Coordinates	38°37′38″N90°11′52″N
name	Navarra
native name
official name	Chartered Community of Navarre
settlement type	Autonomous Community
flag size	150px
flag alt	Flag of Navarra
image shield	Escudo de Navarra (oficial).svg
shield size	90px
shield alt	Coat-of-arms of Navarra
map caption	Map of Navarra
coordinates type	type:adm1st_region:ES-NA
coordinates display	inline,title
subdivision type	Country
subdivision name	Spain
seat type	Capital
seat	Pamplona
area total km2	10391
area footnotes	(2.2% of Spain; Ranked 11th)
population as of	2007
population total	620337
population blank1 title	Pop. rank
population blank1	15th
population blank2 title	Percent
population blank2	1.3% of Spain
population density km2	auto
demographics1 name1	Ethnic groups
demographics type2	Demonym
demographics2 name1	English
demographics2 info1	Navarrese
demographics2 name2	Spanish
demographics2 info2	Navarro/a
blank1 name sec1	Official languages
blank1 info sec1	Spanish and Basque
blank2 name sec1	Statute of Autonomy
blank2 info sec1	August 16, 1982
blank name sec2	Parliament
blank info sec2	Cortes Generales
blank1 name sec2	Congress seats
blank1 info sec2	5 (of 350)
blank2 name sec2	Senate seats
blank2 info sec2	5 (of 264)
postal code type	ISO 3166-2
postal code	NA
leader title	President
leader name	Yolanda Barcina (UPN)
website	Gobierno de Navarra
footnotes	}}

Navarre (, ; , ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre (; ) is an autonomous community in northern Spain, bordering the Basque Country, La Rioja, and Aragon in Spain and Aquitaine in France. The capital is the city of Pamplona.

History

During the time of the Roman Empire, the territory of the province was inhabited by the Vascones, a pre-Roman tribe who populated the southern slopes of the Pyrenees. In the northern, mountaineous areas the Vascones escaped large-scale Roman settlement but not so in the flatter areas to the south which were amenable to large-scale Roman farming.

The area was never fully subjugated either by the Visigoths or by the Moors. In AD 778, the Basques defeated a Frankish army in the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. Two generations later, in 824, the chieftain Iñigo Arista was chosen King of Pamplona, laying a foundation for the later Kingdom of Navarre. That kingdom reached its zenith during the reign of Sancho III of Navarre and covered the area of the present-day Navarre, Basque country, and La Rioja, together with parts of modern Cantabria, Castile and León, and Aragon.

After Sancho III died, the Kingdom of Navarre was divided between his sons and never fully recovered its importance. The army of Navarre fought beside other Christian Spanish kingdoms in the decisive battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, after which the Muslim conquests on the Iberian Peninsula were slowly reduced to a small territory in the south.

In AD 1515, the bulk of Navarre south of the Pyrenees—Upper Navarre—was at last absorbed into the incipient Kingdom of Spain but retained some exclusive rights. The small portion of Navarre lying north of the Pyrenees—Lower Navarre—later came under French rule when its Huguenot sovereign became King Henry IV of France; with the declaration of the French Republic and execution of Louis XVI, the last King of France and Navarre, the kingdom was merged into a unitary French state.

Community

The community ceremonies, education, and social services, together with housing, urban development, and environment protection policies are under the responsibility of its own institutions.

Unlike other regions (but like the Basque Country), Navarre has almost full responsibility for collecting and administering taxes which must follow the overall guidelines established by the Spanish government but may have some minor differences.

Geography and Climate

Navarre is made up of 272 municipalities and has a total population of 601,874 (2006), of which approximately one-third live in the capital, Pamplona (195,769 pop.), and one-half in the capital's metropolitan area (315,988 pop.). There are no other large municipalities in the region. The next largest are Tudela (32,802), Barañáin (22,401), Burlada (18,388), Estella - Lizarra (13,892), Zizur Mayor (13,197), Tafalla (11,040), Villava/Atarrabia (10,295), and Ansoáin (9,952).

Despite its relatively small size, Navarre features stark contrasts in geography, from the Pyrenees mountain range that dominates the territory to the plains of the Ebro river valley in the south. The highest point in Navarre is Hiru Erregeen Mahaia, with an elevation of 2,428 metres (7,965 feet). Other important mountains are Txamantxoia, Kartxela, the Larra-Belagua Massif, Sierra de Alaiz, Untzueko Harria, Sierra de Leyre, Sierra del Perdón, Montejurra, Ezkaba, Monte Ori, Sierra de Codés, Urbasa, Andia and the Aralar Range.

Cultural heritage

Navarre is a mixture of its Vasconic tradition, the Trans-Pyrenean influx of people and ideas and Mediterranean influences coming from the Ebro. The Ebro valley is amenable to wheat, vegetables, wine, and even olive trees as in Aragon and La Rioja. It was a part of the Roman Empire, inhabited by the Vascones, later controlled on its southern fringes by the Muslims Banu Qasi, whose authority was taken over by the taifa kingdom of Tudela in the 11th century.

During the Reconquista, Navarre gained little ground at the expense of the Muslims. Starting in the 11th century, the Way of Saint James grew a very important milestone for the territory and source of European cultural influence. Gascons and Occitanians altogether from beyond the Pyrenees (called ''Franks'' ) were granted privileges to foster their settlement in Navarrese towns, causing them to bring along their craft, culture and Romance languages.

Jews and Muslims couldn't escape the drastic measures imposed on them and were expelled for the most part in a process spanning half a century at the end of the 15th century and start of the 16th, definitely after Navarre was seized by Castile-Aragon.

Energy policy

Navarre leads Europe in its use of renewable energy technology and was planning to reach 100% renewable electricity generation by 2010. By 2004, 61% of the region's electricity was generated by renewable sources consisting of 43.6% from 28 wind farms, 12% from over 100 small-scale water turbines, and 5.3% from 2 biomass and 2 biogas plants. In addition, the region had what was then Spain's largest photovoltaic power plant at Montes de Cierzo de Tudela (1.2 MWp capacity) plus several hundred smaller photovoltaic installations.

Developments since 2004 have included further photovoltaic plants at Larrión (0.25 MWp) and another at Castejón (2.44 MWp), also once the largest in Spain.

Languages

Spanish is the official language in Navarre, together with Basque, which also has official status in the Basque-speaking area. The northwestern part of the community is largely Basque-speaking, while the southern part is almost entirely Spanish-speaking, aside from Fitero. The capital, Pamplona, is in the mixed region. Navarre is divided into three parts linguistically: regions where Basque is widespread (the Basque-speaking area), regions where Basque is present (the mixed region), and regions where Basque is absent (the Spanish-speaking area).

See also

Basque language

Euskadi

Kingdom of Navarre

Kings of Navarre

Lower Navarre

Parliament of Navarre

Renewable energy in the European Union

References

External links

Official website (in Basque/English/French/Spanish)

History of Navarre

(LAS BARDENAS, CAVERN, GROTTE VALTIERRA, CUEVAS DE VALTIERRA)

Bardenas Reales desert (Navarra)

Northern Spanish region leads way on renewable energy

Euskara Kultur Elkargoa-''Basque Cultural Foundation''

Navarra en Fotos

Saint James route and wine

Guide to the Navarra Pyrenees mountains.

Category:Autonomous communities of Spain Category:Provinces of Spain Category:NUTS 2 statistical regions of the European Union Category:States and territories established in 1982 Category:Regions of Europe with multiple official languages

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Coordinates	38°37′38″N90°11′52″N
name	Laurent Voulzy
background	solo_singer
birth name	Lucien Voulzy
born	December 18, 1948Paris, France
died
instrument	Guitar
genre	Alternative rock Ballad French pop Pop/Rock Experimental Chanson Soft Rock
occupation	singer-songwriter
years active	1969 – present
website	laurentvoulzy.com
notable instruments	}}

Laurent Voulzy (born Laurent Gerville-Reache on 18 December 1948 in Paris, France) is a French singer and composer.

Biography

Voulzy originally led the English-pop-influenced Le Temple de Vénus before joining Pascal Danel as guitarist from 1969 to 1974. However, he is best known for his collaborative songwriting efforts with singer/songwriter Alain Souchon and his solo singing career, which spanned several successful albums.

Voulzy had an international hit with the song ''Rockollection''. The French lyrics were interspersed with some lines from classic rock hits after the chorus. His major French hits also include 'Le Soleil Donne' – sung in French, English and Spanish – and 'Les Nuits Sans Kim Wilde' ('Nights without Kim Wilde'), inspired by the chart-topping English singer.

