Philippe
The king's twin, taken at birth and kept six years in the Bastille as Marchiali, who reigns for one morning and wears the mask for the rest of his life.
To be recognised by his mother as her son, which is the one thing he asks for in the royal bedroom and does not get.
The book
The Man in the Iron Mask
Alexandre Dumas
At a glance
- Twin brother of Louis XIV; the Bastille's prisoner Marchiali
- Six, in the second-floor cell of the Bertaudière
- The fort on the island of Sainte-Marguerite, off Cannes, under the governor Saint-Mars
Who they are in the book
Spoiler-freePhilippe is the second son born to Anne of Austria on the same day as Louis XIV, hidden at birth so that France would have one heir and not two. He has been in the Bastille for six years under the name Marchiali when Aramis comes to his cell with a lantern. He has been prepared: a note in his bread, a hair shirt, and the promise of a confessor with a revelation.
Dumas makes him better than his brother and gives him one morning to prove it. He receives his mother, brother and sister-in-law without a slip, threatens to drive the Duchesse de Chevreuse from the kingdom, and hears his mother say he is speaking like his father. When he loses, he says the sentence is just. The mask is his for the rest of the book.
How Philippe Is Portrayed
- Two rosesIn Chapter I, asked whether he misses liberty, he points to two roses from the governor's garden opening in a Japanese vase and asks why he should want other flowers when he has the loveliest of all. If flowers are liberty, he says, he is free.
- First steps on grassIn Chapter X he climbs out of the carriage in the park at Vaux on the night of 15 August and walks unsteadily, as if unused to God's earth. He breathes the night air with his arms crossed on his chest and asks Aramis to be his father.
- Wait until morningIn Chapter XIV, watching from behind the dome as Colbert works on the king, he tells Aramis that if he were king he would say nothing more and wait until the morning to reflect. The king, a moment later, does exactly that.
- The damp handkerchiefIn Chapter XX he stands beside the royal bed still tumbled by his brother's body and finds a handkerchief wet with the king's cold sweat. It frightens him, the text says, as the blood of Abel frightened Cain, and he lies down on the bed anyway.
- The morning audienceIn Chapter XXIV, dressed in hunting costume from Aramis's notes, he receives Anne of Austria, Monsieur and Madame. His mother notices the small difference in his voice. He tells her he will drive Madame de Chevreuse out of his kingdom, and she says he sounds like his father.
- The words on the plateIn Chapter XXXI the message scratched on the silver plate says the writer is the brother of the king of France, a prisoner today and a madman tomorrow. It asks French gentlemen to pray for the son of their old rulers. In Chapter XXXII, masked in steel, he tells the governor to call him accursed.
Philippe quotes
The whole universe is our own; for me the minds of men, for you their bodies.
I am the brother of the king of France—a prisoner to-day—a madman to-morrow. French gentlemen and Christians, pray to God for the soul and the reason of the son of your old rulers.
Arrested by d'Artagnan in Chapter XXIV, he is taken by fishing boat to Sainte-Marguerite and masked with a steel visor soldered to a helmet. Athos and Raoul see him once on the gallery of the fort. He defends d'Artagnan when the fisherman turns on him during the crossing. The book does not return to him after Chapter XXXIV, and d'Artagnan's fear that everyone who knows the secret will die unhappily is the last word on his fate.
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