Regicide murdered, or attempted to murder, the king) was especially hard, even in regard to the harsh judicial practices of pre-revolutionary France. As with many criminals, the regicide was tortured so as to make him tell the names of his accomplices. However, the method of execution itself was a form of torture. Here is a description of the death of Robert-François Damiens, who attempted to kill Louis XV: In "Discipline and Punish", the French philosopher Michel Foucault cites this case of Damiens the Regicide as an example of disproportionate punishment in the era preceding the "Age of Reason". The classical school
Thomas Waite (regicide) himself, was brought to the bar, at the Session's House, in the Old Bailey, 10 October 1660. He was extremely troublesome to the court at his arraignment as he would not plead guilty or not guilty when asked to do so and prevaricated. At his trial he was found guilty of regicide, but his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment as the court decided that he had been forced by Cromwell and Henry Ireton into agreeing to the Kings execution, to such a degree that Cromwell had guided Waite's hand when he signed the death warrant. Waite's wife, Jane, unsuccessfully