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Contents vii

10 Program Deployment (Capabilities Integration and Benefits

Appraisal) 235
10.1 Capabilities Integration 235
10.2 Benefits Appraisal 241
10.3 Transition to Next Cycle 247

11 Program Closure 253

11.1 Value Realization Assessment 254
11.2 Manage Program Completion 255
11.3 Lessons Learned Finalization 259
11.4 Closing the Loop and Preparing the Next Challenge 261

Conclusion263

References265
Index275
This page has been left blank intentionally
List of Figures

1.1 The program and its elements 18

1.2 The ambiguity-uncertainty context 21
1.3 Current program management context 23
2.1 Vertical and horizontal integration of strategies 35
2.2 Realizing business value 37
2.3 Traditional compartmentalized project organization 39
2.4 Value chain project organization 39
2.5 Agility in project organizations 44
3.1 Deliberate vs ad hoc programs 51
3.2 The program value chain 68
3.3 Maturity development process 76
4.1 The decision management cycle 84
4.2 The decision implementation process 87
4.3 Traditional control-based program governance structure 91
4.4 Integrated program governance structure 92
4.5 Integrated program governance structure 93
4.6 Tiered business case and governance process 95
4.7 Stakeholder engagement loop 97
4.8 Example of stakeholder map including contribution and
expectations 97
4.9 Main program stakeholders 98
4.10 Area of change covered by program management 107
4.11 Benefits map/benefits breakdown structure concept 113
5.1 Leadership skills vs role 126
6.1 The program life cycle 142
6.2 Taxonomy of program life cycle 144
7.1 Programme definition flowchart 146
7.2 Stakeholder mapping techniques 151
7.3 The value concept 152
7.4 Example of benefits breakdown structure (BBS) 157
7.5 Example of paired comparison 160
7.6a Example strategic roadmap 164
7.6b Example strategic roadmap 165
x Program Management

7.7 Evolution of value through life cycle 166

7.8 Assess alignment (contribution to CSFs) 170
7.9 Assess achievability (outline level) 170
7.10 Combined alignment/achievability assessment 172
7.11 Two options for use of alignment/achievability matrix 173
8.1 RACI matrix based on accountability for CSFs 181
8.2 Example of alignment scoring with weighted matrix 185
8.3 Example of project achievability assessment 186
8.4 Example of partial blueprint based on BBS 190
8.5 Pacing the change 193
8.6 Pacing for ultimate achievement of benefits 194
8.7 Program strategic roadmap 196
8.8 Program detailed cycle roadmap 197
8.9 Example of program level qualitative risk analysis 199
8.10 Program change decision loops 201
9.1 Program deployment stage flowchart 210
9.2 Resource loading plan 218
9.3 Risk responses and risk packages 221
9.4 Graphical representation of buffer penetration 223
10.1 Deployment Level Benefits Register 245
10.2 Typical responses to deviation 249
11.1 Program closure flowchart 253
List of Tables

1.1 Classification of programs and projects: Legend 23

2.1 Detailed comparison between projects, programs and portfolios 32
3.1 Comparison of project and program knowledge areas 59
3.2 Distinction between program and project 71
5.1 Main program stakeholders and their roles 118
5.2 Specific responsibilities of main program actors 120
6.1 Comparison between standardized life cycles 136
This page has been left blank intentionally
Preface

I was brought up in Canada where I started my professional life as an architect;

as such, I worked within a project environment from the beginning. Architects
traditionally represent their clients and are expected to act “in lieu” of the client
in their relationship with the authorities (planning department, construction
permit department, etc.) other professionals (engineers, urban planners,
landscape architects, interior designers, etc.) and contractors (suppliers,
building trades). So, as an architect, I have traditionally aimed to understand
the needs and expectations of my clients and translate them as best as I could to
achieve their dream home, corporate head office, marketable housing or office
development, historical building restoration or landmark city-regeneration.
Very early in my career, I realized that there was little integration between
the different players in the field and that mostly, the client’s needs were not
well understood, either because they were not able or willing to clarify them or
because those that were supposed to fulfil them did not make the effort to work
them out. After having worked in most areas of my profession, from urban
planning to architectural programming, design, specifications writing and site
supervising, I decided that it was time to integrate all this knowledge. So I
opened my own practice and started developing turnkey projects for my clients.
This meant that I needed to understand the clients’ needs and expectations
very well and be able to express them, not only in a drawing, but into and actual
building. It also meant that I needed to work in harmony with all the actors of
the project.
After a few years, I joined a larger firm that shared this philosophy and
became their Director of Development. That is when I started calling myself a
Project Manager. It was during that time that we developed some techniques
and methodologies that enabled us to be recognized for our expertise in fast-
track construction. Many of these techniques were concurrently developed in
IT/IS and are today known as “agile management”. As our expertise became
recognized, we got to work on large multi-phased construction projects and, by
still focusing on clients’ needs and expectations, started to develop a reputation
for pragmatic and effective long-term planning and development. Today, this
type of expertise would be called Program Management.
xiv Program Management

Since then, I have moved to the UK where I have worked as a trainer

and consultant in program management and related disciplines for the last
20 years of which 15 as the founder and managing partner of Valense Ltd.
an international network of consultants and trainers. As such, I have been
traveling extensively and worked with organizations in Asia Pacific, the Gulf
Region, North Africa, Turkey, Europe as well as North and South America.
I have endeavoured to bring this worldwide expertise of program
management at senior level into this book and hope it will appeal to a wide-
ranging audience.
Acknowledgements

This second edition of Program Management would not have been achievable
without the people who have trusted me to apply my expertise to their programs.
In the last 20 years, many of them have helped shape the methodology that
forms the backbone of this book. Let me acknowledge among these, Malcolm
Davis and Peter Czarnomski from Pfizer UK; Eric Miart from Eurocontrol,
Brussels; Rod Gozzard from NAB, Melbourne; Anna Massot from Bayer,
Germany; Sulaiman Mohammad Al Marzougi from Kuwait National Petroleum
and Bader Salman Alsalman and Saud Hamed Alsharari from ELM, Riyadh.
Following the publication of the first edition, I was privileged to be asked
by the Project Management Institute to be a contributor to the Third Edition
(2013) of their Standard for Program Management as well as being sought by the
Project Management Association of Japan to review the English version of the
Third Edition (2015) of P2M: A Guidebook of Program & Project Management
for Enterprise Innovation. This has enabled me to gain a broader perspective of
the discipline and of its evolution.
More specifically, I want to thank Alberto Brito from Brazil, Anne Boundford
from the UK, Mustafa Dülgerler from Abu Dhabi, Rick Heaslip from the US,
Bader Salman Alsalman from Saudi, Chris Stevens from Australia, who are all
extremely busy but took the time to read the final draft of this second edition
to provide their endorsement.
Finally, I would particularly like to recognise the contribution of Motoh
Shimitzu and Eric Norman. Motoh shared his thoughts in multiple face-to-
face and virtual discussions about the difference of program management
approaches in Japan and the Western world and enabled me to use some of
his ideas and concepts in this book. Eric and I have had numerous challenging
conversations on the purpose, philosophy and approach of program
management; he took the time to review the whole final draft and almost all
his comments made it into the final print.
This page has been left blank intentionally
 Reviews for
Program Management

