In May 1671 four armed men headed by Colonel Thomas Blood walked into the Tower of London and stole some of the Crown Jewels. With the Keeper of the Jewel House left for dead, the gang made off with the crown and the orb, leaving the partly filed sceptre behind on the floor. The London Gazette for 8-11 May 1671 carried the following account of what was surely one of the most remarkable crimes of the century:
‘Whitehall, May 9. This morning about seven of the clock, four men coming to Mr. Edwards, Keeper of the Jewel House in the Tower, desired to see the Regal Crown remaining in his custody; he carries them into the room where they were kept, and shows them; but according to the villainous design they it seems came upon, immediately they clap 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 a small beetle they had with them, as is believed, to beat together and flatten the Crown, the make it more easily portable; which having, together with the Ball, put into Bags, they had to that purpose brought with them; they fairly walked out, leaving the old man grovelling on the ground, gagged and pinioned...¹
