Man in the Iron Mask: Royal Cover-Up or Something Worse?

Welcome to Sleepytime History™ — true stories from the pages of history for a full night's rest.

Tonight, we explore the man in the iron mask, one of the most haunting unsolved historical mysteries ever set down on paper. This is the man in the iron mask true story: a real masked prisoner whose face was hidden for decades by order of the king, and whose name has never been uncovered. Carried by covered carriage through the cold and windswept fortresses of 17th century France, he was moved from one stronghold to the next until he reached the Bastille, watched over for more than thirty years by a single jailer who never once passed on his keys.

His orders were chilling in their plainness. He could speak to no one of anything but his daily needs, and a single word about who he was could cost him his life. Yet almost everything we think we know is uncertain. The famous tale of a secret royal twin owes much to the novelist Alexandre Dumas, the dreaded iron mask was very likely soft black velvet, and the leading suspect among scholars of French history is a far humbler figure, a servant named Eustache Dauger. What could one man know that would so threaten Louis XIV, the Sun King, that he must be shut away in darkness and yet kept alive? This is the man in the iron mask mystery at its very heart.

This audiobook is part of Sleepytime History, a gentle home for tranquil history and quiet history legends. If you are searching for history for sleep, history for serenity, or history for serenity and harmony, you have found your place. Our calming audio books are crafted as history to soothe the mind, slow and soothing audiobooks that let you unwind with history, get sleepy, and drift off to the true stories of the greatest minds in history.

Let this haunting story of secrecy and endurance guide you into a restful night's sleep.

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Chapters:

00:00:00 Man in the Iron Mask: Royal Cover-Up or Something Worse?

00:46:19 The Holy Grail: Lost Relic or Medieval Invention?

01:34:20 How Jeanne Baret, Disguised as a Man, Became the First Woman to Circle the Globe

02:20:03 Spartacus: Rise of the Gladiator Army

03:04:18 The Cottingley Fairies Hoax: How Two Little Girls Tricked the World

03:52:48 The Amazons: Warrior Women of the Ancient Steppe

04:35:22 King Tut: The Nearly-Forgotten Boy Pharaoh

05:20:41 Ireland's Pirate Queen: Grace O'Malley

06:09:51 The Unsolved Mystery of the Eilean Mòr Lighthouse

06:48:40 El Dorado: Relentless Search for the City of Gold

07:30:48 The Green Children of Woolpit: Miracle, Myth, or Misunderstanding?

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Written and produced by Pamela Erwin

Narration by Oliver Hale

Music by Pia Maya

Visuals by Ben Blight

This podcast contains AI-generated content.

Sleepytime History™ is a trademark owned by Pamela Erwin.

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