Thiry’s revised landmark work embraces many important changes. He takes a broad and
in-depth view of multiple professional standards, explaining pragmatically the essence
of key focus areas, for executives, managers, and students alike, on how to lead, step-
by-step, successful program outcomes. This is essential reading for those moving from
narrow technical to broader leadership skills, critical to value-driven organisations under
pressure to deliver better strategies through program management.
Chris Stevens, Principal, Project Standards and Practice, NBN Co, Australia;
member of PMI’s Standards Members Advisory Group

Already a cornerstone in the library of important industry publications, the first edition of
Program Management by Dr Michel Thiry broke new ground in 2010 by providing a clearly
understandable and practical context for sifting through an assortment of conflicting
and sometimes competing views about the application of program management in
organizations. In many ways, the first edition was a catalyst for many of the advances
in program management practice we recognize and enjoy today. This second edition
reflects the deep understanding Dr Thiry has gained since the first publication through
careful observation, critical thinking, and the art and science of hard-won experience.
This latest update by one of the industry’s foremost thought leaders reveals an awareness
of the critically important role program management now plays in organizations large
and small for the delivery of key strategic benefits and real, measurable value in an
increasingly complex, fast-paced, unpredictable and continually evolving (shall we say
… “agile”) business environment. The second edition is destined to take its place as a
frequently referenced, often quoted, dog-eared and battle-worn guide for the serious
program manager. On my bookshelf, it stands next to its heavily marked-up and Post-
It-littered brother, the first edition. If the second edition of Program Management by Dr
Michel Thiry isn’t part of your library, it should be.
Eric S. Norman, practising program manager; Chair of PMI’s ‘The Standard for
Program Management Third Edition’ Core Committee

Programs are characterized by complexities, ambiguities and consequently significant

uncertainties. Each program management standard of North America, Europe and Japan
has a different approach to overcome such difficulties based on each business cultural
background. The author has made a thorough analysis of these diverse standards and
presents common and essential perspectives thanks to his long experience and deep
insights on the subject. The book gives a big picture of program management rather
than details of processes to provide a guiding principle for both researchers and expert
practitioners.
Motoh Shimizu, member, The Engineering Academy of Japan;
Nippon Institute of Technology, Japan

Michel’s book has created an important resource for researchers and practitioners in
the program management domain. It brings up a clear and rational alignment between
program components within an organizational context, which will help in executing
the strategies and realizing real value. Anyone involved in program management will
treasure this book!
Bader Alsalman, PMO Manager, ELM company, Saudi Arabia

Program Management provides new insights about the program manager’s critical role
in managing organizational decision making and change. Michel Thiry’s perspectives on
integrating the principles and practices of established program management standards
and guides provide a valuable contribution to the fields of both program and project
management. I found it to be full of valuable perspectives and contributions to the field,
and have very much enjoyed reading it.
Richard Heaslip, author of Managing Complex Projects and Programs;
Adviser to executives sponsoring complex programs

As a practitioner of programme management I live and breathe this world every day and
Michel does a great job at structuring and bringing programme management to life in
a constructive way. The book is very useful for me because it spans and links multiple
standards. I work with people who come from a PRINCE2 background and it can relate to
what they do. When in doubt or simply in need of inspiration this book provides you with
ideas on how to move forward. Overall, a great book.
Anne Boundford, PMP Programme Manager at Rolls Royce

We all know the decision making process; but most of us are not familiar with decision
management within the context of program management. This is one of the numerous
gaps in the practical application of program management that Michel has addressed in
his book, making it a must-read for program and project managers undertaking complex
initiatives.
Mustafa Dülgerler, Senior Enterprise Architect at National Bank of Abu Dhabi
This is a must read book! For strategy management scholars interested in the theme of
strategy execution, as it brings state-of-the-art discussion on the importance and use
of program management as a vehicle for implementing strategic changes; for senior
executives, as it provides the guidelines to establish the organization and governance
structure to achieve strategic goals; for program managers and program team members,
as it provides a roadmap to manage programs, through a concise program life cycle and
a set of management tools for each stage of the proposed life cycle. Finally, it is not a
book based on current standards, but a book that the review of program management
standards will be based on.
Alberto S. Brito, Founder and Managing Partner at CDA Tecnologia

Reviews of previous edition

Well organized with the ending of one chapter leading into the next. Very informative on
the subject matter, supported by references and tables …
Prize: ‘Award of Merit’ 2010, Canadian Project Management Book Awards,
run by the Project Management Association of Canada

I believe Program Management addresses a significant gap in program management

literature. Thiry ties many years of research and findings from Value Management
to Project Based Organization and relates it to Program Management. He explores
utilization of Program management in a multi-faceted approach, from organizational
aspects to benefit management, from program lifecycle to deployment of a strategy as a
program, from measurement to dissolution of the program.
Program Management provides an excellent bridge between PM theory and practical
ways to reach organizational goals using program management. This is truly brilliant!
Deniz A. Johnson, PMP, Vice President, Program Management,
Acadian Asset Management LLC, Boston

If you are interested in improving your delivery capability and effectiveness then Program
Management should be on your must read list. In my 15 years of project and program
management experience I have yet to find a book which has addressed the subject from
such a global perspective.
Chris Richards, PMP, Assistant Director Business Operations,
US-Based Technology Services Company
Program Management describes the practical considerations often overlooked when
translating ideas into real, value generating programs. The model marrying Programs to
Strategic Decision Management (Chapter 3) is alone worth the book.
Ron Sklaver, Enterprise Program Manager, Tate & Lyle, US-UK

Thiry provides an excellent example of his Benefit Breakdown Structure (BBS), showing
benefits at Level 1, followed by critical success factors, specific actions, and deliverables.
It is further detailed…with actions describing the current state and the proposed future
state, plus capabilities and dates required to achieve them. He presents an achievability
matrix for projects within the program and a discussion of risk packages. A program
manager could take the BBS plus these concepts and relate it to the program work
breakdown structure and have a powerful technique to apply.
Project Management Journal

I would recommend that program managers who want a simple and useful guide to get
hold of a copy of the book and keep it handy. Organizations should place a copy of the
book in their library along with books on strategy and strategy implementation. For
academics teaching a course in program management it would be a good as a textbook
or as a reference book from which relevant readings can be suggested to students.
Associate Professor Shankar Sankaran University of Technology,
Sydney for PPPM eJournal

I would recommend this book and have in fact used it at work to help clarify governance
issues and solutions with colleagues. Definitely a book to add to your library.
ProjectManager.com, Australia

This is an informative book full of useful illustrations providing visual interpretations

of the text … The book is well structured into three parts: the programme content, the
programme components and the programme lifecycle, with a very useful conclusions
section at the end. This structure made it easy to go forward and backwards without
losing the thread. Although aimed at larger organisations, this book will prove valuable
for any project of programme manager.
Quality World Magazine, September 2012

I consult and teach in this area and welcome this book as a very useful contribution on
the topic … It is certainly the best book I have read on the specific subject of Program
Management, and represents considerable research, reflections on experience and new
thinking on a current prominent subject.
Harold Ainsworth on Amazon.com
Introduction

