History Main / ManInTheIronMask

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* In ''FanFic/TowardsTheSun'' Zuko was thrown in a dark, small jail when he was captured after his post-eclipse HeelFaceTurn. Ozai had Zuko jailed instead executed with the implication that he wanted Zuko to waste away and die in jail. [[EvilIsPetty And to be able to gloat to Zuko's face.]] Ty Lee and Mai attempted to break Zuko out of jail but failed. Ultimately it was Zuko's jailers who release him to take throne. Zuko was the only royal left after Ozai's defeat and capture by the Avatar and [[SanitySlippage Azula going insane.]]

* ''The Man In the Iron Mask'' has had several adaptions. Creator/RichardChamberlain starred in one where the older twin son had been spirited away, for leverage to make the younger one a PuppetKing, so the younger one was not, in fact, responsible. But he found out and ordered his brother imprisoned with the mask so no one could do this, but didn't have him killed because it would be TemptingFate to commit regicide (especially of an identical twin). The older one was rescued and managed to confuse the younger's flunkies so that his brother was sent off for the same fate.

** [[spoiler: Drefan and Oba]] Rahls think they're this, but both turn out to be delusional and possibly ''possessed''.
* Solzhenitsyn's ''Literature/TheFirstCircle'' set in a Soviet-era "special prison" features a prisoner kept in isolation and referred to by the other prisoners as "the man in the iron mask", although his actual identity is generally known
* In ''Literature/TheVicomteDeBragelonne'' by Creator/AlexandreDumas ''père'' ({{Trope Namer|s}}), King Louis XIV has a twin brother who is kept in the Bastille -- by their mother, the dowager queen -- to avoid the possibility that he might usurp the throne. To make sure that the guards do not get the wrong idea, the man is placed in a secure part of the prison and forced to wear an iron mask to conceal his identity. This is based on accounts of a real prisoner in the Bastille (among other prisons) forced to wear a mask. His identity was never revealed. This also subverts expectations as [[spoiler:the attempt fails, unlike in all its myriad adaptions]].

* ''The Mage In The Iron Mask'' (''[[TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms Nobles]]'' series). Includes a {{lampshad|eHanging}}ing of the fact that a Man In The Iron Mask would ''have'' to be let out of it once in a while to shave, or he'd suffocate on his own beard.

[[folder:Live Action Television]]

* 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 [[HeKnowsTooMuch whose knowledge was dangerous]], not he himself [[note]]Which would make him much like another Dumas character, ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo''[[/note]]. You will not find that in any of the legends.

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* ''Literature/AWitchShallBeBorn''. The witch Salome is the EvilTwin of [[TheHighQueen Taramis]], and uses this to take her place while having Taramis spirited off to the dungeons, to be raped and tormented for her amusement. Of course a soldier loyal to Taramis inevitably discovers the truth and sets about freeing her.

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* ''Literature/AWitchShallBeBorn''. The witch Salome is the EvilTwin of [[TheHighQueen Taramis]], and uses this to take her place while having Taramis spirited off to the dungeons, to be raped and tormented for her amusement. Of course one of her loyal soldiers inevitably discovers the truth and sets about freeing her.

* ''Film/TheDogsOfWar''. A politician who opposed TheCaligula in the independence elections is kept in his prison, working as the doctor there. This provides a handy alternate not only to the mad dictator, but also the PuppetKing that the mercenaries were supposed to put in power. This doesn't happen in the Creator/FrederickForsyth novel, where the man who ends up in charge is a rebel leader from a completely different country, who had to flee after losing a civil war.

* 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.]]

* Parodied in the Literature/{{Discworld}} novel ''Discworld/TheTruth'', which involves a plot to dethrone Lord Vetinari by framing him for a crime using a man who looks just like him. After the plot is thwarted, William De Worde asks Lord Vetinari if he's giving his look-alike this treatment. Vetinari responds that the man is, in fact, alive and now employed by the Guild of Actors, appearing as Vetinari in stage productions and children's parties. William de Worde theorizes that he might occasionally be used as a stand-in for Lord Vetinari when the real one is unavailable for some boring task or posing for an oil painting, but Vetinari just answers that with a characteristic blank look.

