Robert-Francois Damiens executed on the Place de Grève, Paris, 28 March 1757 (engraving)

Robert-François Damiens (1715-57) was a French domestic servant whose attempted assassination of King Louis XV of France in 1757 culminated in his notorious and controversial public execution. He was tortured first with red-hot pincers; the hand with which he had held the knife during the attempted assassination was burned using sulphur; molten wax, molten lead, and boiling oil were poured into his wounds. He was then remanded to the royal executioner, Charles Henri Sanson, who harnessed horses to his arms and legs to be dismembered. But Damiens' limbs did not separate easily: the officiants ordered Sanson to cut Damiens' joints with an axe. Once Damiens was dismembered, to the applause of the crowd, his reportedly still-living torso was burnt at the stake.[