Purpose of this Book

According to a number of recent surveys, executing strategies to realize value is

one of the failures of today’s management and optimizing the use of resources
to achieve this is even more of an issue. Programs, by definition, constitute
the missing link between the executive level strategy and the projects and
operations that will enable it to deliver value. Program management concerns
the harmonized management of a number of projects and other actions that
will generate competitive advantage. The purpose of this book is to make
executives, managers, students or academics understand the issues that arise
from the practice of Program Management and be able to, not only perform it,
but also implement it sustainably in their organizations.
Strategic managers often lack the time, specific expertise, technical skills
and/or means to make their strategies concrete to deliver the expected benefits.
Project managers lack the proficiency and/or capability to understand or
question strategic language and are often not aware of expected benefits.
Operational managers understand the benefits they need, but often find it
difficult to express them in strategic terms or understand the implications of
their implementation.
After more than 40 years of working for organizations of all sizes and
more than 20 years of worldwide management consultancy practice in a wide
range of industries, I have come to realize that many organizations still don’t
understand how to integrate their business practices. This is especially true
of the end-to-end process necessary to implement strategic decisions, realize
benefits and, ultimately, create value; especially in a turbulent environment
that requires constant realignment and agility. The program management
methodology described in this book will provide executives with the means to
achieve their objectives and increase their organization’s competitive edge, it
will provide sponsors with a clear method for defining outcomes and benefits
and mastering their delivery and finally users will have the assurance that their
needs will be fulfilled, as much as is possible within the stated parameters.
This book is meant to represent a wide view of program management
practice and not be tied to any particular standard. Although I favour techniques
2 Program Management

that I am familiar with, some of which I developed over years of practice, I will
aim to refer to a range of applicable techniques and methods at each stage of
the process.

Changes in the New Edition

In recent years, I have had multiple opportunities to implement program

management methodologies and coach program teams in large corporate
organizations worldwide and have from these experiences compiled data about
maturity and the implementation of program management in organizations.
In parallel, the Project Management Institute, the Office of Government
Commerce in the UK, and the Project Management Association of Japan have
published new standards. These facts have led me, in true program management
fashion, to make important changes in this new edition.
In Part I the main changes concern the discussion on the latest versions
of program management guides and standards, which are today much more
integrated. As the situation has evolved I have reviewed my vision of program
classification and added a new section on agile management in programs. I
have also added a measure of maturity based on a tool that I have developed in
recent years.
In Part II I have relabelled program components into program functions to
avoid confusion with the PMI term for component projects I have added a new
section on change management as this is more and more becoming an integral
part of the management of programs. My recent experience has also enabled
me to clarify further the roles and responsibilities of the different program
actors and, in particular, that of the business integrator.
The integration of program management in the organizations I have worked
with in the last five years have inspired me to write Part III of the book in a much
more hands-on fashion so that practitioners and sponsors alike will be able to
follow clear steps in the management of their programs. It has also allowed
me to consolidate my confidence that the methods I have been promoting for
the last 10–15 years are effective. Finally, the better harmonization of practice
and of program management guides and standards has led me to review the
program life cycle that I had proposed in the first edition to align better with
a more unified view of program management that has emerged in the last few
years.
Executive Summary

I have provided this executive summary for readers who are not practitioners
or students and who will want to focus their available time on the sections that
matter most to them. Each section outlines one part or chapter of the book and
highlights sections that are of particular interest for specific group of readers.

Part I: The Program Context

Part I aims to set the scene for program management and how it fits within the
greater organizational and business context. Chapter 1 explains the emergence
of program management and compares views from different professional
bodies. Chapter 2 compares and sets programs within the greater organizational
context, in particular other similar strategy delivery methods. Finally, Chapter
3 outlines what constitutes program maturity for an organization and how to
set up a program culture.

Chapter 1: Background and Definitions

Program Management has emerged as a distinct discipline in the late twentieth

century. As project management was applied to more and more complex
projects, it has progressively been aimed at the management of strategic
objectives or the management of multiple interrelated endeavours to produce
strategic benefits. It is now generally agreed that programs are a significant
undertaking consisting of multiple actions spanning multiple business areas
and that they are generally complex. Program management deals in both
high ambiguity and uncertainty and requires a high degree of organizational
maturity. There are currently three main program management guides, or
standards, published by distinct professional bodies in America, Europe and
Asia. Whereas past editions were more discordant, the last editions of the
standards are more harmonized than ever before. Today, Program Management
is universally perceived as a strategy execution method and a means to deliver
sustainable change.
4 Program Management

This chapter will interest both managers and practitioners since it defines
what a program is in relation to other similar methods and explains why
program management is ideally suited to realize strategic decisions.

Chapter 2: Organizational Context

There are boundaries, overlaps and differences between programs, projects,

portfolio, operations and strategy. In order to be competitive, a project
organization – one that conducts the majority of its activities as projects
and/or privileges project over functional approaches – will use programs to
link a number of business processes and create synergy between its different
components. Traditional organizational structures are well adapted to stable
well-defined environments; they are hierarchical and the portfolio is typically
divided into sub-portfolios, programs and projects. Recently promoted
organizational models are more adapted to today’s turbulent and fast-moving
environment. These organizational models are similar to a supply or value
chain and the program methodology is at the centre of the strategic decision
management process. In this type of organization, Program Management
could be labelled as:

The governance and harmonized management of a number of

projects and other actions to achieve targeted benefits and create
value for the program sponsors in the short-term, change recipients
in the medium-term and the organization in the long-term.

This chapter will particularly interest executives, strategists and program

sponsors as program management is used more and more to manage
organizational change. In particular they will be interested in the new section
on Program and Agile Management. As such, the program becomes a vehicle
for interaction between stakeholders to generate creative ideas and innovative
products that increase the organization’s competitiveness.

Chapter 3: Maturity and Culture

Traditionally most organizations undertake projects as part of their work.

