History Main / ManInTheIronMask

* ''Manga/{{Berserk}}'': Late in the ''Golden Age Arc'', [[spoiler:The King of Midland imprisons Griffith in a dungeon under torture as punishment for deflowering his daughter, even though the mere fact that Griffith is alive represents a threat of rebellion from the Band of the Hawk. At least the King tries to prevent that from happening by preemptively outlawing Griffith's followers and ordering Midland's army to wipe them out. The king keeps the place of Griffith's imprisonment and the nature of his crime a secret to avoid losing face and to make sure that Griffith doesn't escape, telling the guards he'll kill them and their families if they breathe a word about it. Of course, the Hawks do manage to break Griffith out of prison a year later]], and for bonus points they find that his captors had literally put him in a locked iron mask that concealed [[TakeOurWordForIt the horrible things the torturer had done to his face]].

* In Creator/RobertEHoward's Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian story "Literature/AWitchShallBeBorn", Salome, the EvilTwin, does this to Tamaris when becoming the FakeKing. She wants to BreakTheHaughty on Tamaris.

* The legend of the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_in_the_Iron_Mask Man in the Iron Mask]] was based on actual records found from Bastille. There are a lot of theories regarding the Man's identity, but very little information remains of the real events. What has been discovered is that the Iron Mask itself was an exaggeration - the mask was just silk, and the Man probably wore it voluntarily. A fair amount of evidence points to his having been an insignificant figure whose knowledge was dangerous, not he himself. You will not find that in any of the legends.

* In another Franchise/{{LEGO}} line, [[KnightsKingdom2 Knights' Kingdom]], Lord Vladek [[TheUsurper usurped]] the throne and, rather than killing King Mathias due to the threat he posed to Vladek's rule, simply had him locked up in the Castle of Morcia's dungeons instead. Of course, this allowed LaResistance to rescue Mathias, learn of Vladek's true intentions, and ultimately restore the rightful king to the throne.

* King Jakoven in Creator/PatriciaBriggs' ''Hurog'' series built the Asylum specifically to lock up his brother Kellen, having been warned in a prophecy that it would be a very bad idea to kill his brother. While it's common knowledge that he's in there, most of the common people seem to have bought the idea that he's genuinely nuts, rather than unjustly imprisoned.

* In Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin's ''A Wizard of Earthsea'', Ged meets two people alone on a desert island, barely capable of understanding human speech. In ''The Tombs of Atuan'' Tenar explains that they were the last children of a royal line, and the God-Emperor was afraid to kill them, since they had RoyalBlood, so he abandoned them there, very young. Subverted in that Ged did not rescue them; in fact, they were terrified at the prospect of leaving their island.
** Notably, they were put to sea when they were children and were now at least middle aged. Royal blood clearly included excellent survival instincts, but they were a bit past their "crown by" date. The God-Emperor may have been cautious, but his grip on power was quiet definitely cemented when he had them exiled.

* In the second Franchise/{{Bionicle}} movie, [[spoiler: Lhikan]] gets this treatment, down to the [[VisualPun mask]]. Weird but funny in hindsight, because most characters wear masks ''anyway''. The character in question actually ''complied'' with the treatment to be able to train three of the Toa Metru. [[spoiler: It turns out he could have escaped at any time.]]

* In ''Series/TheFlash2014'' Zoom has someone in an iron mask kept in a prison cell on Earth-2.

* Ivan VI Antonovich Romanov, an [[UsefulNotes/TsarTsarAutocrats Emperor of Russia]]. Crowned when he was one year old, after his great-aunt Empress Anna Ioannovna the Bloody died. Deposed by Elizabeth of Russia, who thought that, as the daughter of UsefulNotes/PeterTheGreat, she has a better claim to the throne, one year later. Grew up in prison, understandably strange and lacking in education, but knowing well who he was. One disgruntled, plotting Guards officer in UsefulNotes/CatherineTheGreat 's times tried to free Ivan Romanov and reinstate him on the throne. It ended in both Ivan and the guardsman killed.

* ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'': Has [[spoiler: Princess Cadence, who was imprisoned in some sort of crystal mine while Chrysalis, Queen of the changelings, took her place. Twilight sparkle then gets thrown into the same place and breaks her out]].

* His imprisonment -- quite possibly his very existence or the very fact that he is alive -- is a secret hidden from most the guards and/or the people at large
* Releasing the prisoner would put the overlord's reign (or plans to reign) in jeopardy

* In some versions of ''Myth/RobinHood'', John claims to be raising money to free [[UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionHeart King Richard]] returning from TheCrusades, but in reality is using the money to stay in power.

