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"THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK" REVEALED AS AN ARMENIAN BISHOP


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#1 Yervant1

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Posted 05 July 2015 - 06:48 AM

"THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK" REVEALED AS AN ARMENIAN BISHOP

Armenian News Network / Groong
July 4, 2015
SPORTS/BUSINESS Wire

By Arthur Hagopian
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA


For three centuries, sleuths, scholars and conspiracy advocates
have extrapolated over the identity of the "Man in the Iron Mask," the
enigmatic prisoner of the notorious Bastille.
Ever since the legend was immortalized in the opus of the great
French writer, Alexandre Dumas, speculation about who the prisoner was,
has been rampant, truth and fiction becoming convoluted, their
intermingling making it difficult to give credence to Dumas' tale of
treason and intrigue.
The prevailing myth held that the prisoner was a secret twin of the
French "Sun King", Louis XIV (1643-1715). And last year, French
cryptanalyst Etienne Bazeries claimed to have decoded a cipher which
purportedly revealed that the man in the iron mask had been a military
officer, identified as Vivien de Bulonde, who was punished for his
cowardice in the face of advancing Austrian troops by being forced to wear
an iron mask.
But lingering in the forgotten annals of one of Armenia's greatest
historians, Maghakia Ormanian (1841-1918), lay a more esoteric
plausibility: it is palpable, in fact more than possible, that the
prisoner of the Bastille was actually an Armenian clergyman, a prince of
the Armenian Apostolic church, a lineage paralleling the royal pedigree of
Dumas protagonist prince.
Both princes were contemporaries. Like the mythical twin, the
Armenian was an innocent, a victim of political machinations, held in the
Bastille and subjected to cruel and abusive punishment. Dumas "Man in the
Iron Mask" could thus have easily been inspired by the tale of the
misadventures story of the Armenian.
Ormanian recounts that the clergyman, Avedik Yevtogiatsi, had been
patriarch of Constantinople and later Jerusalem, around the beginning of
the 18th Century, but had fallen afoul of French interests because of his
staunch anti-Catholic stance.
In his monumental volume about the lives and times of the Armenian
Patriarchs of Jerusalem, which took him ten years to compile, the late
researcher and historian Haig A Krikorian, quotes Ormanian as noting that
although Avedik had influential friends and loyal followers in the then
Ottoman capital (Constantinople), the machinations of the French envoy to
the sultan's court, Charles Ferriol, Marquis d'Argental, eventually
brought about the priest's downfall.
Ferriol became an "active and enthusiastic supporter of the Jesuit
campaign to proselytize Armenians" and encourage them to pledge allegiance
to the Catholic pope, rather than the Armenian Catholicos, the head of the
worldwide Armenian Apostolic church.
Despite the formidable opposition mounted by Avedik, Ferriol would
not give up and contrived to convince the Sultan to exile Avedik to an
island on the Mediterranean coast of Syria.
"I will never have peace until somehow I topple him," Ferriol vowed,
Ormanian reports.
Clandestinely, Ferriol enlisted the aid of some malicious clergy and
prominent merchants to heap more woe on Avedi's head, fighting a vicious
running battle with Avedik supporters.
But the ebb and tide of politics, and vacillating political
sympathies, abetted by generous bribes to Turkish officials, derailed
Ferriol's plots and saw Avedik re-instated as Patriarch of Jerusalem, but
not before the Sultan, exasperated by the French shenanigans, had decreed
that henceforth Avedik would have to relinquish his Constantinople seat
and relocate to Jerusalem.
Stymied, Ferriol promptly counter-attacked. As Avedik waited for a
ship that would take him to the Holy Land, he was waylaid by a French
vice-consul named Bonald who bribed Avedik's Turkish escort to disappear,
and made the Armenian believe that a ship that had just appeared on the
horizon was a Venetian vessel bound for Jaffa.
It was a ruse, and it worked. The ship was actually heading west
toward Messina on the island of Sicily which at that time was under
Spanish sovereignty, Krikorian writes.
Avedik was handicapped by his lack of French and could not
understand what was going on between Bonard and his cohorts, which
included the ship's captain who proceeded to strip Avedik of all his
possessions as soon as he boarded, including a pouch containing 180 gold
pieces (a hefty sum in those days), his priestly vestments, episcopal
ring and pocket watch.
When they reached Messina, the captain handed Avedik over to a
waiting French consul, Paul Soulier "who unceremoniously took him to the
Inquisition prison on the island," where he remained for several months.
Somehow, Avedik contrived to smuggle a message to his supporters with
the help of a sympathetic Greek seaman, alerting his flock that he had
been kidnapped.
The rage and consternation it spawned, spurred the Sultan to give
Ferriol a tongue lashing and a demand to produce the missing churchman.
But the wheels of fortune took a wrong turn again when the French
king, at the behest of Pope Clement XI, ordered Avedik's transfer to
Marseilles "where he was subjected to abject humiliation."
"They shaved his beard, removed his priestly garb and dressed him in
typical Frenchman's clothes," before transporting him in secret to the
island prison of Mont Saint Michel, Krikorian quotes Ormanian.
In the dark, dank dungeon there, Avedik could only ponder the ironic
misfortunes of a man whose sole purpose in life was serving a benevolent
God.
On September 8, in the year 1709, Avedik was again spirited away in
secret, this time to the Bastille, and his undoing.
And this was where the legend and confusion with the Man in the Iron
Mask were born.
"It is impossible not to pause and cast a backward glance on the hard
working yet painfully tragic personality of Avedik, who at one time, was
confused with the Yergateh Timagov Mart (man in the iron mask)," Ormanian
states, according to Krikorian.
What transpired in the Bastille remains a mystery. But according to
Armenian historians, the Catholic church intervened again in the person of
the cardinal of Paris, Louis Antoine Noyal, who entertained high hopes of
converting the Apostolic priest.
Avedik had been victimized by both the Turks and French, had been
stabbed twice and had lingered near death,exiled and then exalted, but in
the end, he suffered the same fate as Dumas' man in the Iron mask:
oblivion.
What remains of him rests in a grave in the cemetery of the church of
Saint Sulpice in Paris where he was buried after his death on July 11,
1711, at the age of 54.