Mostly these projects are treated as separate entities, independent from one
another. They are often generated within a business unit and managed with
 Another Random Document on
Scribd Without Any Related Topics
will perhaps be regarded as an exaggeration. The governor drew three livres
a day for the maintenance of a man of inferior rank; five livres for the
maintenance of a tradesman; ten livres for a banker, a magistrate, or a man
of letters; fifteen livres for a judge of the Parlement; thirty-six livres for a
marshal of France. The Cardinal de Rohan had 120 francs a day spent on
him. The Prince de Courlande, during a stay of five months at the Bastille,
spent 22,000 francs. These figures must be doubled and trebled to give the
value they would represent to-day.
We read, too, with the greatest astonishment the description of the meals
the prisoners made. Renneville, whose evidence is the more important in
that his book is a pamphlet against the administration of the Bastille, speaks
in these terms of his first meal: “The turnkey put one of my serviettes on the
table and placed my dinner on it, which consisted of pea soup garnished
with lettuce, well simmered and appetizing to look at, with a quarter of fowl
to follow; in one dish there was a juicy beef-steak, with plenty of gravy and
a sprinkling of parsley, in another a quarter of forcemeat pie well stuffed
with sweetbreads, cock’s combs, asparagus, mushrooms, and truffles; and in
a third a ragoût of sheep’s tongue, the whole excellently cooked; for dessert,
a biscuit and two pippins. The turnkey insisted on pouring out my wine.
This was good burgundy, and the bread was excellent. I asked him to drink,
but he declared it was not permitted. I asked if I should pay for my food, or
whether I was indebted to the king for it. He told me that I had only to ask
freely for whatever would give me pleasure, that they would try to satisfy
me, and that His Majesty paid for it all.” The “most Christian” king desired
that his guests should fast on Fridays and in Lent, but he did not treat them
any the worse on that account. “I had,” says Renneville, “six dishes, and an
admirable prawn soup. Among the fish there was a very fine weever, a large
fried sole, and a perch, all very well seasoned, with three other dishes.” At
this period Renneville’s board cost ten francs a day; later he was reduced to
the rate of the prisoners of a lower class. “They much reduced my usual
fare,” he says; “I had, however, a good soup with fried bread crumbs, a
passable piece of beef, a ragoût of sheep’s tongue, and two custards for
dessert. I was treated in pretty much the same manner the whole time I was
in this gloomy place; sometimes they gave me, after my soup, a wing or leg
of fowl, sometimes they put two little patties on the edge of the dish.”
Towards the end of Louis XV.’s reign, Dumouriez eulogizes the cookery
of the Bastille in almost the same terms. On the day of his entrance,
noticing that they were serving a fish dinner, he asked for a fowl to be got
from a neighbouring eating-house. “A fowl!” said the major, “don’t you
know that to-day is Friday?” “Your business is to look after me and not my
conscience. I am an invalid, for the Bastille itself is a disease,” replied the
prisoner. In an hour’s time the fowl was on the table. Subsequently he asked
for his dinner and supper to be served at the same time, between three and
four o’clock. His valet, a good cook, used to make him stews. “You fared
very well at the Bastille; there were always five dishes at dinner and three at
supper, without the dessert, and the whole being put on the table at once,
appeared magnificent.” There is a letter from the major of the Bastille
addressed in 1764 to the lieutenant of police, discussing a prisoner named
Vieilh, who never ate butcher’s meat; so they had to feed him exclusively
on game and poultry. Things were much the same under Louis XVI., as
Poultier d’Elmotte testifies: “De Launey, the governor, used to come and
have a friendly chat with me; he got them to consult my taste as regards
food, and to supply me with anything I wished for.” The bookseller Hardy,
transferred in 1766 to the Bastille with the members of the Breton
deputation, declares frankly that they were all treated in the best possible
way. Finally, Linguet himself, in spite of his desire to paint the lot of the
victims of the Bastille in the most sombre colours, is obliged to confess that
food was supplied in abundance. Every morning the cook sent up to him a
menu on which he marked the dishes he fancied.
The account books of the Bastille confirm the testimony of former
prisoners. The following, according to these documents, are the meals that
La Bourdonnais enjoyed during July, 1750. Every day the menu contains
soup, beef, veal, beans, French beans, two eggs, bread, strawberries,
cherries, gooseberries, oranges, two bottles of red wine, and two bottles of
beer. In addition to this regular bill of fare we note on July 2, a fowl and a
bottle of Muscat; on the 4th, a bottle of Muscat; on the 7th, tea; on the 12th,
a bottle of brandy; on the 13th, some flowers; on the 14th, some quails; on
the 15th, a turkey; on the 16th, a melon; on the 17th, a fowl; on the 18th, a
young rabbit; on the 19th, a bottle of brandy; on the 20th, a chicken and
ham sausage and two melons; and so on.
Tavernier was a prisoner of mean station, son of a doorkeeper of Paris de
Montmartel. He was implicated in a plot against the King’s life, and was
one of the seven prisoners set free on the 14th of July. He was found out of
his mind in his cell. After he had been led in triumph through the streets of
Paris, he was shut up at Charenton. He was a martyr, people exclaimed. He
was certainly not so well off in his new abode as he had been at the Bastille.
We have an account of what was supplied to him at the Bastille in addition
to the ordinary meals, in November, 1788, in March and May, 1789, three
of the last months of his imprisonment. In November we find: tobacco, four
bottles of brandy, sixty bottles of wine, thirty bottles of beer, two pounds of
coffee, three pounds of sugar, a turkey, oysters, chestnuts, apples, and pears;
in March: tobacco, four bottles of brandy, forty-four bottles of wine, sixty
bottles of beer, coffee, sugar, fowls, cheese; in May: tobacco, four bottles of
brandy, sixty-two bottles of wine, thirty-one bottles of beer, pigeons, coffee,
sugar, cheese, &c. We have the menus of the Marquis de Sade for January,
1789: chocolate cream, a fat chicken stuffed with chestnuts, pullets with
truffles, potted ham, apricot marmalade, &c.
The facts we are describing were the rule. The prisoners who were
treated with the least consideration fed very well. Only those who were sent
down to the cells were sometimes put on bread and water, but that was only
a temporary punishment.
When a complaint was formulated by any prisoner in regard to his food,
a reprimand to the governor soon followed. Then the lieutenant of police
inquired of the person concerned if he was better treated than formerly. “His
Majesty tells me,” writes Pontchartrain to De Launey, “that complaints have
been raised about the bad food of the prisoners; he instructs me to write to
you to give the matter great attention.” And Sartine wrote jokingly to Major
de Losmes: “I am quite willing for you to get the clothes of Sieur Dubois
enlarged, and I hope all your prisoners may enjoy as excellent health.”
Further, the king clothed those of the prisoners who were too poor to buy
their own clothes. He did not give them a prison uniform, but dressing-
gowns padded or lined with rabbit skin, breeches of coloured stuff, vests
lined with silk plush and fancy coats.[36] The commissary at the Bastille
appointed to look after the supplies took the prisoners’ measure, and
inquired about their tastes, and the colours and styles that suited them best.
A lady prisoner named Sauvé asked to have made for her a dress of white
silk, dotted with green flowers. The wife of commissary Rochebrune spent
several days in going the round of the Paris shops, and then wrote in despair
that no dressmaker had such a material, the nearest approach to it being a
white silk with green stripes: if Madame Sauvé would be satisfied with that,
they would send to take her measure. “Monsieur le major,” writes a prisoner
named Hugonnet, “the shirts they brought me yesterday are not a bit what I
