10. Louis XV of France was spared from an assassin’s blade in 1757 due to the thick layers of winter clothing he was wearing to protect against the cold January weather
Louis XV, also known as Louis the Beloved, was a member of the House of Bourbon who reigned as King of France from the age of five in 1715 until his death in 1774. The second longest-ruling monarch in the history of France, lasting fifty-nine years, Louis’ reign was not without turbulence or event, forfeiting the territories of New France to Spain and Great Britain after an appalling performance during the Seven Years’ War. For unrelated reasons stemming from religious grievances, Louis was the victim of an assassination attempt at the hands of Robert-François Damiens on January 5, 1757.
As Louis was entering his carriage to return to Paris from the Grand Trianon Versailles, Damiens shoved passed the royal guards. Stabbing the monarch, Louis was saved by the additional layers of winter clothing he was wearing but suffered a wound nonetheless. Arrested and charged with regicide, despite actually failing in the effort, Damien was brutally tortured in an unsuccessful effort to identify co-conspirators. Suffering drawing and quartering – the traditional punishment for regicide in France – his wife and daughter were banished, their family house burned down, and his brothers forced to change their last names.