After a huge hit with his N°1 album "La Septième Vague" in 2006, Voulzy records in 2007 on duet with famous French guitarist Jean-Pierre Danel on his hit album "Guitar Connection 2". The song hits the French charts at #7 in 2008.

In 2007, Voulzy toured France.

He has also been featured as a guest artist on Irish pop group The Corrs' remake of the Everly Brothers hit "All I Have To Do Is Dream", where he plays guitar and provides guest vocals.

Discography

Studio albums

Le Coeur Grenadine (1979, RCA)

Bopper En Larmes (1983, RCA)

Caché Derrière (1992, Ariola)

Avril (2002, RCA)

La Septième Vague (2006, RCA)

Recollection (2008)

Live albums

Voulzy Tour (1994, Ariola)

Le Gothique Flamboyant Pop Dancing Tour (2004, RCA)

Compilations

Saisons (2003, RCA) 1977–2003

Les Essentiels (2002, RCA) 1977–1988

Songs

1977: Rockollection

1978: Bubble Star

1979: Le Cœur grenadine

1979: Karin Redinger

1979: Cocktail chez mademoiselle

1980: Surfing Jack

1981: Idéal simplifié

1983: Bopper en larmes

1983: Liebe

1984: Désir désir (duo with Véronique Jannot)

1985: Les Nuits Sans Kim Wilde

1986: Belle-Île-en-Mer

1987: My Song of You

1988: Le soleil donne

1992: Paradoxal système

1993: Le Pouvoir des fleurs

1993: Caché derrière

1993: Le Rêve du pêcheur

2001: Une héroïne

2002: La Fille d'avril

2002: Amélie Colbert

2003: Là où je vais

2006: Derniers Baisers

2008: My Song of You (instrumental duo with Jean-Pierre Danel)

2008: Jelly Bean

2009: Le vent qui va

External links

Laurent Voulzy (official site)

Biography of Laurent Voulzy, from Radio France Internationale

Category:1948 births Category:Living people Category:French people of Guadeloupean descent Category:French male singers Category:Guadeloupean musicians Category:French-language singers

es:Laurent Voulzy eo:Laurent Voulzy fr:Laurent Voulzy ko:로랑 불지 ht:Laurent Voulzy pl:Laurent Voulzy ru:Вульзи, Лоран sv:Laurent Voulzy

Coordinates	38°37′38″N90°11′52″N
death date	(aged 83)
occupation	Poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights campaigner
movement	Romanticism
influences	François-René de Chateaubriand, Walter Scott, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire, Alphonse de Lamartine, William Shakespeare
influenced	Louis-Honoré Fréchette, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Leo Tolstoy, Ayn Rand, Irvine Welsh, Albert Camus, Gérard de Nerval, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, Oscar Wilde, Jean Cocteau, Gustave Flaubert, Jorge Luis Borges, Charles-Marie-René Leconte de Lisle,
signature	Victor Hugo Signature.svg
birth place	Besançon, France
death place	Paris, France }}

Victor-Marie Hugo () (26 February 1802 – 22 May 1885) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, visual artist, statesman, human rights activist and exponent of the Romantic movement in France.

In France, Hugo's literary fame comes first from his poetry but also rests upon his novels and his dramatic achievements. Among many volumes of poetry, ''Les Contemplations'' and ''La Légende des siècles'' stand particularly high in critical esteem, and Hugo is sometimes identified as the greatest French poet. Outside France, his best-known works are the novels ''Les Misérables'' and ''Notre-Dame de Paris'' (also known in English as ''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'').

Though a committed royalist when he was young, Hugo's views refined as the decades passed; he became a passionate supporter of republicanism, and his work touches upon most of the political and social issues and artistic trends of his time. He is buried in the Panthéon.

Life

Hugo was the third, illegitimate, son of Joseph Léopold Sigisbert Hugo (1774–1828) and Sophie Trébuchet (1772–1821); his brothers were Abel Joseph Hugo (1798–1855) and Eugène Hugo (1800–1837). He was born in 1802 in Besançon (in the region of Franche-Comté) and lived in France for the majority of his life. However, he decided exile as a result of Napoleon III's Coup d'état at the end of 1851. Hugo lived briefly in Brussels (1851) then moved to the Channel Islands, firstly to Jersey (1852–55) and then to the smaller island of Guernsey (1855–1870). Although a general amnesty was proclaimed by Napoleon III in 1859; Hugo stayed in exile, only ending it when Napoleon III was forced from power as a result of the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War. Hugo returned again to Guernsey (1872–73), after suffering through the Siege of Paris, before finally returning to France for the remainder of his life.

Hugo's early childhood was marked by great events. Napoléon was proclaimed Emperor two years after Hugo's birth, and the Bourbon Monarchy was restored before his thirteenth birthday. The opposing political and religious views of Hugo's parents reflected the forces that would battle for supremacy in France throughout his life: Hugo's father was an officer who ranked very high in Napoleon's army until he failed in Spain (one of the reasons why his name is not present on the ''Arc de Triomphe''). He was an atheist republican who considered Napoléon a hero; his mother was an extreme Catholic Royalist who is believed to have taken as her lover General Victor Lahorie, executed in 1812 for plotting against Napoléon. Since Hugo's father, Joseph, was an officer, they moved frequently and Hugo learned much from these travels. On his family's journey to Naples, he saw the vast Alpine passes and the snowy peaks, the magnificently blue Mediterranean, and Rome during its festivities. Though he was only nearly six at the time, he remembered the half-year-long trip vividly. They stayed in Naples for a few months and then headed back to Paris.

Sophie followed her husband to posts in Italy (where Léopold served as a governor of a province near Naples) and Spain (where he took charge of three Spanish provinces). Weary of the constant moving required by military life, and at odds with her husband's lack of Catholic beliefs, Sophie separated temporarily from Léopold in 1803 and settled in Paris. Thereafter she dominated Hugo's education and upbringing. As a result, Hugo's early work in poetry and fiction reflect a passionate devotion to both King and Faith. It was only later, during the events leading up to France's 1848 Revolution, that he would begin to rebel against his Catholic Royalist education and instead champion Republicanism and Freethought.

Young Victor fell in love and against his mother's wishes, became secretly engaged to his childhood friend Adèle Foucher (1803–1868).

Unusually close to his mother, he married Adèle (in 1822) only after his mother's death in 1821. They had their first child Léopold in 1823, but the boy died in infancy. Hugo's other children were Léopoldine (28 August 1824), Charles (4 November 1826), François-Victor (28 October 1828) and Adèle (24 August 1830). Hugo published his first novel the following year (''Han d'Islande'', 1823), and his second three years later (''Bug-Jargal'', 1826). Between 1829 and 1840 he would publish five more volumes of poetry (''Les Orientales'', 1829; ''Les Feuilles d'automne'', 1831; ''Les Chants du crépuscule'', 1835; ''Les Voix intérieures'', 1837; and ''Les Rayons et les ombres'', 1840), cementing his reputation as one of the greatest elegiac and lyric poets of his time.

Victor Hugo was devastated when his oldest and favorite daughter, Léopoldine, died at age 19 in 1843, shortly after her marriage. She drowned in the Seine at Villequier, pulled down by her heavy skirts, when a boat overturned. Her young husband Charles Vacquerie also died trying to save her. Victor Hugo was traveling with his mistress at the time in the south of France, and learned about Léopoldine's death from a newspaper as he sat in a cafe. He describes his shock and grief in his poem ''À Villequier'':

''Hélas ! vers le passé tournant un oeil d'envie,'' ''Sans que rien ici-bas puisse m'en consoler,'' ''Je regarde toujours ce moment de ma vie'' ''Où je l'ai vue ouvrir son aile et s'envoler !''

''Je verrai cet instant jusqu'à ce que je meure,'' ''L'instant, pleurs superflus !'' ''Où je criai : L'enfant que j'avais tout à l'heure,'' ''Quoi donc ! je ne l'ai plus !''

''

Alas! turning an envious eye towards the past, unconsolable by anything on earth, I keep looking at that moment of my life when I saw her open her wings and fly away!

I will see that instant until I die, that instant—too much for tears! when I cried out: "The child that I had just now-- what! I don't have her any more!"

He wrote many poems afterwards about his daughter's life and death, and at least one biographer claims he never completely recovered from it. His most famous poem is probably ''Demain, dès l'aube'', in which he describes visiting her grave.

