captive on the island of Sainte-Marguerite. The prisoner was young (in 1661), tall and very handsome. He dressed in the finest lace and linen, and enjoyed playing the guitar.
In his later writings, Voltaire dropped broad hints about the prisoner’s possible identity. According to Voltaire, the man was about 60 when he died, and bore a striking resemblance to someone very famous. Of course, the most famous face in France at that time belonged to King Louis XIV, who was also in his 60s.
In 1789, journalist Frederic-Melchior Grimm said a royal valet had revealed to him that Louis XIV had an identical twin. The twins’ father, Louis XIII, feared the brothers would grow up to fight over the throne, so he sent the second-born baby away to be raised in secret. The boy was taken into a nobleman’s household and treated with great respect, but he was never told who he really was. As a young man he saw a portrait of his brother and guessed the truth. He was immediately arrested, and spent the rest of his life as the Man in the Iron Mask.
Many people believed this (probably fictional) account, which was embroidered by other writers as the years passed. It has been said that when the Bastille was stormed by a revolutionary mob, the prince’s skeleton was discovered, still wearing its iron mask, but there is no record that this actually happened. Napoleon supposedly believed that he descended from the unfortunate prince, who, according to legend, had married the daughter of the governor of Sainte-Marguerite.

THE LEGEND OF MELUSINE

Mélusine is a woman usually represented as half-fish or half-serpent.

One day, Elianas, king of Albany (Scotland) went to a spring to quench his thirst. As he approached he heard the voice of a woman singing and as he approached he saw a mysterious girl who was named Pressine. She agreed to marry him on the condition that he should never visit her at the time of her giving birth or bathing her children. When she gave birth to three daughters, Mélusine, Meliot and Palatine, the king, without reflection, flew to the chamber of the queen, and entered as she was bathing her daughters. Pressina, on seeing him, cried out that he had broken his word. She cursed him and declared that her descendants, with the help of her sister, the Queen of the Lost Island, would avenge her. Then she disappeared, taking her daughters with her to the Lost Island.

The Island of the Lost was so called because it was only by chance any, even those who had repeatedly visited it, could find it. Here she reared her children, taking them every morning to a high mountain, whence Albany might be seen, and telling them that but for their father's breach of promise they might have lived happily in the distant land which they beheld. When the children were fifteen years of age, Mélusine took her revenge on him with her sisters. On telling their mother what they had done she flew into a rage because they had taken vengeance without her. Pressine laid curses upon them all, with the worst curse of all reserved for Mélusine. Mélusine was cursed to become a 'serpent from the waist down' every Saturday.

Mélusine left the Lost Island and went to the forest of Colombiers, in Poitou, where she met Raimond de Lusignan at a fountain. Of course, her beauty and her impeccable manners quickly won Raimond's heart. She married him on condition that he never try to find out what she did every Saturday. Promising him that if he breached his oath he would forever be deprived of she who he loved so much. From her great wealth she created for him the castle of Lusignan right next to the Fountain where they had first seen each other.

Ten boys were born of their union but all were afflicted with strange physical defects. But still Raymond's love for his beautiful wife remained unshaken. But, one day Raimond could no longer contain his curiosity. For he had noticed that each of Mélusine's absences coincided with the apparently magical building of a castle, a monastery or a church. So he followed his wife into the cave to which she withdrew every Saturday. There he saw Mélusine in her true form. For the lovely form of Melusina ended below the waist where it became serpentine with scales of grey and sky-blue mixed with white bathing in a green marble tub. But it was not horror that seized him at the sight, it was infinite anguish at the reflection that through his breach of faith he might lose his lovely wife forever. When she realised she had been found out Mélusine wept and stretched out her arms, which turned into wings; finally, she disappeared into the air, uttering these words: 'One thing will I say unto thee; that thou, and those who for more than a hundred years shall succeed thee, shall know that whenever I am seen to hover over the fair castle of Lusignan, then will it be certain that in that very year the castle will get a new lord; and though people may not perceive me in the air, yet they will see me by the Fountain; and thus shall it be so long as the castle stand in honor and flourishing - especially on the Friday before the lord of the castle shall die."

THE LEGEND OF SAINT DENIS

The name "Montmartre" comes from the old name of "Mont des Martyrs", Mountain of the Martyrs, because it was here where the first martyrs of Paris, the bishop St. Denis, the priest Rustique and the arch-deacon Eleuthère (or Rusticus and Eleutherius) were decapitated by the Romans around 250-258 A.D. The Romans had built temples to Mercury and Mars on this hill and they didn't take kindly to Christians moving in.
Legend has it that St. Denis went on to pick up his head, wash it off and carry it 8 kilometres (about 4 miles) to the north to what is now the town of St. Denis before he finally dropped. A shrine was built on the spot which was replaced by the beautiful Basilica of St. Denis. This basilica became the place of burial for the kings of France. Most of the French kings from Dagobert I (reign 629-639) to Louis XVIII (reign 1814-1824) are buried here.

IN THE FANTASTIC SHADE OF THE GIANTS

Gargantua arises from very old beliefs and came to us by a long popular oral tradition which began in the 12th century. Gargantua used to walk a lot and he could swallow anything. He left his tracks in Picardy, ripping the soft grounds of the Somme Bay, in Noyelle-sur-Mer.

Gargantua in the Somme Bay.

All the warm season during
Our giant who feared nothing
Carried a big basket on his back
Full of earth from the bottom of Nibas

His left foot near Eu city
Then his right one in the forest of Crecy
He said: "Oh God! It is so hot in here!
It won’t last till I feel thirsty. "

His throat was so dry
That he wanted to drink a big blow
He left our Somme Bay to die
Without him noticing all that he would swallow
Including a three-master and its crew passing by.

THE LEGEND OF THE GOLDEN MARY

This legend deals with a statue of a golden Mary at the top of a basilica in Albert, a town in the north of France, 30 minute drive from Amiens

The golden Virgin that stands at a height of 75 metres contributed to making the Albert basilica a place known all over the world.

In 1915, during the First World War, a shell hit the dome supporting the statue and made it lean in a precarious and impressive equilibrium. Reproduced on postcards, the picture of the devastated basilica and its "leaning virgin" was sent across the world by soldiers to their family. It thus showed the violence and the horror of war.

The "leaning virgin" became the symbol of the end of the war for the soldiers, because they believed that the fall of the statue would mean the end of the war.

This prediction nearly came true. The statue fell in April 1918, and the war was to end a few months later, in November 1918.