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Étienne Bazeries

French cryptologist Major Etienne Bazeries played his role in the Cryptographic Community with the devising of the Bazeries cylinder, which was basically an improvised adaptation of the Jefferson cipher cylinder. He enrolled himself in the Army in 1863, and he was captured and taken prisoner during the Franco-Prussian war. After escaping the clutches of the enemy, he returned to the Army to be promoted to Lieutenant in 1874.

What started out as a hobby, solving cryptograms in the local newspaper ended up with the creation of the above mentioned Bazeries cylinder (which is rumored to have been the inspiration behind the M-94 cipher). But sadly, this design was rejected by the French General Staff on the grounds that it neither could be solved using mere brain power, nor could the solution be remembered without documentation. So, he took the task of designing a new cipher. He demonstrated a test with a cryptogram of 43 five-letter groups, for the benefit of the army. It basically dealt with a monoalphabetic substitution, where nulls were scattered here and there in between key changes.

In 1902, he published the story behind the ordeal in a book titled "Les Chaffes secrets devoiles" (Secret Ciphers Unveiled), where he described how his second design also went in vain, as the Army quoted that it did not meet the security requirements. This book is said to be a milestone in cryptographic literature. Brazeries is also credited with solving the mystery behind the "man in the iron mask". The first records of the existence of the masked prisoner, dated back to 1669. He was under the watchful eye of Marquis de Saint-Mars of the Pignerol prison, so much so he actually fed the prisoner himself and even took him to a solitary cell in the third chamber of the Bertaudiere tower when he assumed the position of Governor in 1698.

An order of silence had been issued and for centuries, historians remained perplexed about the identity of the masked prisoner and the charges made against him. Brazeries was finally able to throw light on the situation in 1893, three years after a French military historian, Louis Gendron uncovered a series of cryptic letters and handed them to him. Using Louis XIV's 'Great Cypher', he encrypted one of the letters to discover that the prisoner was General Vivien de Bulonde. Another letter which was found to have been written by Francois de Louvois, claimed that prisoner had ordered a withdrawal from the siege of Cuneo abandoning men and weaponry fearing the arrival of a enemy battalion from Austria which had outraged Louis XIV. Brazeries retired from the army in 1899, but continued lending his assistance in solving German Ciphers during World War I till the year 1924.

Man in the Iron Mask - The prisoner - Encyclopedia II


The first surviving records of the masked prisoner are from July 1, 1669, when Louis XIV's minister Louvois sent a masked prisoner to the care of governor Marquis de Saint-Mars of the Pignerol prison. Saint-Mars was ordered to take a special care of this prisoner. He was to be kept incommunicado and Saint-Mars was told to threaten him with death if he ever tried to talk about anything else than his own personal affairs. The prisoner was to be treated well but he had been ordered to remain silent and masked at all times. Saint-Mars himself had been ordered to feed him. The first rumors of the prisoner's identity (as a ...
Man in the Iron Mask, Man in the Iron Mask - The legends and alternative theories, Man in the Iron Mask - The prisoner, Man in the Iron Mask - Vivien de Bulonde, L'homme au masque de fer was an 1848 book by Alexandre Dumas, père, based on this legend, the third volume of Dumas's novel The Vicomte de Bragelonne., Princess Tarakanova - a Russian version of the Man in the Iron Mask

The first surviving records of the masked prisoner are from July 1, 1669, when Louis XIV's minister Louvois sent a masked prisoner to the care of governor Marquis de Saint-Mars of the Pignerol prison. Saint-Mars was ordered to take a special care of this prisoner. He was to be kept incommunicado and Saint-Mars was told to threaten him with death if he ever tried to talk about anything else than his own personal affairs. The prisoner was to be treated well but he had been ordered to remain silent and masked at all times. Saint-Mars himself had been ordered to feed him. The first rumors of the prisoner's identity (as a Marshal of France) began to circulate at this point.

Although the legend states that the prisoner wore the mask at all times, it is more probable that he was masked only during transport—such as when he was transported from prison to prison—and when there were outside guests in the prison.

Saint-Mars took the prisoner with him to his subsequent postings in l'Exiles prison and in May 1687 to the island of Sainte Marguerite, one of the Isles of Lérins.

On September 18, 1698, Saint-Mars came to take his new post as a governor of the Bastille prison, bringing the masked prisoner with him. The prisoner was placed in a solitary cell in the pre-furnished third chamber of the Bertaudiere tower. The prison's second-in-command, de Rosarges, was to feed him. Most of the details of the masked man (continuous wearing of a mask and preferential treatment) come from Lieutenant du Junca of Bastille.

The prisoner died on November 19, 1703, and was buried the next day under the name of Marchioly. All his furniture and clothing were reportedly destroyed afterwards.