asked for, for I remember having written ‘fine, and with embroidered
ruffles’; instead of which these things are coarse, made of wretched linen,
and with ruffles at best only fit for a turnkey; and so I shall be glad if you
will send them back to the commissary; and let him keep them, for I declare
I won’t have them.”
The governor also saw that the prisoners had some means of diversion.
The poorest he provided with pocket-money and tobacco.
About the beginning of the seventeenth century, a Neapolitan named
Vinache died at the Bastille, after founding a library there for the use of his
fellow-prisoners. This library was gradually augmented by donations from
the governors, by gifts from various prisoners, and even by the generosity
of a citizen of Paris whose compassion had been excited for the lot of the
prisoners. The books consisted of romances, works of science and
philosophy, and religious books, light literature predominating. The
lieutenant of police, Berryer, struck out of the list of books that were being
sent one day to the binder a “poem on the greatness of God,” as being on
“too melancholy a subject for prisoners.” The prisoners also procured books
from outside. We have mentioned the Comte de Belle-Isle, who had more
than three hundred books and atlases at the Bastille. La Beaumelle collected
a library of more than 600 volumes. The administration, moreover, never
refused to get for the prisoners, out of the royal funds and sometimes at
considerable expense, such works as they said were necessary to their
studies. The works of Voltaire and Puffendorf were readily placed in their
hands. Finally, under Louis XVI., they were allowed to read the gazettes.
After the permission to have books and to write, the most coveted favour
was that of walking exercise. Refusal of this was rare. The prisoners might
walk, either on the towers of the Bastille, or in the inner courts, or lastly
along the bastion, which was transformed into a garden. To fresh
invigorating air the platform of the towers added the attraction of the finest
view. Fontaine relates that Sacy went to the top of the towers every day
after dinner. He there walked about in company with the officers, who gave
him news of the town and the prisoners.
In their rooms the prisoners amused themselves with feeding cats and
birds and animals of all kinds: they taught dogs tricks. Some were allowed
to have a violin or a clavecin. Pellisson was shut up with a Basque who
used to play to him on the musette. The Duke de Richelieu boasts of the
operatic airs he sang in parts with his neighbours in the Bastille, Mdlle. de
Launay among them, with her head at the bars of her window; “we got up
choruses of a sort, with fine effect.”
Other prisoners killed time with embroidery, weaving or knitting; some
made ornaments for the chapel of the château. Some devoted themselves to
carpentry, turned wood, made small articles of furniture. Artists painted and
sketched. “The occupation of M. de Villeroi was somewhat singular: he had
very fine clothes, which he was for ever unpicking and sewing together
again with much cleverness.” The prisoners who lived several in one room
played at cards, chess, and backgammon. In 1788, at the time of the
troubles in Brittany, a dozen noblemen of that country were shut up in the
Bastille. They lived together, and asked for a billiard table to amuse
themselves; the table was set up in the apartments of the major, and there
these gentlemen went for their games.
The prisoners who died in the Bastille were interred in the graveyard of
St. Paul’s; the funeral service was held in the church of St. Paul, and the
burial certificate, bearing the family name of the deceased, was drawn up in
the vestry. It is not true that the names of the deceased were wrongly stated
in the register in order that their identity might be concealed from the
public. The Man in the Iron Mask was inscribed on the register of St. Paul’s
under his real name. Jews, Protestants, and suicides were buried in the
garden of the château, the prejudices of the period not allowing their
remains to be laid in consecrated ground.
Those who were liberated had a happier fate. Their dismissal was
ordered by a lettre de cachet, as their incarceration had been. These orders
for their liberation, so anxiously expected, were brought by the court
“distributors of packets” or by the ordinary post; sometimes relatives and
friends themselves brought the sealed envelope, in order to have the joy of
taking away at once those whose deliverance they came to effect.
The governor, or, in his absence, the king’s lieutenant, came into the
prisoner’s chamber and announced that he was free. The papers and other
effects which had been taken from him on entrance were restored to him,
the major getting a receipt for them; then he signed a promise to reveal
nothing of what he had seen at the château. Many of the prisoners refused to
submit to this formality, and were liberated notwithstanding; others, after
having signed, retailed everywhere all they knew about the prison, and were
not interfered with. When the prisoner only recovered his freedom under
certain conditions, he was required to give an undertaking to submit to the
king’s pleasure.
All these formalities having been completed, the governor, with that
feeling for good form which characterized the men of the ancien régime,
had the man who had been his guest served for the last time with an
excellent dinner. If the prisoner was a man of good society, the governor
would even go so far as to invite him to his own table, and then, the meal
over and the good-byes said, he placed his own carriage at the prisoner’s
disposal, and often entered it himself to accompany him to his destination.
More than one prisoner thus restored to the world must have felt greatly
embarrassed before a day was past, and have been at a loss what to do or
where to go. The administration of the Bastille sometimes gave money to
one and another to enable them to get along for a time. In December, 1783,
a certain Dubu de la Tagnerette, after being set at liberty, was lodged in the
governor’s house for a fortnight until he had found apartments that would
suit him. Moreover, many of the prisoners were actually annoyed at being
dismissed: we could cite examples of persons who sought to get themselves
sent to the Bastille; others refused to accept their liberty, and others did
their best to get their detention prolonged.
“Many come out,” says Renneville, “very sad at having to leave.” Le
Maistre de Sacy and Fontaine affirm that the years spent at the Bastille were
the best years in their lives. “The innocent life we lived,” says Renneville
again, “Messieurs Hamilton, Schrader, and myself, seemed so pleasant to
M. Hamilton that he begged me to write a description of it in verse.” The
Memoirs of Madame de Staal represent her years at the Bastille as the
happiest she ever knew. “In my heart of hearts, I was very far from desiring
my liberty.” “I stayed at the Bastille for six weeks,” observes the Abbé
Morellet, “which sped away—I chuckle still as I think of them—very
pleasantly for me.” And later, Dumouriez declares that at the Bastille he
was happy and never felt dull.
Such was the rule of the celebrated state prison. In the last century there
was no place of detention in Europe where the prisoners were surrounded
with so many comforts and attentions: there is no such place in these days.
 But in spite of these very real alleviations, it would be absurd to pretend
that the prisoners were in general reconciled to their incarceration. Nothing
is a consolation for the loss of liberty. How many poor wretches, in their
despair, have dashed their heads against the thick walls while wife and
children and concerns of the utmost gravity were summoning them from
without! The Bastille was the cause of ruin to many; within its walls were
shed tears which were never dried.
An eighteenth-century writer thus defined the state prison: “A bastille is
any house solidly built, hermetically sealed, and diligently guarded, where
any person, of whatever rank, age, or sex, may enter without knowing why,
remain without knowing how long, hoping to leave it, but not knowing
how.” These lines, written by an apologist for the old state prison, contain
its condemnation, without appeal, before the modern mind.
 CHAPTER IV.

THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK.

FOR two centuries no question has excited public opinion more than that of
the Man in the Iron Mask. The books written on the subject would fill a
library. People despaired of ever lifting the veil. “The story of the Iron
Mask,” says Michelet, “will probably remain for ever obscure,” and Henri
Martin adds: “History has no right to pronounce judgment on what will
never leave the domain of conjecture.” To-day, the doubt no longer exists.
The problem is solved. Before disclosing the solution which criticism has
unanimously declared correct, we propose to transcribe the scanty authentic
documents that we possess on the masked man, and then to state the
principal solutions which have been proposed, before arriving at the true
solution.

1. The Documents.
The Register of the Bastille.—To begin with, let us quote the text which
is the origin and foundation of all the works published on the question of
the Iron Mask.
 Note in Du Junca’s Journal regarding the entrance to the Bastille
(September 18, 1698) of the Man in the Iron Mask.

Etienne du Junca, king’s lieutenant at the Bastille, in a journal which he

began to keep on October 2, 1690, when he entered upon his office—a sort
of register in which he recorded day by day the details concerning the
arrival of the prisoners—writes, under date September 18, 1698, these lines,
[37] which the popular legend has rendered memorable:—
“Thursday, September 18 (1698), at three o’clock in the afternoon, M. de
Saint-Mars, governor of the château of the Bastille, made his first
appearance, coming from his governorship of the Isles of Sainte-
Marguerite-Honorat, bringing with him, in his conveyance, a prisoner he
had formerly at Pignerol, whom he caused to be always masked, whose
name is not mentioned; directly he got out of the carriage he put him in the
first room of the Bazinière tower, waiting till night for me to take him, at
nine o’clock, and put him with M. de Rosarges, one of the sergeants
brought by the governor, alone in the third room of the Bertaudière tower,
which I had had furnished with all necessaries some days before his arrival,
having received orders to that effect from M. de Saint-Mars: the which
prisoner will be looked after and waited on by M. de Rosarges, and
maintained by the governor.”
In a second register, supplementary to the first, in which du Junca
records details of the liberation or the death of the prisoners, we read, under
date November 19, 1703:—
“On the same day, November 19, 1703, the unknown prisoner, always
masked with a mask of black velvet, whom M. de Saint-Mars, the governor,
brought with him on coming from the Isles de Sainte-Marguerite, whom he
had kept for a long time, the which happening to be a little ill yesterday on
coming from mass, he died to-day, about ten o’clock at night, without
having had a serious illness; it could not have been slighter. M. Giraut, our
chaplain, confessed him yesterday, is surprised at his death. He did not
receive the sacrament, and our chaplain exhorted him a moment before he
died. And this unknown prisoner, kept here for so long, was buried on
Tuesday at four o’clock p.m., November 20, in the graveyard of St. Paul,
our parish; on the register of burial he was given a name also unknown. M.
de Rosarges, major, and Arreil, surgeon, signed the register.”
And in the margin:—
“I have since learnt that they called him M. de Marchiel on the register,
and that forty livres was the cost of the funeral.”
The registers of du Junca were preserved among the ancient archives of
the Bastille, whence they passed to the Arsenal library, where they are now
kept. They are drawn up in the clumsy handwriting of a soldier, with little
skill in penmanship. The spelling is bad. But the facts are stated with
precision, and have always proved accurate when checked.
 Notice in Du Junca’s Journal of the death of the masked prisoner
in the Bastille (November 19, 1703).