 

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#2 onjig

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Posted 05 July 2015 - 09:38 PM

Yervant, Is this a fable or did this actually happen?


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#3 Yervant1

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Posted 06 July 2015 - 09:34 AM

French writer, Alexandre Dumas is the same one who wrote the "Dartagnan and the three Musketeers" series of books which no doubt has fiction in it but mostly based upon the womanizing and power hungry wealth piling Popes and their Cardinals in the courts of European Royalties who were in constant rivalry and always wanting to put on the throne their puppets in order to have power and control.

​The author of this article says and I quote "But lingering in the forgotten annals of one of Armenia's greatest

historians, Maghakia Ormanian (1841-1918), lay a more esoteric
plausibility: it is palpable, in fact more than possible, that the
prisoner of the Bastille was actually an Armenian clergyman, a prince of
the Armenian Apostolic church, a lineage paralleling the royal pedigree of
Dumas protagonist prince."
that it's possible not for sure since Armenian church being one of the oldest churches their clergy were in high courts as well. Therefore Dumas the writer could have easily changed the clergy with an evil twin to make it more intrigue. 


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#4 Yervant1

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Posted 06 July 2015 - 09:38 AM

FRENCH RESEARCHER SUPPORTS MAN IN THE IRON MASK ARMENIAN IDENTITY

Armenian News Network / Groong
July 5, 2015

By Arthur Hagopian
SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA


Two years ago, a French researcher published a story on "L'Arménien
de la Bastille" which categorically confirms the Ormanian chronicle of the
imprisonment of an Armenian clergyman in the Bastille, and enhances the
link with the Man in the Iron Mask.
In the research conducted by Arlette Lebigre, and published January
2013, talks about " l'épopée d'un énigmatique patriarche arménien"
(the enigmatic epoch of an Armenian patriarch)" named Avediguian.
"Sa captivité en France, suite à la bévue d'un ambassadeur, met
en péril les relations du royaume de Louis XIV et de la Sublime Porte,"
she adds.
His captivity in France jeopardized the political and diplomatic
relatioship between France's "Sun King" and the Sublime Port (Sultan).
Her research only uncovered «Un prisonnier important.»
"La lettre de cachet n'en dit pas plus. Sans nom, sans ge, sans
domicile ni statut social, qui est le petit homme corpulent qui entre à
la Bastille le 18 décembre 1709? Un espion (on est en pleine guerre de
Succession d'Espagne1)? Un propagandiste d'idées subversives? Non. Mais
l'antihéros d'une aventure digne d'un roman d'Alexandre Dumas, qui mit
en péril pendant plus de huit ans les relations de la France et de
l'Empire ottoman. Il s'appelle vraisemblablement Avediguian, «
francisé » (!) en Avedick dans la volumineuse correspondance
échangée. . ." Lebigre adds.
Documents Lebigre has uncovered reveal precious little about this
"corpulent" man, Avediguian, who was thrown into the Bastille on December
18, 1709. He could have been neither a spy nor a subversive, she asserts,
but notes that the misadventures of of this "antihero" would have been
worthy of an Alexandre Dumas novel, like the Man in the Iron Mask.

