The first Maltese at Chateau d’If
A few days ago, I became the second Maltese person to visit the Chateau d’If since records began to be kept. The first was my husband, who took an earlier boat while I sat in the hotel and dutifully wrote my newspaper column. We were in Marseilles and thought we might as well go and see the 16th-century Alcatraz of the Mediterranean, made notorious by the mysterious man in the iron mask and the Count of Monte Cristo, and also Albrecht Durer’s rhinoceros, but more of that later. Given that Malta has such a long historical connection with Marseilles, and there are Air Malta flights there every Tuesday and Thursday, I was surprised at the excitement of the girl at the computer. “Where are you from, please?” Me, with narrowed eyes and a suspicious tone: “Why do you want to know?” “It’s just statistics; don’t worry.” “Malta; Isles de Malte.” “We have just had a man from Malta here!” Me: “Tell me about it.”
My first reaction on stepping ashore was that it isn’t in the least bit surprising that the makers of the most recent Monte Cristo film chose Comino to stand in for the island and its fortified prison. The similarities are astonishing, and the feel of the place is identical. Let’s just say that I walked up to the fort and felt I might as well be back home and on Comino. I bet those film-makers couldn’t believe their luck.
My second reaction was that if you were a prisoner who could swim and who could figure a way out of the actual prison in the warm months, then you could simply leap into the sea and swim to the mainland, just as Edmond Dantes did in fiction. It’s within swimming distance and you don’t have to be a trained swimmer, either – just somebody who’s at home in the sea and knows how to rest by floating and taking it easy, except that they’d have sent out a boat for you at once if you tried doing that during the day, visibility is so good. In other words, it turns out Chateau d’If is not quite Alcatraz or Robben Island, miles from the mainland and surrounded by savage sea infested with man-eating sharks and other monsters of the deep.
My third reaction was that I really needed a drink and a sandwich, so I got both at the nice old-fashioned café up the hill, straight out of my childhood and reminiscent of the Cote D’Or at Ghajn Tuffieha and other seaside cafes in the 1960s and early 1970s. I had a citron presse (one day I will work out how to use the accents on my keyboard) and an anchois/buerre, and then I had another sandwich with pate (accents, see earlier remark) for good measure. Thus fortified, I toured the large, roomy and airy cells with spectacular sea-views from small barred windows, while the first Maltese to visit the Chateau d’If since records began did a good impersonation of the ‘Mind the gap’ recording in tube stations, reminding me about the impending departure of the boat back to the mainland. He had already been there for ages and had no truck with my mooning around romanticising about the cruel fate of the man in the iron mask (he was real, unlike the fictitious Edmond Dantes sive the Count of Monte Cristo, dreamt up by Alexander Dumas). These apartments were impressive, nothing like I had imagined – but then I was told that the poorest prisoners, who couldn’t afford to pay for more salubrious conditions, were kept in dungeons with no windows, no fireplaces, no light and no conveniences. Then they were shot or burnt.
The Chateau d’If was built as a defensive fortress, not as a prison, because the Ile d’If is in a strategic position right outside the harbour mouth of Marseilles. It was built by order of Francois I, King of France, in the early 16th century. The people of Marseilles were fiercely independent and didn’t want this kind of interference. They called the island fortress ‘the troublesome neighbour’. When 200 soldiers were stationed on the island along with 22 pieces of heavy artillery, they went nuts, seeing this as a symbol of the despised central French power on what they considered to be their own territory. Marseilles had only been annexed by France fairly recently, in 1481, so you can imagine their sentiments.
The first recorded prisoner at the Chateau d’If was taken there in 1580. He was a knight called Anselme, who was accused of plotting against the French throne. He was found strangled in his cell. During the persecution of the Huguenots by the Catholic powers, the island prison was used to incarcerate notable Huguenots who had not otherwise been dealt with by burning. After the Edict of Nantes was revoked (this was the edict that had led to a tremulous peace between Protestants and Catholics), there was full-scale persecution of Protestants, and over the next 200 years, at least 3,500 members of the ‘enemy religion’ were imprisoned at the Chateau d’If .
The island fortress was used by parents at their wits’ end as a holding-house for irascible sons. They had them interned there, under ‘lettres de cachet’, pretty much as they might have had them committed to an asylum in later years. One man called Mirabeau was held there at his father’s request in 1774. He seems to have had a nice time, renting a ‘pistole’ (a spacious apartment on the first floor, with fireplaces and windows with sea-views), getting the commandant on his side and sleeping with the woman who ran the canteen. Another famous prisoner was Jean-Baptiste Chataud, captain of the Grand Saint-Antoine, who ended up somehow getting the blame for bringing the plague to Marseilles in 1720, which killed off half the population.
