The Crown Jewels Heist: Thomas Blood's Audacious Theft
Thomas Blood walked into the Tower of London dressed as a clergyman on May 9, 1671, bowed to the elderly Keeper of the Jewels, and then smashed him over the head with a mallet. Blood and three accomplices flattened the St. Edward's Crown with the mallet to fit it under a cloak, filed the Sovereign's Sceptre in half, and stuffed the Sovereign's Orb down a companion's trousers. They nearly made it out. The heist was months in the planning. Blood, an Anglo-Irish adventurer with a history of plots against the crown, had cultivated a friendship with Talbot Edwards, the 77-year-old Assistant Keeper, by posing as a parson and visiting the Tower multiple times. He brought his supposed wife, who feigned illness during one visit to gain Edwards's sympathy. Blood eventually proposed a marriage between Edwards's daughter and his fictitious nephew, arranging for the wedding party to view the Crown Jewels privately. On the morning of the theft, Blood's "nephew" and two other accomplices arrived for the viewing. Once Edwards opened the gated enclosure housing the regalia, Blood threw the cloak over the old man, gagged him with a wooden plug, and hit him with the mallet. Edwards refused to stay quiet, and Blood stabbed him in the stomach with a blade hidden in his cane. The keeper survived. The alarm was raised by Edwards's son, who arrived unexpectedly from military service in Flanders just as the thieves were leaving with the crown, orb, and sceptre. A chase ensued across Tower grounds. Blood fired a pistol at his pursuers but was tackled near the outer gate, reportedly shouting "It was a bold attempt, and I'm not sorry!" What happened next baffled contemporaries and historians alike. Rather than being executed, Blood was brought before King Charles II for a personal audience. The king not only pardoned him but granted him lands in Ireland worth 500 pounds a year. Theories range from Blood being a secret intelligence agent to Charles simply being charmed by the man's audacity. Blood lived freely in London until his death in 1680, and the true reason for his pardon has never been satisfactorily explained.
May 9, 1671
355 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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