Writings

Like many young writers of his generation, Hugo was profoundly influenced by François-René de Chateaubriand, the famous figure in the literary movement of Romanticism and France's preëminent literary figure during the early 19th century. In his youth, Hugo resolved to be "Chateaubriand or nothing," and his life would come to parallel that of his predecessor in many ways. Like Chateaubriand, Hugo would further the cause of Romanticism, become involved in politics as a champion of Republicanism, and be forced into exile due to his political stances. The precocious passion and eloquence of Hugo's early work brought success and fame at an early age. His first collection of poetry (''Odes et poésies diverses'') was published in 1822, when Hugo was only twenty years old, and earned him a royal pension from Louis XVIII. Though the poems were admired for their spontaneous fervor and fluency, it was the collection that followed four years later in 1826 (''Odes et Ballades'') that revealed Hugo to be a great poet, a natural master of lyric and creative song.

Victor Hugo's first mature work of fiction appeared in 1829, and reflected the acute social conscience that would infuse his later work. ''Le Dernier jour d'un condamné'' (''The Last Day of a Condemned Man'') would have a profound influence on later writers such as Albert Camus, Charles Dickens, and Fyodor Dostoevsky. ''Claude Gueux'', a documentary short story about a real-life murderer who had been executed in France, appeared in 1834, and was later considered by Hugo himself to be a precursor to his great work on social injustice, ''Les Misérables''. But Hugo's first full-length novel would be the enormously successful ''Notre-Dame de Paris'' (''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame''), which was published in 1831 and quickly translated into other languages across Europe. One of the effects of the novel was to shame the City of Paris into restoring the much-neglected Cathedral of Notre Dame, which was attracting thousands of tourists who had read the popular novel. The book also inspired a renewed appreciation for pre-renaissance buildings, which thereafter began to be actively preserved.

Hugo began planning a major novel about social misery and injustice as early as the 1830s, but it would take a full 17 years for ''Les Misérables'', to be realized and finally published in 1862. Hugo was acutely aware of the quality of the novel and publication of the work went to the highest bidder. The Belgian publishing house Lacroix and Verboeckhoven undertook a marketing campaign unusual for the time, issuing press releases about the work a full six months before the launch. It also initially published only the first part of the novel ("Fantine"), which was launched simultaneously in major cities. Installments of the book sold out within hours, and had enormous impact on French society. The critical establishment was generally hostile to the novel; Taine found it insincere, Barbey d'Aurevilly complained of its vulgarity, Flaubert found within it "neither truth nor greatness", the Goncourts lambasted its artificiality, and Baudelaire – despite giving favorable reviews in newspapers – castigated it in private as "tasteless and inept." ''Les Misérables'' proved popular enough with the masses that the issues it highlighted were soon on the agenda of the French National Assembly. Today the novel remains his most enduringly popular work. It is popular worldwide, has been adapted for cinema, television and stage shows.

The shortest correspondence in history is said to have been between Hugo and his publisher Hurst & Blackett in 1862. It is said Hugo was on vacation when ''Les Misérables'' (which is over 1200 pages) was published. He sent a letter containing the single-character message '?' to his publisher, who replied with a single '!'.

Hugo turned away from social/political issues in his next novel, ''Les Travailleurs de la Mer'' (''Toilers of the Sea''), published in 1866. Nonetheless, the book was well received, perhaps due to the previous success of ''Les Misérables''. Dedicated to the channel island of Guernsey where he spent 15 years of exile, Hugo's depiction of Man's battle with the sea and the horrible creatures lurking beneath its depths spawned an unusual fad in Paris: Squids. From squid dishes and exhibitions, to squid hats and parties, Parisians became fascinated by these unusual sea creatures, which at the time were still considered by many to be mythical. The word used in Guernsey to refer to squid (''pieuvre'', also sometimes applied to octopus) was to enter the French language as a result of its use in the book. Hugo returned to political and social issues in his next novel, ''L'Homme Qui Rit'' (''The Man Who Laughs''), which was published in 1869 and painted a critical picture of the aristocracy. However, the novel was not as successful as his previous efforts, and Hugo himself began to comment on the growing distance between himself and literary contemporaries such as Flaubert and Émile Zola, whose realist and naturalist novels were now exceeding the popularity of his own work. His last novel, ''Quatre-vingt-treize'' (''Ninety-Three''), published in 1874, dealt with a subject that Hugo had previously avoided: the Reign of Terror during the French Revolution. Though Hugo's popularity was on the decline at the time of its publication, many now consider ''Ninety-Three'' to be a work on par with Hugo's better-known novels.

Political life and exile

After three unsuccessful attempts, Hugo was finally elected to the Académie française in 1841, solidifying his position in the world of French arts and letters. A group of French academiciens, particularly Etienne de Jouy, were fighting against the "romantic evolution" and had managed to delay Victor Hugo's election. Thereafter he became increasingly involved in French politics. He was elevated to the peerage by King Louis-Philippe in 1841 and entered the Higher Chamber as a ''pair de France'', where he spoke against the death penalty and social injustice, and in favour of freedom of the press and self-government for Poland. However, he was also becoming more supportive of the Republican form of government and, following the 1848 Revolution and the formation of the Second Republic, was elected to the Constitutional Assembly and the Legislative Assembly.

When Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) seized complete power in 1851, establishing an anti-parliamentary constitution, Hugo openly declared him a traitor to France. He relocated to Brussels, then Jersey, and finally settled with his family at Hauteville House in Saint Peter Port, Guernsey, where he would live in exile until 1870.

While in exile, Hugo published his famous political pamphlets against Napoleon III, ''Napoléon le Petit'' and ''Histoire d'un crime''. The pamphlets were banned in France, but nonetheless had a strong impact there. He also composed or published some of his best work during his period in Guernsey, including ''Les Misérables'', and three widely praised collections of poetry (''Les Châtiments'', 1853; ''Les Contemplations'', 1856; and ''La Légende des siècles'', 1859).

He convinced the government of Queen Victoria to spare the lives of six Irish people convicted of terrorist activities and his influence was credited in the removal of the death penalty from the constitutions of Geneva, Portugal and Colombia. He had also pleaded for Benito Juárez to spare the recently captured emperor Maximilian I of Mexico but to no avail. His complete archives (published by Pauvert) show also that he wrote a letter asking the USA, for the sake of their own reputation in the future, to spare John Brown's life, but the letter arrived after Brown was executed.

Although Napoleon III granted an amnesty to all political exiles in 1859, Hugo declined, as it meant he would have to curtail his criticisms of the government. It was only after Napoleon III fell from power and the Third Republic was proclaimed that Hugo finally returned to his homeland in 1870, where he was promptly elected to the National Assembly and the Senate.

He was in Paris during the siege by the Prussian army in 1870, famously eating animals given to him by the Paris zoo. As the siege continued, and food became ever more scarce, he wrote in his diary that he was reduced to "eating the unknown."

Because of his concern for the rights of artists and copyright, he was a founding member of the Association Littéraire et Artistique Internationale, which led to the Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works. However, in Pauvert's published archives, he states strongly that "any work of art has two authors : the people who confusely feels something, a creator who translates these feelings, and the people again who consecrates his vision of that feeling. When one of the authors dies, the rights should totally be granted back to the other, the people".

Religious views

Hugo's religious views changed radically over the course of his life. In his youth, he identified himself as a Catholic and professed respect for Church hierarchy and authority. From there he became a non-practicing Catholic, and increasingly expressed anti-Catholic and anti-clerical views. He frequented Spiritism during his exile (where he participated also in many séances conducted by Madame Delphine de Girardin), and in later years settled into a Rationalist Deism similar to that espoused by Voltaire. A census-taker asked Hugo in 1872 if he was a Catholic, and he replied, "No. A Freethinker".

After that point, Hugo never lost his antipathy towards the Catholic Church, due largely to what he saw as the Church's indifference to the plight of the working class under the oppression of the monarchy; and perhaps also due to the frequency with which Hugo's work appeared on the Church's Index Librorum Prohibitorum (Hugo counted 740 attacks on ''Les Misérables'' in the Catholic press). On the deaths of his sons Charles and François-Victor, he insisted that they be buried without a crucifix or priest, and in his will made the same stipulation about his own death and funeral. However, although Hugo believed Catholic dogma to be outdated and dying, he never directly attacked the actual doctrines of the Church.

