On this day, Thomas Blood, an Anglo-Irish officer and self-styled colonel, attempted to steal the Crown Jewels of England from the Tower of London. Dressed as a parson and accompanied by a female companion pretending to be his wife, Blood befriended Talbot Edwards, the Master of the Jewel House, and suggested that Edward’s daughter and a nephew of Blood would make a fine marriage. Some days later, at a dinner in the Edwards’ apartment, Blood and his companions asked if they could see the jewels. Once in the basement, they struck Edwards with a mallet, tied him up and gagged him, and set about concealing the crown, sceptre and orb in their clothes and bag. Edwards, however, managed to remove the gag and quickly raised the alarm. The thieves were all caught as they tried to make their escape in the Tower grounds.
Thomas Blood and the Crown Jewels
9th May 1671