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====The Man in the Iron Mask====
The latest research based on material released by the National Archives in Paris in 2015, has added much to our knowledge of the mysterious individual. All we know about the enigmatic prisoner is from the correspondence of the jail governor Bénigne d'Auvergne de Saint-Mars and an inventory of the goods of the inmate. In 1669 he was governor of the prison of Pignerol which is today near Turin, Italy but in the seventeenth century was part of the Kingdom of France. A Royal minister gave the governor a set of strict instructions with regard as to how the prisoner be treated .<ref> Thompson, Harry. The Man in the Iron Mask: A historical detective investigation (London, Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1987), p 189</ref>. The jailer was informed that his new prisoner was not a person of high rank and was to be kept in solitary confinement and forbidden to converse with any other person, no exceptions. He was to be kept locked behind several doors so that he could not communicate with anyone else in prison. The jailer himself was under strict instruction not to speak with him. It was made clear that he was a prisoner of state and this meant that he had no legal rights and was completely under the jurisdiction of the monarch.<ref>Thompson, p 189</ref>
The name of the prisoner on the document was Eustache Dauger, and it appears that he was arrested in Calais or Dunkirk, both ports in the North of France, and this may indicate that the prisoner had been trying to flee to England. In August 1669, the individual was sent across France to the prison-fortress at Pignerol. This prison was one of the most notorious in France because it held so many inmates that were considered to be politically sensitive. Pignerol held only a few dozen inmates including a former Finance Minister and a noble who became engaged to the King’s cousin without his consent. The prisoner known as Dauger was despite the orders of the Minister in Paris, able to mingle with other prisoners.