Hugo's Rationalism can be found in poems such as ''Torquemada'' (1869, about religious fanaticism), ''The Pope'' (1878, anti-clerical), ''Religions and Religion'' (1880, denying the usefulness of churches) and, published posthumously, ''The End of Satan'' and ''God'' (1886 and 1891 respectively, in which he represents Christianity as a griffin and Rationalism as an angel). "Religions pass away, but God remains", Hugo declared. Christianity would eventually disappear, he predicted, but people would still believe in "God, Soul, and the Power."

Victor Hugo and music

Although Hugo's many talents did not include exceptional musical ability, he nevertheless had a great impact on the music world through the inspiration that his works provided for composers of the 19th and 20th century. Hugo himself particularly enjoyed the music of Gluck and Weber and greatly admired Beethoven, and rather unusually for his time, he also appreciated works by composers from earlier centuries such as Palestrina and Monteverdi. Two famous musicians of the 19th century were friends of Hugo: Berlioz and Liszt. The latter played Beethoven in Hugo's home, and Hugo joked in a letter to a friend that thanks to Liszt's piano lessons, he learned how to play a favourite song on the piano – even though only with one finger! Hugo also worked with composer Louise Bertin, writing the libretto for her 1836 opera ''La Esmeralda'' which was based on the character in ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame''. Although for various reasons the opera closed soon after its fifth performance and is little known today, it has been recently enjoying a revival, both in a piano/song concert version by Liszt at the Festival international Victor Hugo et Égaux 2007 and in a full orchestral version presented in July 2008 at Le Festival de Radio France et Montpellier Languedoc-Roussillon.

Well over one thousand musical compositions have been inspired by Hugo's works from the 19th century until the present day. In particular, Hugo's plays, in which he rejected the rules of classical theatre in favour of romantic drama, attracted the interest of many composers who adapted them into operas. More than one hundred operas are based on Hugo's works and among them are Donizetti's ''Lucrezia Borgia'' (1833), Verdi's ''Rigoletto'' (1851) and Ernani (1844), and Ponchielli's ''La Gioconda'' (1876). Hugo's novels as well as his plays have been a great source of inspiration for musicians, stirring them to create not only opera and ballet but musical theatre such as Notre-Dame de Paris and the ever-popular Les Misérables, London West End's longest running musical. Additionally, Hugo's beautiful poems have attracted an exceptional amount of interest from musicians, and numerous melodies have been based on his poetry by composers such as Berlioz, Bizet, Fauré, Franck, Lalo, Liszt, Massenet, Saint-Saëns, Rachmaninov and Wagner.

Today, Hugo's work continues to stimulate musicians to create new compositions. For example, Hugo's novel against capital punishment, The Last Day of a Condemned Man, has recently been adapted into an opera by David Alagna (libretto by Frédérico Alagna). Their brother, tenor Roberto Alagna, performed in the opera's premiere in Paris in the summer of 2007 and again in February 2008 in Valencia with Erwin Schrott as part of the Festival international Victor Hugo et Égaux 2008. In Guernsey, every two years the Victor Hugo International Music Festival attracts a wide range of musicians and the premiere of songs specially commissioned from such composers as Guillaume Connesson, Richard Dubugnon, Olivier Kaspar and Thierry Escaich and based on Hugo's poetry.

Declining years and death

When Hugo returned to Paris in 1870, the country hailed him as a national hero. Despite his popularity Hugo lost his bid for reelection to the National Assembly in 1872. Within a brief period, he suffered a mild stroke, his daughter Adèle's internment in an insane asylum, and the death of his two sons. (Adèle's biography inspired the movie ''The Story of Adele H.'') His wife Adèle had died in 1868. His faithful mistress, Juliette Drouet, died in 1883, only two years before his own death. Despite his personal loss, Hugo remained committed to the cause of political change. On 30 January 1876 Hugo was elected to the newly created Senate. The last phase of his political career is considered a failure. Hugo took on the role of a maverick and got little done in the Senate.

In February 1881 Hugo celebrated his 79th birthday. To honor the fact that he was entering his eightieth year, one of the greatest tributes to a living writer was held. The celebrations began on the 25th when Hugo was presented with a Sèvres vase, the traditional gift for sovereigns. On the 27th one of the largest parades in French history was held. Marchers stretched from Avenue d'Eylau, down the Champs-Élysées, and all the way to the center of Paris. The paraders marched for six hours to pass Hugo as he sat in the window at his house. Every inch and detail of the event was for Hugo; the official guides even wore cornflowers as an allusion to Fantine's song in ''Les Misérables.''

Victor Hugo's death on 22 May 1885, at the age of 83, generated intense national mourning. He was not only revered as a towering figure in literature, he was a statesman who shaped the Third Republic and democracy in France. More than two million people joined his funeral procession in Paris from the Arc de Triomphe to the Panthéon, where he was buried. He shares a crypt within the Panthéon with Alexandre Dumas and Émile Zola. Most large French towns and cities have a street named for him. The avenue where he died, in Paris, now bears his name.

His last will

He left a set of five sentences as his last will to be officially published :

« Je donne cinquante mille francs aux pauvres. Je veux être enterré dans leur corbillard.

Je refuse l'oraison de toutes les Eglises. Je demande une prière à toutes les âmes.

Je crois en Dieu. »

(I leave 50 000 francs to the poor. I want to be buried in their hearse.

I refuse [funeral] orations of all churches. I beg a prayer to all souls.

I believe in God.)

Drawings

Victor Hugo was a prolific visual artist, producing more than 4,000 drawings in his lifetime. Originally pursued as a casual hobby, drawing became more important to Hugo shortly before his exile, when he made the decision to stop writing in order to devote himself to politics. Drawing became his exclusive creative outlet during the period 1848–1851.

Hugo worked only on paper, and on a small scale; usually in dark brown or black pen-and-ink wash, sometimes with touches of white, and rarely with color. The surviving drawings are surprisingly accomplished and "modern" in their style and execution, foreshadowing the experimental techniques of Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism.

He would not hesitate to use his children's stencils, ink blots, puddles and stains, lace impressions, "pliage" or folding (i.e. Rorschach blots), "grattage" or rubbing, often using the charcoal from match sticks or his fingers instead of pen or brush. Sometimes he would even toss in coffee or soot to get the effects he wanted. It is reported that Hugo often drew with his left hand or without looking at the page, or during Spiritualist séances, in order to access his unconscious mind, a concept only later popularized by Sigmund Freud.

Hugo kept his artwork out of the public eye, fearing it would overshadow his literary work. However, he enjoyed sharing his drawings with his family and friends, often in the form of ornately handmade calling cards, many of which were given as gifts to visitors when he was in political exile. Some of his work was shown to, and appreciated by, contemporary artists such as Van Gogh and Delacroix; the latter expressed the opinion that if Hugo had decided to become a painter instead of a writer, he would have outshone the artists of their century.

Gallery:

Memorials

The people of Guernsey erected a statue in Candie Gardens (St. Peter Port) to commemorate his stay in the islands. The City of Paris has preserved his residences Hauteville House, Guernsey and 6, Place des Vosges, Paris as museums. The house where he stayed in Vianden, Luxembourg, in 1871 has also become a commemorative museum.

Hugo is venerated as a saint in the Vietnamese religion of Cao Dai.

The Avenue Victor-Hugo in the XVIème arrondissement of Paris bears Hugo's name, and links the Place de l'Étoile to the vicinity of the Bois de Boulogne by way of the Place Victor-Hugo. This square is served by a Paris Métro stop also named in his honor. A number of streets and avenues throughout France are likewise named after him. The school Lycée Victor Hugo was founded in his town of birth, Besançon in France. Avenue Victor-Hugo, located in Shawinigan, Quebec, Canada, was named to honor him.

In the city of Avellino, Italy, Victor Hugo lived briefly stayed in what is now known as Il Palazzo Culturale, when reuniting with his father, Leopold Sigisbert Hugo, in 1808. Victor would later write about his brief stay here quoting "C’était un palais de marbre...".

In Havana, Cuba there is a park named after him.