The extract from the second register shows that the mysterious prisoner
wore, not a mask of iron, but one of black velvet.
Further, the entry on the register of St. Paul’s church has been
discovered. It reads:—
“On the 19th, Marchioly, aged 45 years or thereabouts, died in the
Bastille, whose body was buried in the churchyard of St. Paul, his parish,
the 20th of the present month, in the presence of M. Rosage (sic), major of
the Bastille, and of M. Reglhe (sic), surgeon major of the Bastille, who
signed.—(Signed) Rosarges, Reilhe.”
 Such are the fundamental documents for the story of the Iron Mask; we
shall see by and by that they are sufficient to establish the truth.
The Letter of the Governor of Sainte-Marguerite.—We have just seen,
from the register of du Junca, that the masked man had been at the Isles of
Sainte-Marguerite under the charge of Saint-Mars, who, on being appointed
governor of the Bastille, had brought the prisoner with him. In the
correspondence exchanged between Saint-Mars and the minister
Barbezieux, occurs the following letter, dated January 6, 1696, in which
Saint-Mars describes his method of dealing with the prisoners, and the
masked man is referred to under the appellation “my ancient prisoner.”
 “My Lord,—You command me to tell you what is the practice, when I am
absent or ill, as to the visits made and precautions taken daily in regard to the
prisoners committed to my charge. My two lieutenants serve the meals at the
regular hours, just as they have seen me do, and as I still do very often when I
am well. The first of my lieutenants, who takes the keys of the prison of my
ancient prisoner, with whom we commence, opens the three doors and enters
the chamber of the prisoner, who politely hands him the plates and dishes, put
one on top of another, to give them into the hands of the lieutenant, who has
only to go through two doors to hand them to one of my sergeants, who takes
them and places them on a table two steps away, where is the second
lieutenant, who examines everything that enters and leaves the prison, and sees
that there is nothing written on the plate; and after they have given him the
utensil, they examine his bed inside and out, and then the gratings and
windows of his room, and very often the man himself: after having asked him
very politely if he wants anything else, they lock the doors and proceed to
similar business with the other prisoners.”
The Letter of M. de Palteau.—On June 19, 1768, M. de Formanoir de
Palteau addressed from the château of Palteau, near Villeneuve-le-Roi, to the
celebrated Fréron, editor of the Année Littéraire, a letter which was inserted in
the number for June 30, 1768. The author of this letter was the grand-nephew
of Saint-Mars. At the time when the latter was appointed governor of the
Bastille, the château of Palteau belonged to him, and he halted there with his
prisoner on the way from the Isles of Sainte-Marguerite to Paris.
“In 1698,” writes M. de Palteau, “M. de Saint-Mars passed from the
governorship of the Isles of Sainte-Marguerite to that of the Bastille. On his
way to take up his duties, he stayed with his prisoner on his estate at Palteau.
The masked man arrived in a conveyance which preceded that of M. de Saint-
Mars; they were accompanied by several horsemen. The peasants went to meet
their lord: M. de Saint-Mars ate with his prisoner, who had his back turned to
the windows of the dining-hall looking on the courtyard. The peasants whom I
have questioned could not see whether he ate with his mask on; but they
observed very well that M. de Saint-Mars, who was opposite him at table, had
two pistols beside his plate. They had only one footman to wait on them, and
he fetched the dishes from an ante-room where they were brought him,
carefully shutting the door of the dining-hall behind him. When the prisoner
crossed the courtyard, he always had his black mask over his face; the peasants
noticed that his lips and teeth were not covered, that he was tall and had white
hair. M. de Saint-Mars slept in a bed that was put up for him near that of the
masked man.”
This account is marked throughout with the stamp of truth. M. de Palteau,
the writer, makes no attempt to draw inferences from it. He declares for none
of the hypotheses then under discussion in regard to the identity of the
mysterious unknown. He is content to report the testimony of those of his
peasants who saw the masked man when he passed through their lord’s estates.
The only detail in the story which we are able to check—a characteristic detail,
it is true—is that of the black mask of which M. de Palteau speaks: it
corresponds exactly to the mask of black velvet mentioned in du Junca’s
register.
The château of Palteau is still in existence. In his work on Superintendent
Fouquet, M. Jules Lair gives a description of it. “The château of Palteau,
situated on an eminence among woods and vines, presented at that time, as it
does to-day, the aspect of a great lordly mansion in the style of the time of
Henri IV. and Louis XIII. First there is a wide courtyard, then two wings;
within, the principal building and the chapel. The lower story is supported on
arches, and its lofty windows go right up into the roof, and light the place from
floor to attic.” Since the eighteenth century, however, the château has
undergone some modifications. The room in which Saint-Mars dined with his
prisoner is now used as a kitchen.
The Notes of Major Chevalier.—In addition to the entries in du Junca’s
Journal which we have transcribed, scholars are accustomed to invoke, as
equally worthy of credence though later in date, the testimony of Father
Griffet, chaplain of the Bastille, and that of Major Chevalier.
The extracts from du Junca quoted above were published for the first time
in 1769 by Father Griffet, who added the following comments: “The memory
of the masked prisoner was still preserved among the officers, soldiers, and
servants of the Bastille, when M. de Launey, who has long been the governor,
came to occupy a place on the staff of the garrison. Those who had seen him
with his mask, when he crossed the courtyard on his way to attend mass, said
that after his death the order was given to burn everything he had used, such as
linen, clothes, cushions, counterpanes, &c.: that the very walls of the room he
had occupied had to be scraped and whitewashed again, and that all the tiles of
the flooring were taken up and replaced by others, because they were so afraid
that he had found the means to conceal some notes or some mark, the
discovery of which would have revealed his name.”
 The testimony of Father Griffet happens to be confirmed by some notes
from the pen of a major of the Bastille named Chevalier. The major was not a
personage of the highest rank in the administration of the Bastille, since above
him were the governor and the king’s lieutenant: but he was the most important
personage. The whole internal administration, so far as the prisoners were
concerned, was entrusted to him. Chevalier fulfilled these duties for nearly
thirty-eight years, from 1749 to 1787. M. Fernand Bournon’s estimate of him
is as follows: “Chevalier is a type of the devoted hard-working official who has
no ambition to rise above a rather subordinate rank. It would be impossible to
say how much the administration of the Bastille owed to his zeal and to his
perfect familiarity with a service of extraordinary difficulty.”
Among notes put together with a view to a history of the Bastille, Chevalier
gives in condensed form the information furnished by du Junca’s register, and
adds: “This is the famous masked man whom no one has ever known. He was
treated with great distinction by the governor, and was seen only by M. de
Rosarges, major of the said château, who had sole charge of him; he was not ill
except for a few hours, and died rather suddenly: interred at St. Paul’s, on
Tuesday, November 20, 1703, at 4 o’clock p.m., under the name of
Marchiergues. He was buried in a new white shroud, given by the governor,
and practically everything in his room was burnt, such as his bed, chairs,
tables, and other bits of furniture, or else melted down, and the whole was
thrown into the privies.”
These notes of Father Griffet and Major Chevalier have derived great force,
in the eyes of historians, from their exact agreement; but a close examination
shows that the testimony of Chevalier was the source of Father Griffet’s
information; in fact, Chevalier was major of the Bastille when the Jesuit
compiled his work, and it is doubtless upon his authority that the latter
depended.
Documents recently published in the Revue Bleue upset these assertions,
which appeared to be based on the firmest foundations.
In the Journal of du Junca, which we have already mentioned, we read
under date April 30, 1701: “Sunday, April 30, about 9 o’clock in the evening,
M. Aumont the younger came, bringing and handing over to us a prisoner
named M. Maranville, alias Ricarville, who was an officer in the army, a
malcontent, too free with his tongue, a worthless fellow: whom I received in
obedience to the king’s orders sent through the Count of Pontchartrain: whom I
have had put along with the man Tirmon, in the second room of the
Bertaudière tower, with the ancient prisoner, both being well locked in.”
 The “ancient prisoner” here referred to is no other than the masked man.
When he entered the Bastille, as we have seen, on September 18, 1698, he was
placed in the third room of the Bertaudière tower. In 1701, the Bastille
happened to be crowded with prisoners, and they had to put several together in
one and the same room; so the man in the mask was placed with two
companions. One of them, Jean-Alexandre de Ricarville, also called
Maranville, had been denounced as a “retailer of ill speech against the State,
finding fault with the policy of France and lauding that of foreigners,
especially that of the Dutch.” The police reports depict him as a beggarly
fellow, poorly dressed, and about sixty years old. He had formerly been, as du
Junca says, an officer in the royal troops. Maranville left the Bastille on
October 19, 1708. He was transferred to Charenton, where he died in February,
1709. It must be pointed out that Charenton was then an “open” prison, where
the prisoners associated with one another and had numerous relations with the
outside world.
The second of the fellow-prisoners of the man in the mask, Dominique-
François Tirmont, was a servant. When he was placed in the Bastille, on July
30, 1700, he was nineteen years old. He was accused of sorcery and of
debauching young girls. He was put in the second room of the Bertaudière
tower, where he was joined by Maranville and the man in the mask. On
December 14, 1701, he was transferred to Bicêtre. He lost his reason in 1703
and died in 1708.
The man in the mask was taken out of the third room of the Bertaudière
tower, in which he had been placed on his entrance to the Bastille, on March 6,
1701, in order to make room for a woman named Anne Randon, a “witch and
fortune-teller,” who was shut up alone in it. The masked prisoner was then
placed in the “second Bertaudière” with Tirmont, who had been there, as we
have just seen, since July 30, 1700. Maranville joined them on April 30, 1701.
Not long after, the masked man was transferred to another room, with or
without Maranville. Tirmont had been taken to Bicêtre in 1701. We find that on
February 26, 1703, the Abbé Gonzel, a priest of Franche-Comté, accused of
being a spy, was shut up alone in the “second Bertaudière.”
These facts are of undeniable authenticity, and one sees at a glance the
consequences springing from them. At the time when the masked prisoner
shared the same room with fellow-captives, other prisoners at the Bastille were
kept rigorously isolated, in spite of the crowded state of the prison, so much
more important did the reasons for their incarceration seem! The man in the
mask was associated with persons of the lowest class, who were soon
afterwards to leave and take their places with the ruck of prisoners at
Charenton and Bicêtre. We read in a report of D’Argenson that there was even
some talk of enlisting one of them, Tirmont, in the army. Such, then, was this
strange personage, the repository of a terrible secret of which Madame
Palatine[38] was already speaking in mysterious terms, the man who puzzled
kings, Louis XV., Louis XVI., who puzzled the very officers of the Bastille,
and caused them to write stories as remote as possible from the reality!

