May 9, 1671: "Colonel Thomas Blood attempted to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London


May 9, 1671: "Colonel Thomas Blood attempted to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London, in a failed heist that is still the closest anyone has come to successfully taking the Jewels from the Tower.

Blood was an Irish officer who switched allegiances during the English Civil War to be on the winning side of victorious Oliver Cromwell, but was later forced to flee with his family back to Ireland after Charles II returned to the throne in 1660. Already a practised criminal with a failed Cromwellian uprising and an attempted kidnapping to his name, in 1670 he hatched an ambitious plan to steal the Crown Jewels.

Blood spent a period of weeks at the Tower befriending the elderly Keeper of the Jewels Talbot Edwards and his family, posing as ‘Parson Blood’, and offering to arrange a marriage between Edwards’ daughter and a fictitious wealthy nephew.

On 9 May 1671, Blood brought his ‘nephew’ (actually his son) and two other accomplices to the Martin Tower where the Edwards family lived, and while the prospective couple got to know each other Blood asked to see the Crown Jewels. Visitors to the Tower were frequently taken to see the Jewels, so with no reason to be suspicious Edwards took Blood and the two men down to the vault where the Jewels were kept. As soon as the door was shut Edwards was knocked unconscious and stabbed in the stomach.

The thieves set about taking what they could, squashing the Imperial State Crown to make it fit in a bag, and stuffing the Orb down Blood’s breeches. But before they could make their escape, Edwards regained consciousness and began shouting to raise the alarm. Blood and his men were caught before they could escape the Tower, and the Jewels were recovered.

Blood was sent before Charles II, but instead of punishing him Charles was so entertained by Blood’s dastardly exploits that he let him go free! Meanwhile Talbot Edwards survived the assault and returned to his duties at the Tower. He died in 1674 and was buried in the Tower’s Chapel of St Peter ad Vincula. The plaque marking his burial spot can still be seen there today." - The Tower of London

(Colonel Blood stealing the Crown Jewels by H.P. Briggs RA, 1824; The Imperial State Crown; The Tower Of London)


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