Works

Published during Hugo's lifetime

''Cromwell'' preface only (1819)

''Odes et poésies diverses'' (1822)

''Odes (Hugo)'' (1823)

''Han d'Islande'' (1823) (''Hans of Iceland'')

''Nouvelles Odes'' (1824)

''Bug-Jargal'' (1826)

''Nils Gunnar Lie's history'' (1826)

''Odes et Ballades'' (1826)

''Cromwell'' (1827)

''Les Orientales'' (1829)

''Le Dernier jour d'un condamné'' (1829) (''The Last Day of a Condemned Man'')

''Hernani'' (1830)

''Notre-Dame de Paris'' (1831), (''The Hunchback of Notre-Dame'')

''Marion Delorme'' (1831)

''Les Feuilles d'automne'' (1831)

''Le roi s'amuse'' (1832)

''Lucrèce Borgia'' (1833) (''Lucretia Borgia'')

''Marie Tudor'' (1833)

''Littérature et philosophie mêlées'' (1834)

''Claude Gueux'' (1834)

''Angelo, tyran de padoue'' (1835)

''Les Chants du crépuscule'' (1835)

''La Esmeralda (only libretto of an opera written by Victor Hugo himself)'' (1836)

''Les Voix intérieures'' (1837)

''Ruy Blas'' (1838)

''Les Rayons et les ombres'' (1840)

''Le Rhin'' (1842)

''Les Burgraves'' (1843)

''Napoléon le Petit'' (1852)

''Les Châtiments'' (1853)

''Les Contemplations'' (1856)

''Les TRYNE'' (1856)

''La Légende des siècles'' (1859)

''Les Misérables'' (1862)

''William Shakespeare'' (1864)

''Les Chansons des rues et des bois'' (1865)

''Les Travailleurs de la Mer'' (1866), (''Toilers of the Sea'')

''La voix de Guernsey'' (1867)

''L'Homme qui rit'' (1869), (''The Man Who Laughs'')

''L'Année terrible'' (1872)

''Quatrevingt-treize'' (''Ninety-Three'') (1874)

''Mes Fils'' (1874)

''Actes et paroles – Avant l'exil'' (1875)

''Actes et paroles – Pendant l'exil'' (1875)

''Actes et paroles – Depuis l'exil'' (1876)

''La Légende des Siècles 2e série'' (1877)

''L'Art d'être grand-père'' (1877)

''Histoire d'un crime'' 1re partie (1877)

''Histoire d'un crime'' 2e partie (1878)

''Le Pape'' (1878)

''La pitié suprême'' (1879)

''Religions et religion'' (1880)

''L'Âne'' (1880)

''Les Quatres vents de l'esprit'' (1881)

''Torquemada'' (1882)

''La Légende des siècles'' Tome III (1883)

''L'Archipel de la Manche'' (1883)

Poems of Victor Hugo

Published posthumously

''Théâtre en liberté'' (1886)

''La Fin de Satan'' (1886)

''Choses vues'' (1887)

''Toute la lyre'' (1888)

''Amy Robsart'' (1889)

''Les Jumeaux'' (1889)

''Actes et Paroles'' Depuis l'exil, 1876–1885 (1889)

''Alpes et Pyrénées'' (1890)

''Dieu'' (1891)

''France et Belgique'' (1892)

''Toute la lyre – dernière série'' (1893)

''Les fromages'' (1895)

''Correspondences – Tome I'' (1896)

''Correspondences – Tome II'' (1898)

''Les années funestes'' (1898)

''Choses vues – nouvelle série'' (1900)

''Post-scriptum de ma vie'' (1901)

''Dernière Gerbe'' (1902)

''Mille francs de récompense'' (1934)

''Océan. Tas de pierres'' (1942)

''L'Intervention'' (1951)

''Conversations with Eternity'' (1998)

Online texts

Works by Victor Hugo at Internet Archive

Works by Victor Hugo at The Online Books Page

Political speeches by Victor Hugo: Victor Hugo, My Revenge is Fraternity!

Selected Poetry

Biography and speech from 1851

Obituary in ''The Times''

References

Online references

Afran, Charles (1997). “Victor Hugo: French Dramatist”. Website: Discover France. (Originally published in ''Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia'', 1997, v.9.0.1.) Retrieved November 2005.

Bates, Alfred (1906). “Victor Hugo”. Website: Theatre History. (Originally published in ''The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization'', vol. 9. ed. Alfred Bates. London: Historical Publishing Company, 1906. pp. 11–13.) Retrieved November 2005.

Bates, Alfred (1906). “Hernani”. Website: Theatre History. (Originally published in ''The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization'', vol. 9. ed. Alfred Bates. London: Historical Publishing Company, 1906. pp. 20–23.) Retrieved November 2005.

Bates, Alfred (1906). “Hugo’s Cromwell”. Website: Theatre History. (Originally published in ''The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization'', vol. 9. ed. Alfred Bates. London: Historical Publishing Company, 1906. pp. 18–19.) Retrieved November 2005.

Bittleston, Misha (uncited date). "Drawings of Victor Hugo". Website: Misha Bittleston. Retrieved November 2005.

Burnham, I.G. (1896). “Amy Robsart”. Website: Theatre History. (Originally published in ''Victor Hugo: Dramas''. Philadelphia: The Rittenhouse Press, 1896. pp. 203–6, 401–2.) Retrieved November 2005.

Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th Edition (2001–05). “Hugo, Victor Marie, Vicomte”. Website: Bartleby, Great Books Online. Retrieved November 2005. Retrieved November 2005.

Haine, W. Scott (1997). “Victor Hugo”. Encyclopedia of 1848 Revolutions. Website: Ohio University. Retrieved November 2005.

Illi, Peter (2001–2004). “Victor Hugo: Plays”. Website: The Victor Hugo Website. Retrieved November 2005.

Karlins, N.F. (1998). "Octopus With the Initials V.H." Website: ArtNet. Retrieved November 2005.

Liukkonen, Petri (2000). “Victor Hugo (1802–1885)”. Books and Writers. Website: Pegasos: A Literature Related Resource Site. Retrieved November 2005.

Meyer, Ronald Bruce (2004). “Victor Hugo”. Website: Ronald Bruce Meyer. Retrieved November 2005.

Portasio, Manoel (2009). “Victor Hugo e o Espiritismo”. Website: Sir William Crookes Spiritist Society. (Portuguese) Retrieved August 2010.

Robb, Graham (1997). “A Sabre in the Night”. Website: New York Times (Books). (Excerpt from Graham, Robb (1997). ''Victor Hugo: A Biography''. New York: W.W. Norton & Company.) Retrieved November 2005.

Roche, Isabel (2005). “Victor Hugo: Biography”. Meet the Writers. Website: Barnes & Noble. (From the Barnes & Noble Classics edition of ''The Hunchback of Notre Dame'', 2005.) Retrieved November 2005.

Schneider, Maria do Carmo M (2010). “Victor Hugo, gênio sem fronteiras”. Website: MiniWeb Educacao. (Portuguese) Retrieved August 2010.

Uncited Author. “Victor Hugo”. Website: Spartacus Educational. Retrieved November 2005.

Uncited Author. “Timeline of Victor Hugo”. Website: BBC. Retrieved November 2005.

Uncited Author. (2000–2005). “Victor Hugo”. Website: The Literature Network. Retrieved November 2005.

Uncited Author. "Hugo Caricature". Website: Présence de la Littérature a l'école. Retrieved November 2005.

Further reading

Barbou, Alfred (1882). ''Victor Hugo and His Times''. University Press of the Pacific: 2001 paper back edition. Book sources

Barnett, Marva A., ed. (2009). ''Victor Hugo on Things That Matter: A Reader''. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press. Book sources

Brombert, Victor H. (1984). ''Victor Hugo and the Visionary Novel''. Boston: Harvard University Press. Book sources

Davidson, A.F. (1912). ''Victor Hugo: His Life and Work''. University Press of the Pacific: 2003 paperback edition. Book sources

Dow, Leslie Smith (1993). ''Adele Hugo: La Miserable''. Fredericton: Goose Lane Editions. Book sources

Falkayn, David (2001). ''Guide to the Life, Times, and Works of Victor Hugo''. University Press of the Pacific. Book sources

Feller, Martin, ''Der Dichter in der Politik. Victor Hugo und der deutsch-französische Krieg von 1870/71. Untersuchungen zum französischen Deutschlandbild und zu Hugos Rezeption in Deutschland.'' Doctoral Dissertation, Marburg 1988.

Frey, John Andrew (1999). ''A Victor Hugo Encyclopedia''. Greenwood Press. Book sources

Grant, Elliot (1946). ''The Career of Victor Hugo''. Harvard University Press. Out of print.