Oddly, few prisoners were held at the Chateau d’If during the French Revolution, but it continued to be used as a prison right into the 19th century. Following the Marseilles riots of 1848, 120 people were sent there, and they left an inscription above the gateway to the courtyard: ‘Hotel du peuple souverain.’ It’s still there. Another 304 people were detained there after a coup d’etat in 1852, awaiting deportation to the colonies in Algeria and Guyana. The last famous prisoner was Gaston Cremieux, who was shot in 1871. He had led a movement which seized the Prefecture and the Prefect, after the declaration of the Independence of Paris, following the fall of the Second Empire.
The Chateau d’If’s most romantically tragic figure is the ‘man in the iron mask’, who was held there in the late 17th century, and also at the Bastille. He was an actual historical person whose identity remains a mystery to this day. He was kept under false names and was said to have had two soldiers by his side at all times, with orders to kill him immediately if he removed his mask. Rumour had it that he was the identical twin brother to the king, Louis XIV, which is why he was kept confined and refused permission to reveal his face to anyone at all, yet at the same time kept alive and with everything he asked for, except his freedom and access to the society of others. He has been fictionalised in films and novels.
The notoriety of this prison-fortress-island is largely due to Alexander Dumas, who used it as the location for the imprisonment of his fictitious hero, Edmond Dantes, in his novel The Count of Monte Cristo. Dantes plans an escape with a fellow prisoner, the Abbe Faria, after eight years of captivity. After they have dug out a gallery between the two cells, Faria dies. Dantes hides his body in the gallery and slips into the sack used to throw the body into the sea. He becomes – in fiction, at least – the only man to escape from d’If by swimming to shore. The novel, published in 1844, has inspired 23 films.
And the rhino? In 1513, the ruler of the Indian kingdom of Gujarat presented the King of Portugal with a rhinoceros, the first to be seen in Europe. Perhaps not knowing what to do with it, and in an early example of the recycling of unwanted gifts, the king in turn presented it to Pope Leo X. The rhinoceros was loaded onto a ship that left the port of Lisbon, sailing round the Spanish cape and right across the Mediterranean for Rome – a long and dangerous journey. The ship moored at the Isle d’If and thousands of people from Marseilles came to look at the rhino. So did the French king, Francois I. An artist called Valentin Ferdinand sketched the animal from life, and the sketch found its way to Albrecht Durer, who produced his own iconic engraving.
By the time the rhino got to Rome, it was stuffed. The ship was wrecked on the reef in the Gulf of Genoa, during a violent storm, and the drowned rhino was picked up on the coast and taken straight to the taxidermist.
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According to one anonymous etching “L’Homme au Masque de Fer”, the man in the iron mask was allegedly Louis de Bouron, illegitimate son of Louis XIV, but of course this is one of many claims and may have been an early piece of conspiracy by revolutionaries.
quite boring.
Good read D.
but @jim
I suppose you find comics very interesting !
perhaps a similar contribution from you would show the rest of us what you’re worth.
@jim
Poor boy, can’t take a dollop of history instead of the usual political obsessions of this little island of ours? well done Daffy, wish i was there!
Jim: Don’t apologise. You can’t help it.
heh – nice distraction from the front page news – no doubt she will have her own words ( and plenty of themn)on the subject soon enough.
Erm. When did the records start being kept? :) I visited the Chateau d’If in the summer of 2004 … don’t recall an overexcited computer girl at the time. Islands are lovely though… and the trip back into Marseilles is just as nice – including (for football fans) the massive effigy of Zinedine Zidane on the side of an apartment block.
P.S. Don’t worry about the record… I’ll settle for being the first Gozitan – that will leave Maltese records free for anyone wishing to claim the honour.
It was a case of Chinese whispers with Durer’s rhinoceros. As Daphne wrote, Durer’s was based on another artist’s sketch. Durer’s etching, complete with anatomical errors, in turn was copied many times all over Europe into late eighteenth century.
Same happens with gossip in small (and perhaps even large) communities. People’s fascination with what they cannot check for themselves becomes fair game for creative and imaginative reconstruction. Take any major incident, say September 11, and you get a multitude of conspiracies. It is funny what makes it through the grape vine from Malta across Europe to these other islands. One has to always take conspiracies with a pinch of salt but they make for interesting fodder for tea with Maltese friends.
