Today in History 05/09/18

Illustration of Colonel Thomas Blood (G Scott)(1671) Captain Blood tries to pinch England’s Crown Jewels
Following an elaborate ruse played on the Tower of London’s custodian, Captain Thomas Blood and his henchmen attempt to steal the Crown Jewels. The Sceptre is sawn in two, the Crown flattened, and the Sovereign’s Orb hidden down a pair of trousers. Blood will be captured, but pardoned by King Charles II.
Colonel Thomas Blood was an Anglo-Irish officer and self-styled colonel best known for his attempt to steal the Crown Jewels of England from the Tower of London in 1671. Described in an American source as a “noted bravo and desperado,” he was known for his attempt to kidnap and, later, to kill, his enemy, the Duke of Ormonde. He had switched allegiances from Royalist to Roundhead during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms, and despite his subsequent notoriety received a Royal free pardon and found favour at the court of King Charles II.
Born: 1618 · County Meath, Ireland
Died: Aug 24, 1680 · Westminster, England
Buried: St Margaret’s, Westminster
Highlights
  • 1642: At the outbreak of the First English Civil War in 1642, Blood returned to England and initially took up arms with the Royalist forces loyal to Charles I. As the conflict progressed he switched sides and became a lieutenant in Oliver Cromwell’s Roundheads.

  • 1653: In 1653 at the cessation of hostilities Cromwell awarded Blood land grants as payment for his service and appointed him a justice of the peace.

  • 1660: Following the Restoration of King Charles II to the Crowns of the Three Kingdoms in 1660, Blood fled with his family to Ireland.

  • 1670: In 1670, despite his status as a wanted man, Blood returned to England and is believed to have taken the name Ayloffe and practised as a doctor or an apothecary in Romford Market, east of London.

  • 1671: On 9 May 1671, in furtherance of the deception, Blood convinced Edwards to show the jewels to him, his supposed nephew, and two of his friends while they waited for a dinner that Mrs Edwards was to put on for Blood and his companions.

  • 1674: He died in 1674 and his tomb rests in the chapel of St Peter’s Ad Vincula, at the Tower of London.

Thomas Blood
Thomas Blood
wiki/Thomas_Blood
4.9.a18

(1671) Captain Blood tries to pinch England’s Crown Jewels.
Also on this day,
1914 | Mother`s Day
1950 | `Dianetics` released
1958 | `Vertigo` premieres

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