The rest of the French article (payable) can be read here:

http://www.histoire....1-01-2013-51408


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#5 onjig

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Posted 06 July 2015 - 05:45 PM

I've read most of  the writings of Dumas and ofcourse The man in he Iron mask.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Un prisonnier Sans nom~he believes this to be Avediguian. Thankyou Yervant


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#6 Yervant1

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Posted 17 July 2015 - 08:39 AM

"THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK" REVEALED AS AN ARMENIAN BISHOP

BY STAFF
- POSTED ON JULY 15, 2015POSTED IN: ARMENIA, NEWS

BY ARTHUR HAGOPIAN
www.hetq.am

Photo by: Patriarch Maghakia Ormanian

For three centuries, sleuths, scholars and conspiracy advocates
have extrapolated over the identity of the "Man in the Iron Mask,"
the enigmatic prisoner of the notorious Bastille.

Ever since the legend was immortalized in the opus of the great
French writer, Alexandre Dumas, speculation about who the prisoner
was, has been rampant, truth and fiction becoming convoluted, their
intermingling making it difficult to give credence to Dumas' tale of
treason and intrigue.

The prevailing myth held that the prisoner was a secret twin of
the French "Sun King", Louis XIV (1643-1715). And last year, French
cryptanalyst Etienne Bazeries claimed to have decoded a cipher which
purportedly revealed that the man in the iron mask had been a military
officer, identified as Vivien de Bulonde, who was punished for his
cowardice in the face of advancing Austrian troops by being forced
to wear an iron mask.

But lingering in the forgotten annals of one of Armenia's greatest
historians, Maghakia Ormanian (1841-1918), lay a more esoteric
plausibility: it is palpable, in fact more than possible, that the
prisoner of the Bastille was actually an Armenian clergyman, a prince
of the Armenian Apostolic church, a lineage paralleling the royal
pedigree of Dumas protagonist prince.

Both princes were contemporaries. Like the mythical twin, the
Armenian was an innocent, a victim of political machinations, held
in the Bastille and subjected to cruel and abusive punishment. Dumas
"Man in the Iron Mask" could thus have easily been inspired by the
tale of the misadventures story of the Armenian.

Ormanian recounts that the clergyman, Avedik Yevtogiatsi, had been
patriarch of Constantinople and later Jerusalem, around the beginning
of the 18th Century, but had fallen afoul of French interests because
of his staunch anti-Catholic stance.

In his monumental volume about the lives and times of the Armenian
Patriarchs of Jerusalem, which took him ten years to compile, the late
researcher and historian Haig A Krikorian, quotes Ormanian as noting
that although Avedik had influential friends and loyal followers in the
then Ottoman capital (Constantinople), the machinations of the French
envoy to the sultan's court, Charles Ferriol, Marquis d'Argental,
eventually brought about the priest's downfall.

Two years ago, a French researcher, Arlette Lebigre, wrote about "
l'épopée d'un énigmatique patriarche arménien" (the enigmatic epoch
of an Armenian patriarch)" named Avediguian, categorically confirming
the Ormanian chronicle of the imprisonment of an Armenian clergyman
in the Bastille, and enhancing the link with the Man in the Iron Mask.

"Sa captivité en France, suite a la bévue d'un ambassadeur, met en
péril les relations du royaume de Louis XIV et de la Sublime Porte,"
(his captivity in France jeopardized the political and diplomatic
relationship between France's "Sun King" and the Sublime Port", the
Sultan).she adds. But no further details have been available about the
"prisonnier important. Â"

"La lettre de cachet n'en dit pas plus. Sans nom, sans âge, sans
domicile ni statut social, qui est le petit homme corpulent qui entre
a la Bastille le 18 décembre 1709? Un espion (on est en pleine guerre
de Succession d'Espagne1)? Un propagandiste d'idées subversives? Non.

