Damiens, the son of a gatekeeper, held a succession of jobs as a household servant and was dismissed from several of them for stealing from his employers. On Jan. 5, 1757, he stabbed Louis as the king was about to enter his carriage at Versailles. Louis was only slightly wounded, but the incident might have had severe political repercussions involving the Society of Jesus and the Jansenists, two rival factions within the French Roman Catholic church. Many charged that Damiens was part of a Jesuit plot against the crown, while others suspected that he was an agent for the Parlements (high courts of justice), which had come into conflict with the king by supporting the Jansenists. Nevertheless, the government was unable to prove that the obviously deranged Damiens had been involved in a conspiracy.

Condemned as a regicide, he was sentenced to be torn in pieces by horses in the Place de Grève. For four hours, before being put to death, he was barbarously tortured with red-hot pincers; and molten wax, lead, and boiling oil were poured into his wounds. After his death his house was razed to the ground, his brothers and sisters were ordered to change their names, and his father, wife, and daughter were banished from France.