Sometimes we (as in emigrants) never get to hear the end of the story (say, what happened regarding the police we all saw beating up the old lady in Paceville, the case of the man who allegedly was thrown over the bastions and what was he called in for, the case of the MSSP priests who were accused of child molesting?). Mind you, even history cannot claim to be the truth, it is just simply the truth of those who win.
maybe it can be reopened as a prison to accomodate the bus, minibus, taxi drivers and their happy company !!
What a truly entertaining read. How lucky you were to have gotten away from the mess that is Malta. Here its hot, muggy, and full of blue shirted, or shirtless bus drivers et al causing mayhem wherever they are.
I did visit the Chateau D’If in 1992. However we could see very little of it, as most of it seemed to be closed. So I predate both Dapne, husband And the Gozitan. I’ll settle for being the first Zurrieqi to visit it. After all, we dont consider ourselves very maltese !!!
I feel very at home every time I visit Marseilles. Its not like the rest of France, and is very Mediterranean is it not ? The food at the port is to die for. And bloody cheap compared to the overpriced fare we are offered here. A well known Sicilian Restaurant, who counts me as one of his best clients, charged us 300 euro for mains and wine. Yes, there were his heavenly fiorentinas. But 300 Euros ? My only problem is that I was embarrrased telling him, as my host ( an Irishman) thought it to be very reasonable.
@ Jim……life is not just politics you know. A well written travelogue like this is soooo refreshing.
Another advantage of being Maltese. I had the same ‘first (Maltese) man on the moon’ experience at the Tsitsikamma National Park in S. Africa. You kind of feel like Christopher Columbus for a few pathetic minutes…
But how typical of Jacques to piss on your parade!
:-)
Yeah yeah. Nice try, but you still didn’t manage to blend in with the locals. You should have ordered a pastis digne de la bonne mère, un peu plus haut que le verre. Citron pressé indeed…. Well, I suppose you’ve got a life and all, and don’t need drink as much as I do. As for Zidane….tsssk…they should have a monument to honour the city’s greatest daughter: Clara Morgane.
Gattaldo Tuesday, 15 July 1016hrs
“According to one anonymous etching “L’Homme au Masque de Fer”, the man in the iron mask was allegedly Louis de Bouron, illegitimate son of Louis XIV, but of course this is one of many claims and may have been an early piece of conspiracy by revolutionaries”
Most probably you are mixing up your Louises. According to legend, the Man in the Iron mask was Louis XIV’s own twin brother who was hidden at birth so as not to distabilize the monarchy with the prospect of twin heirs. Louis XIV, the roi soleil himself, was no known to have ever been ashamed of any of his several illegitimate sons who were all recognized and given quasi-royal status.
Just an anecdote from Dumas ‘The Count of Monte Critso’
On his return from prison Edmond Dantes now known as the Count of Monte Cristo kept high society guessing about his origins. Dumas ‘tell us’ he is the son of a Maltese entrepreneur!
19th century French authors were attracted to this Island then a colony of England
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Man_in_the_Iron_Masque.jpg
Hi Sybil, not according to the particular 1789 etching I mentioned (see link above). My French is …well, non-existent, but this is what it says on the etching:
“Des papiers trouvés à la Bastille nous apprennent que cette dénomination n’a jamais appartenu qu’à Louis de Bourbon, comte de Vermandois, fils naturel de Louis XIV, né le 2 octobre 1667, qui fut condamné à un emprisonnement perpétuel pour avoir, à l’âge de 16 ans, donné un soufflet au Dauphin.”
Jim – I’m quite surprised that your infantile comment wasn’t accompanied by “Cor blimey, buster!” …
Daphne – Interesting read. As for your mention of the Cote d’Or (I don’t know how to use the accent keys, either) – an instant vision of it (complete with those delicious pork pies) came to mind.
Aldo, it’s such a sad story – no wonder it’s captured the imagination of so many people down the years.
And by the way, I took your advice and went to Cassis, which is lovely.
didn’t mean to offend someone. this piece was just an anticlimax, that’s all. It makes fine reading ofcourse.
” The man in the iron mask’ is simply a diversion from what is going on.
I wonder why the violence taking place in connection with the present Trasport Strike is being ignored!!!!!!!!
History does not repeat itself but rather people repeat history!!
“The Attack on Castille” is certainly more interesting to write about then ” The man in the iron mask”.
To the Very Important Businessman: The Times has several stories on the transport strike. They’re accessible at timesofmalta.com
Glad to have been of service, Daphne. Green with envy. We have had to cancel our visit to Florence next week. No rest for the wicked!
