The foolhardy Robert-Francois Damiens gained access to the French king’s carriage during a journey from the Palace of Versailles and managed to stab him with a penknife
A would-be royal assassin was tortured with red-hot pincers, torn apart by horses and burned at the stake in a prolonged, gruesome execution.
Born in 1715 in a village in northern France, Robert-Francois Damiens drifted through a string of menial jobs and was sacked repeatedly for misconduct. He served in households of judges and officials, where he became convinced of the immorality of royal ministers. Throughout his life, he believed the King and his clergy had refused the sacraments to “good people who pray in churches every day” and that the monarch needed to be forced to restore justice. On 5 January 1757, he executed his hare-brained plan by gaining access to the king’s carriage during a journey from the Palace of Versailles. As Louis XV prepared to board his carriage, Damiens rushed past the Swiss Guards, using the crowded setting to his advantage.
He stabbed the king with a small penknife, inflicting only a superficial wound thanks to the King’s heavy garments. He made no attempt to flee the scene and was arrested on the spot. Condemned as a regicide, Damiens was sentenced to be drawn and quartered by horses at the Place de Greve in Paris in front of the masses. His punishment would serve as a horrific warning to anyone who dared oppose the royals.
Before the dismemberment began, Damiens underwent days of intense torture – forced to wear boots that crushed his legs, red-hot pincers, burning sulphur, molten lead, wax and boiling oil poured into his wounds.
The day of the execution, the horses failed to tear his limbs as expected – and historical accounts say his tendons had to be severed so the horses could finally dismember him. Some claim he was still alive when his last remaining arm was removed. After Damiens was dismembered, his torso was burnt at the stake to the applause of the crowd. His last words were reportedly: “O death, why art thou so long in coming?”
The repercussions for his relatives were severe and immediate. The house in which he was born was razed to the ground, and no new building was ever to occupy that site. His father, wife, and daughter were banished from France for life, and were prohibited from returning under penalty of death. Meanwhile, his brothers and sisters were ordered to change their surname. Many were forced to live under new identities to escape the stigma attached to their relation to Damiens.
For centuries, Damiens has stood as a symbol of the brutality of the regime’s justice system – an execution so extreme few could believe it until they saw the prints, engravings and reports.