Mais l'antihéros d'une aventure digne d'un roman d'Alexandre
Dumas. Il s'appelle vraisemblablement Avediguian, Â" francisé Â"
(!) en Avedick dans la volumineuse correspondance échangée,"
(documents Lebigre has uncovered reveal precious little about this
"corpulent" man, Avediguian, who was thrown into the Bastille on
December 18, 1709. He could have been neither a spy nor a subversive,
she asserts, but notes that the misadventures of this "antihero"
would have been worthy of an Alexandre Dumas novel, like the Man in
the Iron Mask), Lebigre notes.

Ferriol became an "active and enthusiastic supporter of the Jesuit
campaign to proselytize Armenians" and encourage them to pledge
allegiance to the Catholic pope, rather than the Armenian Catholicos,
the head of the worldwide Armenian Apostolic church.

Despite the formidable opposition mounted by Avedik, Ferriol would
not give up and contrived to convince the Sultan to exile Avedik to
an island on the Mediterranean coast of Syria.

"I will never have peace until somehow I topple him," Ferriol vowed,
Ormanian reports.

Clandestinely, Ferriol enlisted the aid of some malicious clergy and
prominent merchants to heap more woe on Avedik's head, fighting a
vicious running battle with Avedik supporters.

But the ebb and tide of politics, and vacillating political sympathies,
abetted by generous bribes to Turkish officials, derailed Ferriol's
plots and saw Avedik re-instated as Patriarch of Jerusalem, but not
before the Sultan, exasperated by the French shenanigans, had decreed
that henceforth Avedik would have to relinquish his Constantinople
seat and relocate to Jerusalem.

Stymied, Ferriol promptly counter-attacked. As Avedik waited for
a ship that would take him to the Holy Land, he was waylaid by a
French vice-consul named Bonald who bribed Avedik's Turkish escort
to disappear and made the Armenian believe that a ship that had just
appeared on the horizon was a Venetian vessel bound for Jaffa.

It was a ruse, and it worked. The ship was actually heading west
toward Messina on the island of Sicily which at that time was under
Spanish sovereignty, Krikorian writes

Avedik was handicapped by his lack of French and could not understand
what was going on between Bonard and his cohorts, which included the
ship's captain who proceeded to strip Avedik as soon as he boarded,
of all his possessions, including a pouch containing 180 gold pieces
(a hefty sum in those days), his priestly vestments, episcopal ring
and pocket watch.

When they reached Messina, the captain handed Avedik over to a
waiting French consul, Paul Soulier "who unceremoniously took him
to the Inquisition prison on the island," where he remained for
several months.

Somehow, Avedik contrived to smuggle a message to his supporters with
the help of a sympathetic Greek seaman, alerting his flock that he
had been kidnapped.

The rage and consternation it spawned, spurred the Sultan to give
Ferriol a tongue lashing and a demand to produce the missing churchman.

But the wheels of fortune took a wrong turn again when the French
king, at the behest of Pope Clement XI, ordered Avedik's transfer to
Marseilles "where he was subjected to abject humiliation."

"They shaved his beard, removed his priestly garb and dressed him
min typical Frenchman's clothes," before transporting him in secret
to the island prison of Mont Saint Michel, Krikorian quotes Ormanian.

In the dark, dank dungeon there, Avedik could only ponder the
ironic misfortunes of a man whose sole purpose in life was serving
a benevolent God.

On September 8, in the year 1709, Avedik was again spirited away in
secret, this time to the Bastille, and his undoing.

And this was where the legend and confusion with the Man in the Iron
Mask were borne.

"It is impossible not to pause and cast a backward glance on the hard
working yet painfully tragic personality of Avedik, who at one time,
was confused with the Yergateh Timagov Mart (man in the iron mask),"
Ormanian states, according to Krikorian.

What transpired in the Bastille remains a mystery. But according
to Armenian historians, the Catholic Church intervened again in the
person of the cardinal of Paris, Louis Antoine Noyal, who entertained
high hopes of converting the Apostolic priest.

Avedik had been victimized by both the Turks and French, had been
stabbed twice and had lingered near death, exiled and then exalted,
but in the end, he suffered the same fate as Dumas' man in the Iron
mask: oblivion.

What remains of him rests in a grave in the cemetery of the church of
Saint Sulpice in Paris where he was buried after his death on July 11,
1711, at the age of 54.

http://www.armenianl...rmenian-bishop/
 


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