2. The Legend.
If the very officers of the Bastille indulged such wild freaks of imagination,
what flights into dreamland might not the thoughts of the public be expected to
take? The movement is a very curious one to follow. To begin with, we have
the light Venetian mask transforming itself into an iron mask with steel
articulations which the prisoner was never without. The consideration—
imaginary, as we have seen—with which the prisoner is supposed to have been
treated, and which is referred to in the notes of Major Chevalier, becomes
transformed into marks of a boundless deference shown by the jailers towards
their captive. The story was that Saint-Mars, the governor, a knight of St.
Louis, never spoke to the prisoner except standing, with bared head, that he
served him at table with his own hands and on silver plate, and that he supplied
him with the most luxurious raiment his fancy could devise. Chevalier says
that after his death his room at the Bastille was done up like new, to prevent his
successor from discovering any tell-tale evidence in some corner. Speaking of
the time when the masked man was at the Isles of Sainte-Marguerite, Voltaire
relates: “One day the prisoner wrote with a knife on a silver dish, and threw the
dish out of the window towards a boat moored on the shore, almost at the foot
of the tower. A fisherman, to whom the boat belonged, picked up the dish and
carried it to the governor. Astonished, he asked the fisherman, ‘Have you read
what is written on this dish, and has anyone seen it in your hands?’ ‘I cannot
read,’ replied the fisher, ‘I have only just found it, and no one has seen it.’ The
poor man was detained until the governor was assured he could not read and
that no one had seen the dish. ‘Go,’ he said, ‘it is lucky for you that you can’t
read!’”
In Father Papon’s History of Provence, linen takes the place of the dish. The
upshot is more tragic: “I found in the citadel an officer of the Free Company,
aged 79 years. He told me several times that a barber of that company saw one
day, under the prisoner’s window, something white floating on the water; he
went and picked it up and carried it to M. de Saint-Mars. It was a shirt of fine
linen, folded with no apparent care, and covered with the prisoner’s writing.
M. de Saint-Mars, after unfolding it and reading a few lines, asked the barber,
with an air of great embarrassment, if he had not had the curiosity to read what
was on it. The barber protested over and over again that he had read nothing;
but, two days after, he was found dead in his bed.”
And the fact that Saint-Mars had had the body of the prisoner buried in a
white cloth struck the imagination, and was developed in its turn into an
extraordinary taste on the part of the prisoner for linen of the finest quality and
for costly lace—all which was taken to prove that the masked man was a son
of Anne of Austria, who had a very special love, it was declared, for valuable
lace and fine linen.
A Brother of Louis XIV.—We are able to fix with precision, we believe, the
origin of the legend which made the Iron Mask a brother of Louis XIV.
Moreover, it was due to this suggestion, which was hinted at from the first, that
the story of the prisoner made so great a noise. The glory of it belongs to the
most famous writer of the eighteenth century. With a boldness of imagination
for which to-day he would be envied by the cleverest journalistic inventor of
sensational paragraphs, Voltaire started this monstrous hoax on its vigorous
flight.
In 1745 there had just appeared a sort of romance entitled Notes towards the
History of Persia, which was attributed, not without some reason, to Madame
de Vieux-Maisons. The book contained a story within a story, in which the
mysterious prisoner, who was beginning to be talked about everywhere, was
identified with the Duke de Vermandois, and to this fact was due the sensation
which the book caused. Voltaire immediately saw how he could turn the
circumstance to account. He had himself at one time been confined in the
Bastille, which was one reason for speaking of it; but he did not dare put in
circulation suddenly, without some preparation, the terrible story he had just
conceived, and, with a very delicate sensitiveness to public opinion, he
contented himself with printing the following paragraph in the first edition of
his Age of Louis XIV.: “A few months after the death of Mazarin there occurred
an event which is unexampled in history, and, what is not less strange, has
been passed over in silence by all the historians. There was sent with the
utmost secrecy to the château of the Isle of Sainte-Marguerite, in the Sea of
Provence, an unknown prisoner, of more than ordinary height, young, and with
features of rare nobility and beauty. On the way, this prisoner wore a mask the
chinpiece of which was fitted with springs of steel, which allowed him to eat
freely with the mask covering his face. The order had been given to kill him if
he uncovered. He remained in the island until an officer in whom great
confidence was placed, named Saint-Mars, governor of Pignerol, having been
made governor of the Bastille, came to the Isle of Sainte-Marguerite to fetch
him, and conducted him to the Bastille, always masked. The Marquis de
Louvois saw him in the island before his removal, and remained standing
while he spoke to him, with a consideration savouring of respect.” Voltaire,
however, does not say who this extraordinary prisoner was. He observed the
impression produced on the public by his story. Then he ventured more boldly,
and in the first edition of his Questions on the Encyclopædia insinuated that
the motive for covering the prisoner’s face with a mask was fear lest some too
striking likeness should be recognized. He still refrained from giving his name,
but already everyone was on tip-toe with the expectation of startling news. At
last, in the second edition of Questions on the Encyclopædia, Voltaire
intrepidly added that the man in the mask was a uterine brother of Louis XIV.,
a son of Mazarin and Anne of Austria, and older than the king. We know what
incomparable agitators of public opinion the Encyclopædists were.
Once hatched, the story was not long in producing a numerous progeny,
which grew in their turn and became a monstrous brood.
We read in the Memoirs of the Duke de Richelieu, compiled by his
secretary the Abbé Soulavie, that Mdlle. de Valois, the Regent’s daughter and
at this date the mistress of Richelieu, consented, at the instigation of the latter,
to prostitute herself to her father—tradition has it that the Regent was
enamoured of his daughter—in order to get sight of an account of the Iron
Mask drawn up by Saint-Mars. According to this story, which the author of the
Memoirs prints in its entirety, Louis XIV. was born at noon, and at half-past
eight in the evening, while the king was at supper, the queen was brought to
bed of a second son, who was put out of sight so as to avoid subsequent
dissensions in the state.
The Baron de Gleichen goes still farther. He is at the pains to prove that it
was the true heir to the throne who was put out of sight, to the profit of a child
of the queen and the cardinal. Having became masters of the situation at the
death of the king, they substituted their son for the Dauphin, the substitution
being facilitated by a strong likeness between the children. One sees at a
glance the consequences of this theory, which nullifies the legitimacy of the
last Bourbons.
But the career of imagination was not yet to be checked. The legend came
into full bloom under the first empire. Pamphlets then appeared in which the
version of Baron de Gleichen was revived. Louis XIV. had been only a bastard,
the son of foreigners; the lawful heir had been imprisoned at the Isles of
Sainte-Marguerite, where he had married the daughter of one of his keepers.
Of this marriage was born a child who, as soon as he was weaned, was sent to
Corsica, and entrusted to a reliable person, as a child coming of “good stock,”
in Italian, Buona-parte. Of that child the Emperor was the direct descendant.
The right of Napoleon I. to the throne of France established by the Iron Mask!
—there is a discovery which the great Dumas missed. But, incredible as it
seems, there were men who actually took these fables seriously. In a Vendéan
manifesto circulated among the Chouans,[39] in Nivose of the year IX,[40] we
read: “It is not wise for the Royalist party to rely on the assurances given by
some emissaries of Napoleon, that he seized the throne only to restore the
Bourbons; everything proves that he only awaits the general pacification to
declare himself, and that he means to base his right on the birth of the children
of the Iron Mask!”
We shall not stay to refute the hypothesis which makes the Iron Mask a
brother of Louis XIV. Marius Topin has already done so in the clearest possible
manner. The notion, moreover, has long been abandoned. The last writers who
adhered to it date from the revolutionary period.
The Successive Incarnations of the Iron Mask.—“Never has an Indian
deity,” says Paul de Saint-Victor, speaking of the Iron Mask, “undergone so
many metempsychoses and so many avatars.” It would take too long merely to
enumerate all the individuals with whom it has been attempted to identify the
Iron Mask: even women have not escaped. We shall cite rapidly the theories
which have found most credence amongst the public, or those which have been
defended in the most serious works, in order to arrive finally at the
identification—as will be seen, it is one of those proposed long ago—which is
beyond doubt the true one.
The hypothesis which, after that of a brother of Louis XIV., has most
powerfully excited public opinion, is that which made the mysterious unknown
Louis, Comte de Vermandois, admiral of France, and son of the charming
Louise de la Vallière. This was indeed the belief of Father Griffet, chaplain of
the Bastille, and even of the officers of the staff. But the conjecture is
disproved in a single line: “The Comte de Vermandois died at Courtrai, on
November 18, 1683.” A precisely similar fact refutes the theory identifying the
Iron Mask with the Duke of Monmouth, the natural son of Charles II. and Lucy
Walters. Monmouth perished on the scaffold in 1683. Lagrange-Chancel
throws much ardour and talent into a defence of the theory which made the
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