O Giddy Aunt. This is my favourite love to hate story.

If you read the original by Dumas or the multiple “mystery solved” books or even watch the film below …..

….No. I retract watch the film below. Apart from watching the brilliant comedies of Irons, Malkovich, Depardieu, Byrne and Hugh Laurie, this film is a travesty of history. One that sits right up there with Gladiator and Braveheart! Randall Wallace anyone?

And wiki confuses even more…

In 1955, Hugh Ross Williamson^[11] argued that the man in the iron mask was the natural father of Louis XIV. According to this theory, the “miraculous” birth of Louis XIV in 1638 would have come after Louis XIII had been estranged from his wife Anne of Austria for 14 years.

The theory then suggests that Cardinal Richelieu, the king’s minister, had arranged for a substitute, probably an illegitimate son or grandson of Henry IV, to become intimate with the queen and father an heir in the king’s stead. At the time, the heir presumptive was Louis XIII’s brother Gaston, Duke of Orléans, who was Richelieu’s enemy. If Gaston became king, Richelieu would quite likely have lost both his job as minister and his life, and so it was in his best interests to thwart Gaston’s ambitions.

Weave a Garland of My Vows is set just before Man in the Iron Mask. By 1669 Marie de Rohan (Mme de Chevreuse) was 69 years old and Anne of Austria was 68 years old. Yet the film shows them as young girls….If I remember rightly.

I may not remember rightly. I’ve not watched the film for years :o)

P.S. MY D F and I agreed many years ago that Jeremy Irons has the most AMAZING voice. I’d recognise it anywhere :o)