Halsall, A.W. et al. (1998). ''Victor Hugo and the Romantic Drama''. University of Toronto Press.Book sources

Hart, Simon Allen (2004). ''Lady in the Shadows: The Life and Times of Julie Drouet, Mistress, Companion and Muse to Victor Hugo.'' Publish American. Book sources

Houston, John Porter (1975). ''Victor Hugo''. New York: Twayne Publishers. Book sources

Hovasse, Jean-Marc (2001), ''Victor Hugo: Avant l'exil''. Paris: Fayard. Book sources

Hovasse, Jean-Marc (2008), ''Victor Hugo: Pendant l'exil I''. Paris: Fayard. Book sources

Ireson, J.C. (1997). ''Victor Hugo: A Companion to His Poetry''. Clarendon Press. Book sources

Laster, Arnaud (2002). ''Hugo à l'Opéra''. Paris: L'Avant-Scène Opéra, no. 208.

Maurois, Andre (1956). ''Olympio: The Life of Victor Hugo''. New York: Harper & Brothers.

Maurois, Andre (1966). ''Victor Hugo and His World''. London: Thames and Hudson. Out of print.

Pouchain, Gérard and Robert Sabourin (1992). ''Juliette Drouet, ou, La dépaysée''. Paris: Fayard. Book sources

Robb, Graham (1997). ''Victor Hugo: A Biography''. W.W. Norton & Company: 1999 paperback edition. Book sources, (description/reviews at wwnorton.com)

Tonazzi, Pascal (2007) ''Florilège de Notre-Dame de Paris (anthologie)'' Paris, Editions Arléa ISBN 2-86959-795-9

External links

France of Victor Hugo

Guernsey’s Official Victor Hugo Website

Guernsey’s Victor Hugo International Music Festival

Victor Hugo Central

Victor Hugo's works: text, concordances and frequency lists

1867 Caricature of Victor Hugo by André Gill

Victor Hugo le dessinateur

Translation of Victor Hugo note found in "Hunchback of Notre Dame," french edition

English translation of Hugo's ''At Dawn Tomorrow'' (''Demain, dès l'aube'')

Another English translation of ''Demain, dès l'aube''

English translation of Hugo's ''A Villequier''

English translation of Hugo's ''Oh ! je fus comme fou dans le premier moment'' ('Oh! I was like a crazy man in the first moment') on the death of his daughter Léopoldine

Official site of the Société des Amis de Victor Hugo

Official site of the Festival international Victor Hugo et Égaux

Translation of The legend of Victor Hugo by Paul Lafargue

Category:1802 births Category:1885 deaths Category:19th-century French writers Category:19th-century theatre Category:Burials at the Panthéon Category:Cao Dai saints Category:Deists Category:French anti–death penalty activists Category:French dramatists and playwrights Category:French fantasy writers Category:French novelists Category:French poets Category:French-language poets Category:Guernsey writers Category:Jersey writers Category:Lycée Louis-le-Grand alumni Category:Members of the Académie française Category:Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Category:People from Besançon Category:Philhellenes Category:Romantic poets Category:Rosicrucians Category:Spiritualists Category:University of Paris alumni Category:Western mystics Category:Writers who illustrated their own writing

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"The Man" is a slang phrase that may refer to the government or to some other authority in a position of power. In addition to this derogatory connotation, it may also serve as a term of respect and praise.

The phrase "the Man is keeping me down" is commonly used to describe oppression. The phrase "stick it to the Man" encourages resistance to authority, and essentially means "fight back" or "resist", either openly or via sabotage.

History

The term "the Man" in the American sense dates back to the late 19th Century. In the Southern U.S. states, the phrase came to be applied to any man or any group in a position of authority, or to authority in the abstract. From about the 1950s the phrase was also an underworld code word for police, the warden of a prison or other law enforcement or penal authorities.

It was also used as a term for a drug dealer in the 1950s and 1960s and can be seen in such media as Curtis Mayfield's "No Thing On Me", William Burroughs's novel ''Naked Lunch'', and in the Velvet Underground song "I'm Waiting for the Man", in which Lou Reed sings about going to Uptown Manhattan, specifically Lexington Avenue and 125th Street, to buy heroin.

The use of this term was expanded to counterculture groups and their battles against authority, such as the Yippies, which, according to a May 19, 1969 article in ''U.S. News and World Report'', had the "avowed aim ... to destroy 'The Man', their term for the present system of government". The term eventually found its way into humorous usage, such as in a December 1979 motorcycle ad from the magazine ''Easyriders'' which featured the tagline, "California residents: Add 6% sales tax for The Man."

In present day, the phrase has been popularized in commercials and cinema.

Use as praise

The term has also been used as an approbation or form of praise. This may refer to the recipient's status as the leader or authority within a particular context, or it might be assumed to be a shortened form of a phrase like "He is the man (who is in charge)." One example of this usage dates to 1879 when Otto von Bismarck commented, referring to Benjamin Disraeli's pre-eminent position at the Congress of Berlin, "The old Jew, he is the man."

In more modern usage, it can be a superlative compliment ("you da man!") indicating that the subject is currently standing out amongst his peers even though they have no special designation or rank, such as a basketball player who is performing better than the other players on the court. It can also be used as a genuine compliment with an implied, slightly exaggerated or sarcastic tone, usually indicating that the person has indeed impressed the speaker but by doing something relatively trivial.

See also

Absentee landlord

Big Brother (''Nineteen Eighty-Four'')

New World Order (conspiracy theory)

Ruling class

The Establishment

Power elite

Corrections officer

YTMND

Notes

References

Lighter, J.E. (Ed.). (1997). ''Random House Dictionary of American Slang''. New York: Random House.

Category:Slang expressions Category:Stock characters Category:English idioms Category:Pejorative terms for people Category:Military-industrial complex

The Man in the Iron Mask (French: ''L'Homme au Masque de Fer)'' is a name given to a prisoner arrested as Eustache Dauger in 1669, and held in a number of jails, including the Bastille and the Fortress of Pignerol (today Pinerolo). He was held in the custody of the same jailer, Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars, for a period of 34 years. He died on 19 November 1703 under the name of Marchioly, during the reign of Louis XIV of France, 1643-1715. The possible identity of this man has been thoroughly discussed and has been the subject of many books, because no one ever saw his face, which was hidden by a mask of black velvet cloth.

In the second edition of his ''Questions sur l'Encyclopédie'' (French for "Questions on the Encyclopedia"), published in 1771, the writer and philosopher Voltaire claimed that the prisoner wore an iron mask and was the older, illegitimate brother of Louis XIV. In the late 1840s, the writer Alexandre Dumas elaborated on the theme in the final installment of his ''Three Musketeers'' saga: here the prisoner is forced to wear an iron mask and is Louis XIV's twin brother.

What facts are known about this prisoner are based mainly on correspondence between his jailer and his superiors in Paris.

The prisoner

Arrest and imprisonment

The first surviving records of the masked prisoner are from late July 1669, when Louis XIV's minister the Marquis de Louvois sent a letter to Bénigne Dauvergne de Saint-Mars, governor of the prison of Pignerol, then part of France. In his letter, Louvois informed Saint-Mars that a prisoner named Eustache Dauger was due to arrive in the next month or so.

Louvois instructed Saint-Mars to prepare a cell with multiple doors, one closing upon the other, which were to prevent anyone from the outside listening in. Saint-Mars himself was to see Dauger only once a day in order to provide food and whatever else he needed. Dauger was also to be told that if he spoke of anything other than his immediate needs he would be killed, but, according to Louvois, the prisoner should not require much since he was "only a valet".

Historians have noted that the name ''Eustache Dauger'' was written in a different handwriting to the rest of the text, suggesting that while a clerk wrote the letter under Louvois's dictation, a third party, very likely the minister himself, added the name afterwards.

The man himself was arrested by Captain Alexandre de Vauroy, garrison commander of Dunkirk, and taken to Pignerol where he arrived in late August. Evidence has been produced to suggest that the arrest was actually made in Calais and that not even the local governor was informed of the event — Vauroy's absence being explained away by him hunting for Spanish soldiers who had strayed into France via the Spanish Netherlands.

The first rumours of the prisoner's identity (as a Marshal of France) began to circulate at this point. According to many versions of this legend, the prisoner wore the mask at all times. It is more probable that he was masked only during transport, such as when he was taken from prison to prison, and when there were outside visitors to the jail.

The masked man serves as a valet

The prison at Pignerol, like the others at which Dauger was later held, was used for men who were considered an embarrassment to the state and usually only had a handful of prisoners at a time.

Saint-Mars's other prisoners at Pignerol included Count Ercole Antonio Mattioli (or Matthioli), an Italian diplomat who had been kidnapped and jailed for double-crossing the French over the purchase of the important fortress town of Casale on the Italian border. There was also Nicolas Fouquet, Marquis of Belle-Île, a former superintendent of finances, who had been jailed by Louis XIV on the charge of embezzlement; and the Marquis de Lauzun, who had become engaged to the Duchess of Montpensier, a cousin of the King, without the King's consent. Fouquet's cell was above that of Lauzun.