* ''The Man In the Iron Mask'' has had several adaptions. Richard Chamberlain starred in one where the older twin son had been spirited away, for leverage to make the younger one a PuppetKing, so the younger one was not, in fact, responsible. But he found out and ordered his brother imprisoned with the mask so no one could do this, but didn't have him killed because it would be TemptingFate to commit regicide (especially of an identical twin). The older one was rescued and managed to confuse the younger's flunkies so that his brother was sent off for the same fate.

-->-- EvilOverlordList, rule #3

* ''The Man In the Iron Mask'' has had several adaptions. Richard Chamberlain starred in one where the older twin son had been spirited away, for leverage to make the younger one a puppet king, so the younger one was not, in fact, responsible. But he found out and ordered his brother imprisoned with the mask so no one could use it. The older one was rescued and managed to confuse the younger's flunkies so that his brother was sent off for the same fate. The younger brother was afraid that their being twins meant there might be some connection, so that killing him would be dangerous.
** He also thought it would be TemptingFate to commit regicide, especially of someone who looked just like you.

* ''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. The one who gives word to the Hawks about what happened is none other than Charlotte herself, and this provides the impetus for a rescue mission once Guts and Casca reunite]], 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]].

* 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 [[HeKnowsTooMuch whose knowledge was dangerous]], not he himself [[note]]Which ironically would make him much like another Dumas character, ''Literature/TheCountOfMonteCristo''[[/note]]. You will not find that in any of the legends.

* Aversion: The Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II (the guy who took Constantinople) realized that having siblings around to challenge the throne was not a good thing for the ruler and the kingdom so he not only recommended fratricide, he legalized it (on a royal level) and put together a framework to deal with troublesome siblings. It was only removed during the later periods of the empire and overall, it is generally considered a success (though it had the unfortunate side-effect of making said siblings mentally unstable and paranoid).

* 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 [[HeKnowsTooMuch whose knowledge was dangerous]], not he himself. You will not find that in any of the legends.

* 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.

* In ''Comicbook/{{Asterix}} & Obelix Take On Caesar'', Julius Caesar is locked in an iron mask and thrown into a dungeon by the traitorous Detritus.

* In ''Franchise/EverAfterHigh'', Headmaster Grimm's brother Giles is stowed away in the basement of the school. According to the trailer, he's actually trapped down there, and considering the Headmaster's antagonism toward the Rebels before they even ''do'' anything, that wouldn't be surprising.

* ''Le Masque de fer'' (1962) is a French swashbuckling film. A lighthearted take on the novel, it stars Jean Marais as an old and [[LargeHam hammy]] D'Artagnan.

* In ''[[Literature/TheThreeMusketeers The Vicomte De Bragelonne]]'' by Creator/AlexandreDumas ''père'' ({{Trope Namer|s}}), King Louis XIV has a twin brother who is kept in the Bastille -- by their mother, the dowager queen -- to avoid the possibility that he might usurp the throne. To make sure that the guards do not get the wrong idea, the man is placed in a secure part of the prison and forced to wear an iron mask to conceal his identity. This is based on accounts of a real prisoner in the Bastille (among other prisons) forced to wear a mask. His identity was never revealed. This also subverts expectations as [[spoiler: the attempt fails, unlike in all its myriad adaptions]]

* Disney's ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales'' has "The Duck In The Iron Mask". Scrooge visits his old friend Count Roy, who rules a small kingdom, to find that his twin brother Ray has usurped the throne. Roy, in the obvious role, explains that he never told Scrooge about his brother [[MyGreatestFailure because he felt responsible for his brother's disappearance]].

* In ''Series/TheFlash2014'' Zoom has a man in an iron mask kept in a prison cell on Earth-2. The man is later revealed to be Jay Garrick the Flash of Earth 3 as well as the doppelganger of Barry's father.

* Subverted in the ''Literature/SwordOfTruth''; part of the enchantments on the Rahl bloodline make that an unfortunate necessity. Any Rahl who isn't an absurdly powerful wizard is actually a "[[AntiMagic Pristinely Ungifted]]" whose propagation threatens the existence of the world. That's not to say that all Rahls kill their children so as to save the rest of their world. Richard runs into most of the survivors over his adventures, with various levels of emotional scarring and insanity, possibly deconstructing this trope by showing what those behind the iron masks would actually be like growing up in their father's country.
** [[spoiler: Drefan]] Rahl thinks he's this, but turns out to be delusional and possibly ''possessed''.

Sometimes this is justified on the grounds that shedding RoyalBlood has side-effects, or that the land [[FisherKing will suffer]] if the rightful king dies.