IS THE MAN IN THE IRON MASK FROM JERSEY?
In April 1646, Charles, the 15-year-old Prince of Wales (later Charles II), exiled and famously amorous, found both safety and distraction in Jersey. During his 3-month stay, he became captivated by Marguerite de Carteret, the beautiful daughter of a local Seigneur (Lord). People say she gave birth to a son nine months later, yet someone conveniently lost the baptismal register for that year.
Many years later, when Charles was King, a man called James de la Cloche surfaced claiming to be their illegitimate son. He quickly disappeared from the historical record. Some say Charles II asked his cousin King Louis XIV of France to deal with this inconvenient problem for him, and James lived out his days in prison as the mysterious Man in the Iron Mask.
WAS HAWAII’S LAST PRINCESS THE FIRST PERSON TO SURF IN JERSEY?
Princess Kaʻiulani, heir to the Hawaiian throne, spent four long summers in Jersey (1892-1896) while her homeland convulsed with political turmoil. A teenage exile, she found solace at La Chaire, a home from home with one of Britain’s finest subtropical gardens; an echo of the botanical paradise her father created in Hawaii, where she once wandered amongst the peacocks with her friend Robert Louis Stevenson. Widely regarded as the first woman to surf in Britain, with brothers who were the first men and cousins who pioneered the sport in California, was she tempted by St Ouen’s 5 Mile golden beach during the blazing summer of 1893? We will never know.
She died in 1899, aged just 23 – Hawaii’s last princess.
Ï WISH I HAD DIED IN BATTLE¨
Parisians hailed General Georges Boulanger, winner of the Légion d’Honneur, as the saviour of France when he entered the city riding his magnificent black stallion. He became so popular that he received 100,000 votes in an election he wasn’t even a candidate for. But, at the zenith of his popularity, a whisker away from realising a lifelong ambition to establish himself as dictator of France, he gave up everything for love.
The love of his life was dying of tuberculosis, and he chose to nurse her through her final days. They fled France and came to Jersey, spending 2 years in a magnificent coastal mansion, as her health declined. When she died in 1891, he shot himself on her grave with a lock of her hair in his hand and a note saying “I wish I had died in battle”.
General Boulanger is one of a multitude of revolutionaries and free thinkers who found sanctuary on Jersey, wedged between two of Europe’s most powerful countries. Chateaubriand, Świętosławski, Hugo, Harring, Marx, Cahun, Debussy – the unwelcome always found a home here.
Isolated, remote, secluded, Jersey has always kept its secrets well.
ABOUT OUR GUEST AUTHOR: Jersey-born tour guide, Toby Clyde-Smith, shares untold stories, local legends, and hidden gems with humour, heart, and a deep love for the island’s rich history. Enjoy more local stories and book a tour on the Tall Tales Jersey Instagram Page.