In his letters to Louvois, Saint-Mars describes Dauger as a quiet man, giving no trouble, "disposed to the will of God and to the king", compared to his other prisoners who were either always complaining, constantly trying to escape, or simply mad.

Dauger was not always isolated from the other prisoners. Wealthy and important ones usually had manservants; Fouquet for instance was served by a man called La Rivière. These servants, however, would become as much prisoners as their masters and it was thus difficult to find people willing to volunteer for such an occupation. Since La Rivière was often ill, Saint-Mars applied for permission for Dauger to act as servant for Fouquet. In 1675 Louvois gave permission for such an arrangement on condition that he was only to serve Fouquet while La Rivière was unavailable and that he was not to meet anyone else; for instance, if Fouquet and Lauzun were to meet, Dauger was not to be present.

The fact that the man in the mask served as a valet is an important one. Fouquet was never expected to be released, thus meeting Dauger was no great matter, but Lauzun was expected to be set free eventually and it would have been important not to have him spread rumours of Dauger's existence. Historians have also argued that 17^th-century protocol made it unthinkable that a man of royal blood would serve as a manservant — thus very much discrediting those suggestions that Dauger was in any way related to the king.

After Fouquet's death in 1680, Saint-Mars discovered a secret hole between Fouquet and Lauzun's cells. He was sure that they had communicated through this hole without supervision by him or his guards and thus that Lauzun must have been made aware of Dauger's existence. Louvois instructed Saint-Mars to move Lauzun to Fouquet's cell and to tell him that Dauger and La Rivière had been released. In fact they were held in another cell in another part of the prison, their presence there being highly secret.

Other prisons

Lauzun was freed in 1681. Later that same year Saint-Mars was appointed governor of the prison fortress of Exiles (now Exilles in Italy). He went there, taking Dauger and La Riviere with him. La Riviere's death was reported in January 1687 and in May Saint-Mars and Dauger moved to Sainte-Marguerite, one of the Lérins Islands, half a mile offshore from Cannes.

It was during the journey to Sainte-Marguerite that rumours spread that the prisoner was wearing an iron mask. Again, he was placed in a cell with multiple doors.

On September 18, 1698, Saint-Mars took up his new post as governor of the Bastille prison in Paris, bringing the masked prisoner with him. He was placed in a solitary cell in the pre-furnished third chamber of the Bertaudière tower. The prison's second-in-command, de Rosarges, was to feed him. Lieutenant du Junca, another officer of the Bastille, noted that the prisoner wore "a mask of black velvet".

The prisoner died on November 19, 1703, and was buried the next day under the name of ''Marchioly''. All his furniture and clothing were reportedly destroyed afterwards.

In 1711, King Louis's sister-in-law, the Princess Palatine, sent a letter to her aunt, Sophia, Electress of Hanover, stating that the prisoner had "two musketeers at his side to kill him if he removed his mask". She described him as very devout, and that he was well treated and received everything he desired. It might be noted though that the prisoner had already been dead for eight years and that the Princess had not necessarily seen him for herself, thus she was quite likely reporting on rumors she had heard at court.

Interest

The fate of the mysterious prisoner — and the extent of apparent precautions his jailers took — created much interest and many legends. There are almost a hundred theories in existence and many books have been written about the case. Some were presented after the existence of the letters was widely known. Later commentators have still presented their own theories, possibly based on embellished versions of the original tale.

Theories about his identity made at the time included that he was a Marshal of France; or the English Richard Cromwell, son of Oliver Cromwell; or François, Duke of Beaufort. Later, many people such as Voltaire and Alexandre Dumas put forward other theories about the man in the mask.

It has even been suggested that he was one of the other famous contemporary prisoners being held at Pignerol at the same time as Dauger.

Candidates

The King's relative

Voltaire claimed that the prisoner was a son of Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin, and therefore an illegitimate half-brother of King Louis XIV. How serious he was is hard to say. Alexandre Dumas used this theory in his book, ''The Vicomte de Bragelonne'', but made the prisoner a twin brother. This book has served as the basis - even if loosely adapted - for many film versions of the story.

Hugh Ross Williamson argues that the man in the iron mask was actually the father of Louis XIV. According to this theory, the 'miraculous' birth of Louis XIV in 1638, after Louis XIII had been estranged from his wife for over twenty years, implies that Louis XIII was not the father.

The suggestion is that the King's minister, Cardinal Richelieu, had arranged for a substitute, probably an illegitimate son or grandson of Henry IV, to become intimate with the Queen, and father an heir. At the time, the heir presumptive was Louis XIII's brother Gaston d'Orléans, who was also Richelieu's enemy. If Gaston became King, Richelieu would quite likely have lost both his job as minister and his life, so it was in his interests to thwart Gaston's ambitions. Louis XIII also hated Gaston and might thus have agreed to the scheme.

Supposedly the father then left for the Americas, but in the 1660s returned to France with the aim of extorting money for keeping his secret, and was promptly imprisoned. This theory would explain both the secrecy surrounding the prisoner, whose true identity would have destroyed the legitimacy of Louis XIV had it been revealed, and (because of the King's respect for his own father) the comfort of the terms of his imprisonment and the fact that he was not simply killed.

The general

In 1890 Louis Gendron, a French military historian, came across some coded letters and passed them on to Etienne Bazeries in the French Army's cryptographic department. After three years Bazeries managed to read some messages in the Great Cipher of Louis XIV. One of them referred to a prisoner and identified him as General Vivien de Bulonde. One of the letters written by Louvois made specific reference to de Bulonde's crime.

At the Siege of Cuneo in 1691, Bulonde was concerned about enemy troops arriving from Austria and ordered a hasty withdrawal, leaving behind his munitions and wounded men. Louis XIV was furious and in another of the letters specifically ordered him "to be conducted to the fortress at Pignerol where he will be locked in a cell and under guard at night, and permitted to walk the battlements during the day with a 330 309". It has been suggested that the "330" stood for ''masque'' and the 309 for "full stop". The dates of the letters fit the dates of the original records about the man in the mask. However, in 17th-century French ''avec un masque'' would mean "with a person in a mask".

Some believe that the evidence of the letters means that there is now little need of an alternative explanation for the man in the mask. Other sources, however, claim that Bulonde's arrest was no secret, was actually published in a newspaper at the time and that he was released after just a few months. His death is also recorded as happening in 1709, six years after that of the man in the mask.

The valet

In 1801 revolutionary legislator Pierre Roux-Fazillac stated that the tale of the masked prisoner was an amalgamation of the fates of two separate prisoners, Ercole Antonio Mattioli (see below) and an imprisoned valet named "Eustache D'auger".

Andrew Lang, in his ''The Valet's Tragedy and Other Stories'' (1903), presented a theory that "Eustache Dauger" was a prison pseudonym of a man called "Martin", valet of the Huguenot Roux de Marsilly. After his master's execution in 1669 the valet was taken to France, possibly by capture or subterfuge, and imprisoned because he might have known too much about his master's affairs.

The son of Charles II

In ''The Man of the Mask'' (1908), Arthur Barnes presents James de la Cloche, the alleged illegitimate son of the reluctant Protestant Charles II of England, who would have been his father's secret intermediary with the Catholic court of France. Louis XIV could have imprisoned him because he knew too much about French affairs with England.

One of Charles's confirmed illegitimate sons has also been proposed as the man in the mask. This was the Duke of Monmouth. A Protestant, he led a rebellion against his uncle, the Catholic King James II. The rebellion failed and Monmouth was executed in 1685. But in 1768 a writer named Saint-Foix claimed that another man was executed in his place and that Monmouth became the masked prisoner, it being in Louis XIV's interests to assist a fellow Catholic like James who would not necessarily want to kill his own nephew. (Saint-Foix's case was based on unsubstantiated rumours, and allegations that Monmouth's execution was faked.)

The government minister

Other popular suspects have included men known to have been held at Pignerol at the same time as Dauger. Fouquet himself has been considered, but the fact that Dauger is known to have served as his valet makes this unlikely. During the taking of the Bastille during the French Revolution of 1789, it was reported that a skeleton was found, still chained to the wall, and with an iron mask next to him. An inscription claimed that his name was "Fouquet".

