Thomas Blood attempted Crown Jewels theft - May 9, 1617

On this day in 1671, Thomas Blood attempted to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This Day in History Class is a production of I
Heart Radio. Hello everyone, I'm Eves and welcome to This
Day in History Class, a podcast that takes really seriously
the adage you learn something new every day. UM. I
know that a lot of places around the world right
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into the deep end or they're easing back into it.
And a lot of people have already been working and
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lives are still turned upside down by all the stuff
that COVID nineteen is causing. And I just wanted to
say that I hope you all are doing well no
matter what phase of this very new and very intense

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situation you're in, and that you continue to stay safe
and healthy. I am still at home, but I am
doing well, and I can only hope that you are
maintaining and thriving in these times. But that said, on
with the show. Today is May nine. The day was

(01:08):
May nine, six seventy one. Thomas Blood attempted to steal
the Crown Jewels of England. The Crown Jewels are a
collection of crowns, scepters, and other ceremonial objects associated with
English kings and queens dating back hundreds of years. Thomas
Blood's father was a wealthy blacksmith, and his grandfather was

(01:30):
a member of the Irish Parliament. He spent some of
his early life in England, but when he was around
twenty years old, he got married and moved to Ireland,
where he was born, But he soon went back to England,
where he joined Oliver Cromwell's army in the fight against
King Charles the First during the English Civil War. When
Cromwell became Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland

(01:53):
and Ireland, he was granted land for his service in
the war. By sixteen fifty, Blood had begun calling himself
a colonel, though there's no evidence that he actually earned
that rank. Throughout the sixteen sixties, Blood was involved in
a number of subversive activities. He and other conspirators plotted
to seize Dublin Castle and kidnapped James Butler, the first

(02:15):
Duke of Ormond and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, for ransom.
That plot failed, but Blood was able to evade authorities,
and in sixteen seventy he made another attempt to kidnap
the Duke of Ormond and failed. But the conspiracy Blood
is best remembered for is his attempt at stealing the
Crown Jewels in sixteen seventy one. The Crown Jewels were

(02:36):
stored at the Tower of London, and the keeper of
the jewels was a man named Talbot Edwards. One day
in sixteen seventy one, Blood visited the tower disguise as
a parson. He continued to visit the Edwards family, who
lived at the tower, and he soon became friendly with them.
Blood promised to arrange a marriage between his imaginary nephew

(02:57):
and edwards daughter. On May nine, Blood arrived at the
tower with his supposed nephew and two of his friends.
They convinced Edwards to show them the Crown jewels, and
once they entered the jewel house, they knocked him unconscious.
The London Gazette gave the following account of the crime.
According to the villainous design they, it seems, came upon

(03:18):
immediately they clapped a gag of a strange form into
the old man's mouth, who making what noise and resistance
he could, they stabbed him a deep wound in the
belly with a stiletto, adding several other dangerous wounds on
the head. With the small beetle they had with them,
as is believed to beat together and flatten the crown
to make it the more easily portable, the thieves took

(03:41):
the sovereign scepter with cross St. Edward's crown and the
Sovereign's orb. Edwards regained consciousness and tried to stop the men,
crying treason and murder. As the thieves fled to their
horses waiting at St. Catherine's Gate, they dropped the scepter.
Guards went after them, and before Blood could reach the
Iron gate, he was captured. The crown and orbit were recovered,

(04:05):
though several gemstones were missing. King Charles and other members
of the royal family questioned Blood. It's unclear what Blood
and the king discussed, but in the end Blood was
pardoned and even granted land in Ireland. There have been
many theories about why Blood received this treatment, including one
that the King was just amused by Blood's audacity, and

(04:27):
another that the king was in on the plot from
the beginning. Regardless, Blood became a familiar figure in London.
After he died in sixteen eighty, his body was exhumed
because people suspected he might have faked his own death
so he didn't have to pay a debt to the
Duke of Buckingham. Today, the crown jewels of the United
Kingdom remain on display at the Tower of London as

(04:49):
symbols of the British monarchy. I'm each Deacote and hopefully
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(05:12):
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