When Saint-Mars arrived to take over as warden of the Bastille in 1698, staff at Paris’s most famous prison had eyes only for his prisoner.
When in 1660 King Charles II quitted the French court and returned to England, the parliamentary restraints laid upon him left Louis XIV aghast, and the ‘Sun King’ made sure to radiate his power through a network of chosen ministers, soldiers, civil servants and innumerable spies. Many illustrious names were gaoled without appeal or hope of release, but the most famous prisoner has no name at all.