On this date in 1757, Robert-Francois Damiens became the last Frenchman to suffer the dreadful punishment of drawing and quartering.
Damiens attempted to assassinate King Louis XV, inflicting, however, only a slight dagger wound.
He may be best-known today as the subject of the jarring opening passage of Foucault's Discipline and Punish, in which the full flower of this medieval torture* is described in detail by way of contrasting it with the regimented penal institutions that would sprout up in a few decades' time. Here's Foucault's rendering of the scene:
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