![]() In the nineteenth century, fewer than a hundred years after Damiens’ execution, the new penal style was codified in texts such as French politician Léon Faucher’s rules “for the House of young prisoners in Paris.” Now it was to take place behind closed doors and its workings were set to a timetable. ![]() Instead, a new approach to punishment became the norm. By the turn of the eighteenth century in Europe, punishment as a public spectacle was no longer in vogue. But when the arms and legs refused to detach from Damiens’ torso, the executioner drew out his knife and sheared through the tendons and tissue before the horses completed the dismemberment.īut the execution was the last of its kind. Robert-François Damiens, a domestic servant, was publicly executed before a baying mob for his attempt to assassinate the French king, Louis XV.ĭamiens was to be quartered: his limbs were pulled by four horses driven in opposing directions. ![]() On 2 March 1757, the streets of Paris witnessed a ghastly spectacle. ![]()
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