Keep enjoying your holiday Daphne. At least you are out of this chaotic island while the taxi and bus driver bullies continue to create anarchy by blocking the airport and the harbour, while our government, and the police, continue to treat them with velvet gloves.
While the strikers enjoy seeing frustrated motorists stranded in huge traffic jams and tourists lugging their luggage along the road because the airport is blocked, the army is nowhere to be seen and the police look on.
So, when is the government going to start governing?
The times of Malta reports are like medical reports – bland and without verve ( although I do ‘like’ their video on the subject – the cameraman risked life and limb for sure). No, I like my reports well done with a diatribe thrown in (even though sometimes wildly off target) and a tinge of gossip and attention to detail. Can’t wait for it actually!
Wish i was there, enjoying some history…………….but still stuck here behind my desk, making sure that i finish allcorrections before i can pack off for holidays. I do envy you Daphne……………you have such a good grip on your pen, words just come out and you are able to write interesting write ups. What a talent!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
“Peter Muscat”: I’m writing about it now for my column tomorrow. Surely the suspense won’t kill you.
Gattaldo Tuesday, 15 July 1840hrs
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5e/Man_in_the_Iron_Masque.jpg
Hi Sybil, not according to the particular 1789 etching I mentioned (see link above). My French is …well, non-existent, but this is what it says on the etching:
“Des papiers trouvés à la Bastille nous apprennent que cette dénomination n’a jamais appartenu qu’à Louis de Bourbon, comte de Vermandois, fils naturel de Louis XIV, né le 2 octobre 1667, qui fut condamné à un emprisonnement perpétuel pour avoir, à l’âge de 16 ans, donné un soufflet au Dauphin.”
Insomma, the stuff that romantic legends are born of.Thanks for that bit of info though.I was not aware of that particular version.
Mario P Wednesday, 16 July 1339hrs
“The times of Malta reports are like medical reports – bland and without verve”
You have never ever accessed the Di-ve ones then.They are as interesting as re-heated mashed potatoes and soy noodles.
Peter Muscat Wednesday, 16 July 0958hrs
” The man in the iron mask’ is simply a diversion from what is going on.
I wonder why the violence taking place in connection with the present Trasport Strike is being ignored!!!!!!!!
History does not repeat itself but rather people repeat history!!
“The Attack on Castille” is certainly more interesting to write about then ” The man in the iron mask”.
For once our main roads are not choking from the harmful pollutants emitted from the buses. What else is there to say? Itis only a matter of time when the strike will be over because the strikers will all get sunburn, heatstroke and migraine from all those theatricals.And those that do not, will end up in jail.
Daphne: Maybe it did. He’s gone all quiet, thank heavens.
@ Cora V.M. … As you pointed out earlier I am a very busy man and I do not have so much time to spare as you do.
@ Daphne .. You did very well in considering my genuine proposal. If I knew before I would surely added the comments I posted few minutes ago on the subject.
Not@Daphne: Be careful with that ego – it might burst, spilling the ugly guts. There’s not much else inside, is there?
@Sybil: Di-ve who? :)
I know exactly what you are talking about… My parents took me to visit 24 years ago to be exact!! P.S. we happen to be Maltese too:(
Thanks Daphne for taking my suggestion and writing about the transport monopoly and strike violence. [Will you send me a fee for my suggestion or give me a discount at your Taste shop – not selling “Clothes-washing-machines”? :)]
Daph may I defy you to write about another monopoly and violence? Apply for a good government or parastatal job and the friends-of-friend monopoly will snap into action!! Isn’t that monopoly too? Do you agree with the apartheid in Malta against all those, qualified or not, who do not adore the PN government? Is the insensitivity towards meritocracy not violence too? Now let’s be honest and call “wrong” whatever is wrong!
Daph, allow me to congratulate you on the improvement of your English logic. You did not say “eyewitnesses who were there” this time. You have realised that eyewitnesses are obviously there :) Full marks for your progress. But keep reading good books to improve your English.
Peter Muscat: I trust you are aware that you are tolerated here only in the context of a freak show. Once I am tired of the meagre value you have even in this context, I will cut you loose and you can turn to posting on some other blog.
@all – ‘Peter Muscat’ and his IP address have been barred.
@ Jacques Rene Zammit
P.S. Don’t worry about the record… I’ll settle for being the first Gozitan – that will leave Maltese records free for anyone wishing to claim the honour.
Hear! Hear!
However, your boss never thought about the Chateau d’If when he had so much legal power in Malta (and Gozo)!