The theft of the Crown Jewels
London, England, 1671
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
In the spring of 1671, the Irish adventurer Thomas Blood, who had lost lands in Ireland after the return of Charles II to the throne, began visiting the Jewel House at the Tower of London disguised as a parson. He befriended the keeper, Talbot Edwards, then 77, who lived with his family above the jewels and showed them to visitors for a small fee. Blood gave the keeper's wife a gift of gloves and proposed the marriage of a supposed nephew to the couple's daughter.
On the morning of 9 May 1671, Blood returned with the "nephew" and two companions, asking to see the jewels. Down below, the gang threw a cloak over Edwards, knocked him down with a mallet and wounded him with a sword. Blood flattened the crown with hammer blows to hide it under his clergyman's garb, an accomplice began sawing the sceptre in two and another stuffed the orb into his breeches. By chance, the keeper's son was returning at that moment from military service in Flanders; Edwards managed to pull off his gag and shouted that the crown had been stolen.
Sources
In the game
Crushed Crown
London, 9 May 1671, 8:00 am. In the basement of one of the towers of the royal fortress of London, the jewel room stands with its grille open and smells of stone dust.
The gang fled toward their horses, dropped the sceptre and was caught before leaving the fortress; Blood was arrested with the crown, which fell from his cloak during the struggle. He refused to speak to anyone but the King and was taken to the palace. Charles II, to the court's astonishment, pardoned him and granted him lands in Ireland worth 500 pounds a year. Edwards survived his wounds, returned to his post and told the story to visitors until his death in 1674; the reward the King had promised was never paid in full.