* The [[Film/TheManInTheIronMask 1998 version]] starring Creator/LeonardoDiCaprio as the king (Louis) and twin brother (Phillipe). [[spoiler:The movie has the switch between the EvilTwin and GoodTwin succeed.]] Was notable for massive AdaptationDistillation: Louis being more evil than depicted in the novel, and [[spoiler:the twist that D'Artagnan was the real father to the twins]]. This was also [=DiCaprio=]'s follow-up movie to ''Film/{{Titanic}}'' during which legions of fangirls were ''still'' swarming to the earlier film in theaters: ''Iron Mask'' took second place.

** A popular ''Friendship Is Magic'' FandomSpecificPlot is [[DracoInLeatherPants making]] Princess Luna/[[SealedEvilInACan Nightmare]] [[SuperpoweredEvilSide Moon]] into one of those, imprisoned in the Moon by the [[RonTheDeathEater evil Princess Celestia]] so that no one would challenge her dictatorial rule over Equestria. (Canonically, Luna was imprisoned because she [[TheCorruption became corrupted]] and turned into a threat to all life in the world, bot for political reasons.)

[[folder:Film]]

* King Candy from Disney/WreckItRalph usurped the throne of [[spoiler: Princess Vanellope von Schweetz]] by [[spoiler: replacing his code with hers. He couldn't out right delete her code, so he turned her into a glitch, leaving her as a prisoner in her own game.]] On top of that, [[spoiler:King Candy locked up the memories of everyone in the game, including Vanellope herself, and developed a FantasticRacism against her in order to keep her from racing, as her crossing the finish line would cause the [[ResetButton game to reset]], restoring her rightful place on the throne, and exposing Candy's con.]]

-->-- EvilOverlordList #3

-->-- EvilOverlordList item #3

--> --EvilOverlordList item #3

* In some versions of ''Literature/RobinHood'', John claims to be raising money to free [[UsefulNotes/RichardTheLionHeart King Richard]] returning from TheCrusades, but in reality is using the money to stay in power.

----

* In ''VideoGame/ArcanumOfSteamworksAndMagickObscura'', while on prison island, the player can stumble upon an old man, who turns out to be thought-to-be-dead rightful king of kingdom of Cumbria. Inevitably, player can help him regain the throne, and inevitably, under his command the kingdom thrives. This is, however, due to his willingness to commence reforms and accept technology (which, by the way, was the reason why he was couped out of power by his technology hating brother), not some kind of magical property of RoyalBlood.

* This is what the king of the Yellow Kingdom does to his son Len in a non-canon manga adaptation of Music/{{mothy}}'s ''[[Music/{{Vocaloid}} Aku no Meshitsukai]]'' upon hearing the murdered fortuneteller's prophecy that the child born with the birthmark shaped like a splatter of blood will bring ruin to his kingdom. The king declares that Len's twin sister Rin is the only heir who was born that night and imprisons Len in a tower where he remains alone until Rin discovers him years later. Justified in that it's made explicit that killing the prophesied child will also bring ruin to the kingdom.

* In some versions of ''RobinHood'', John claims to be raising money to free [[RichardTheLionHeart King Richard]] returning from TheCrusades, but in reality is using the money to stay in power.

* Ivan VI Antonovich Romanov, an [[UsefulNotes/TsarTsarAutocrats Emperor of Russia]]. Crowned when he was one year old, after his great-aunt Empress Anna Ioannovna the Bloody died. Deposed by Elizabeth of Russia, who thought that, as the daughter of PeterTheGreat, she has a better claim to the throne, one year later. Grew up in prison, understandably strange and lacking in education, but knowing well who he was. One disgruntled, plotting Guards officer in {{Catherin|eTheGreat}}ian times tried to free Ivan Romanov and reinstate him on the throne. It ended in both Ivan and the guardsman killed.

* ''The Prisoner in the Mask'' by DennisWheatley.

* This is what the king of the Yellow Kingdom does to his son Len in the manga adaptation of Music/{{mothy}}'s ''[[Music/{{Vocaloid}} Aku no Meshitsukai]]'' upon hearing the murdered fortuneteller's prophecy that the child born with the birthmark shaped like a splatter of blood will bring ruin to his kingdom. The king declares that Len's twin sister Rin is the only heir who was born that night and imprisons Len in a tower where he remains alone until Rin discovers him years later. Justified in that it's made explicit that killing the prophesied child will also bring ruin to the kingdom.
** Please note that this has, however, been retconned and should no longer be considered when speaking of the series