This discovery has since been discredited, however, and it is supposed that it was an attempt by the leaders of the Revolution to make up for the fact that there were no actual political prisoners in the Bastille at the time of its taking. In fact there were only a handful of people serving time for forgery and a couple of lunatics.

The Italian diplomat

Another candidate, much favoured in the 19th-century, was Fouquet's fellow prisoner Count Ercole Antonio Mattioli (or Matthioli). He was an Italian diplomat who, in 1678, acted on behalf of the debt-ridden Charles IV, Duke of Mantua, in the selling of Casale, a strategic fortified town near the border with France. Because a French occupation would be unpopular, discretion was essential, but, after pocketing his commission once the sale had been concluded, Mattioli leaked the details to France's Spanish enemies who made a bid of their own before the French forces could occupy the town. Mattioli was kidnapped by the French and thrown into nearby Pignerol in April 1679. The French took possession of Casale two years later.

Since the prisoner is known to have been buried under the name "Marchioly", many believe that this is proof enough that he was the man in the mask. The Hon. George Agar Ellis reached the conclusion that Mattioli was the state prisoner commonly called The Iron Mask when he reviewed documents extracted from French archives in the 1820s. His book, published in English in 1826, was also translated into French and published in 1830. The German historian, Wilhelm Broecking came to the same conclusion independently seventy years later. Robert Chambers' ''Book of Days'' supports the claim and places Matthioli in the Bastille for the last 13 years of his life.

Since that time, letters purportedly sent by Saint-Mars, which earlier historians missed, indicate that Mattioli was only held at Pignerol and Sainte-Marguerite and was not at Exiles or the Bastille and therefore it is argued that he can be discounted.

Eustache Dauger - the name of the prisoner

In his letter to Saint-Mars announcing the imminent arrival of the prisoner who would become the "man in the iron mask", Louvois gave his name as "Eustache Dauger" and historians have found evidence that a Eustache Dauger was living at the time and was involved in shady and embarrassing events involving people in high places. His full name was Eustache Dauger de Cavoye.

Records indicate that he was born on 30 August 1637, the son of François Dauger, a captain in Cardinal Richelieu's guards. François was married to Marie de Sérignan and they had eleven children, nine of whom survived into adulthood. When François and his two eldest sons were killed in battle, Eustache became the nominal head of the family. Like them he joined the army where he came under the command of Armand de Gramont, comte de Guiche, a brave soldier, notorious playboy and bisexual.

Disgrace

In April 1659, Eustache and Guiche were invited to an Easter weekend party at the castle of Roissy-en-Brie. By all accounts it was a debauched affair of merry-making with the men involved in all sorts of sordid activities, including attacking a man who claimed to be Cardinal Mazarin's attorney. It was also claimed, among other things, that a black mass was enacted, homosexual activity had taken place and that a pig was baptized as "carp" in order that they could eat pork on Good Friday.

When news of these events became public an enquiry was held and the various perpetrators jailed or exiled. There is no record as to what happened to Dauger, but in 1665, near the Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, he allegedly killed a young page boy in a drunken brawl involving the Duc de Foix. The two men claimed that they had been provoked by the boy who was drunk, but the fact that the killing took place near a castle where the King was staying meant that this was not good enough an explanation and, as a result, Dauger was forced to resign his commission.

Dauger's mother died shortly afterwards. In her will, written a year before, she passed over her eldest surviving sons, Eustache and Armand, leaving the bulk of the estate to their younger brother Louis. Eustache was restricted in how much money he had access to, having built up considerable debts, and barely being left with enough for "food and upkeep". As titular head of the family, he had come into some small estates, but gave these up to Louis, who provided him with an additional annual payment.

Affair of the Poisons

In the 1930s, the historian Maurice Duvivier linked Eustache Dauger de Cavoye to the Affair of the Poisons, a notorious scandal of 1677-1682 in which people in high places were accused of being involved in black mass and poisonings. An investigation had been launched, but Louis XIV had instigated a cover-up when it appeared that his mistress, Madame de Montespan, and his sister-in-law, Henrietta, the Duchesse of Orléans, were involved.

The records show that during the enquiry the investigators were told about a supplier of poisons, a surgeon named Auger, and Duvivier became convinced that Dauger de Cavoye, disinherited and short of money, had become Auger, the supplier of poisons, and subsequently Dauger, the man in the mask.

In a letter sent by Louvois to Saint-Mars, shortly after Fouquet's death while in prison (with Dauger acting as his valet), the minister adds a note in his own handwriting, asking how Dauger performed certain acts that Saint-Mars had mentioned in a previous correspondence (now lost) and "how he got the drugs necessary to do so". Duvivier suggested that Dauger may have poisoned Fouquet as part of a complex power-struggle between Louvois and his rival Colbert.

Dauger in prison

However, evidence has emerged that Dauger de Cavoye actually died in the Prison Saint-Lazare, an asylum run by monks which many families used in order to imprison their "black sheep". Documents have survived indicating that Dauger de Cavoye was held at Saint-Lazare in Paris at about the same time that Dauger, the man in the mask, was taken into custody in Pignerol, hundreds of miles away in the south.

These include a letter sent to Dauger de Cavoye's sister, the Marquise de Fabrègues, dated 20 June 1678, which is filled with self-pity as Eustache complains about his treatment in prison, where he has been held for 10 years, and how he was deceived by their brother Louis and Clérac, their brother-in-law and the manager of Louis' estate. A year later, he wrote a letter to the King, outlining the same complaints and making a similar request for freedom. The best the King would do, however, was to send a letter to the head of Saint-Lazare telling him that "M. de Cavoye should have communication with no one at all, not even with his sister, unless in your presence or in the presence of one of the priests of the mission". The letter was signed by the King and Colbert.

A poem written by the Comte de Brienne, himself an inmate at the time, indicates that Eustache Dauger de Cavoye died as a result of heavy drinking in the late 1680s. Historians consider all this proof enough that he was not involved in any way with the man in the mask.

In popular culture

;Literature

Alexandre Dumas, père, ''The Vicomte de Bragelonne''

Henry Vizetelly, ''The Man With the Iron Mask''

Juliette Benzoni, ''Secret d'etat''

Louis-César, ''Cassandra Palmer series''

;Films and television

1909: ''La maschera di ferro'' - Italian silent film

1923: ''Der Mann mit der eisernen Maske'' - German silent film

1929: ''The Iron Mask'' - An American silent film starring Douglas Fairbanks

1939: ''The Man in the Iron Mask'' - American black and white film directed by James Whale, starring Louis Hayward, Joan Bennett, Warren William and Alan Hale, Sr. (as "Porthos")

1952: ''Lady in the Iron Mask'' - American color film starring Louis Hayward, Patricia Medina and Alan Hale, Jr. (as "Porthos")

1962: ''Le Masque de fer'' - Italian/French film, starring Jean Marais

1968: ''The Man in the Iron Mask'' - British TV series (9 episodes)

1977: ''The Man in the Iron Mask'' (1977) - British TV movie with Richard Chamberlain, Patrick McGoohan, Louis Jourdan, Jenny Agutter, Ian Holm, Ralph Richardson and Vivien Merchant

1979: ''The Fifth Musketeer'' also known as ''Behind the Iron Mask'' - Austrian/West German film directed by Ken Annakin, with Ursula Andress, Beau Bridges, Cornel Wilde, Lloyd Bridges, José Ferrer, Olivia de Havilland, Rex Harrison and Alan Hale Jr. (as "Porthos"); remake of the 1939 film

1985: ''The Man in the Iron Mask'' - Australian animated TV film

1987: ''Three Musketeers'' - Japanese anime TV series, included the character of The Man in the Iron Mask depicted as a Doctor Doom-like villain.

1998: ''The Man in the Iron Mask'' - British/American film directed by Randall Wallace, with Leonardo DiCaprio, Jeremy Irons, John Malkovich, Gérard Depardieu and Gabriel Byrne

1998: ''The Man in the Iron Mask'' also known as ''The Mask of Dumas'' - American film, directed by William Richert, with Edward Albert, Dana Barron, Rex Ryon and Timothy Bottoms

See also

Dumas's 1848 novel ''The Vicomte de Bragelonne'', the final section of which is titled ''The Man in the Iron Mask'' (French: ) and is based on this legend.

Ivan VI of Russia, who was an almost lifelong prisoner after ascending the Russian throne as a baby, only to be overthrown within a few years.

Look-alike.

Notes

External links

''The Mystery of the Iron Mask''

Who was the "Man in the Iron Mask"? at the Straight Dope

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