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Robberies: Edwards

The daring attempt of BLOOD to steal the REGALIA in the Tower, during the reign of Charles II., although generally known to most readers, may be briefly stated. Sir George Talbot, who was appointed Master of the Jewel-House, committed the charge of showing the regalia to an old servant of his father, named Talbot Edwards, giving him the profits which arose from the exhibition. About three weeks before his attempt, Blood, who was a disbanded officer of the Protectorate, went to the Tower in the habit of a parson, "with a long cloak, cassock, and canonical girdle," accompanied by a woman whom he called his wife--his real wife being then in Lancashire. The lady requested to see the crown, and her wish having been gratified, she feigned "a qualm upon her stomach;" and Mrs. Edwards, after giving her some spirits at her husband's request, invited her to repose upon a bed. She soon recovered, and "at their departure she seemed very thankful for the civility." After an interval of a few days Blood returned, and gave Mrs. Edwards four pairs of white gloves, as a present from his intended wife. At a subsequent visit, he told her that his wife "could discourse of nothing but the kindness of those good people in the Tower," and that she had long studied, and at last bethought her, of a handsome way of requital. "You have," quoth he, "a pretty gentlewoman to your daughter, and I have a young nephew, who hath two or three hundred a year in land, and is at my disposal. If your daughter be free, and you approve of it, I will bring him here to see her, and we will endeavour to make it a match." This was readily assented to by old Mr. Edwards, who invited the disguised ruffian to dine with him on that day. The invitation was willingly accepted, and Blood, "taking upon him to say grace," performed it with great seeming devotion, concluding his "long-winded" oration with a prayer for the king, queen, and royal family. After dinner, "he went up to see the rooms, and seeing a handsome case of pistols hanging there, expressed a great desire to buy them, to present to a young lord who was his neighbour;" but this was merely a pretence, by which he thought to "disarm the house," and thus execute his design with less danger. At his departure, which was with "a canonical benediction of the good company." he appointed a day and hour for introducing his young nephew to his future bride; and as he wished, he said, "to bring two friends with him to see the regalia, who were to leave town early on that morning," the hour was fixed at about seven o'clock. On the appointed day (May 29th, 1671), "the old man had got up, ready to receive his guests, and the daughter had put herself into her best dress to entertain her gallant, when Parson Blood, with three more, came to the Jewel-House, all armed with rapier blades in their canes, and every one a dagger and a pair of pocket-pistols."

Blood told Mr. Edwards that they would not go upstairs until his wife came, and desired him to show his friends the crown, to pass the time till then. This was complied with; but no sooner had they entered the room where the crown was kept, and the door, as usual, been shut, than "they threw a cloak over the old man's head, and clapt a gag into his mouth, which was a great plug of wood, with a small hole in the middle to take breath at; this was tyed with a waxed leather, which went round his neck. At the same time they fastened an iron hook to his nose, that no sound might pass from him by that way either." Thus secured, they told him, "that their resolution was to have the crown, globe, and sceptre, and if he would quietly submit to it, they would spare his life, otherwise he was to expect no mercy." Notwithstanding this threat, "he forced himself to make all the noise he possibly could do to be heard above;" they then "knocked him down with a wooden mallet, and told him if yet he would lie quiet, they would spare his life, but if not, upon his next attempt to discover them, they would kill him, and pointed three daggers at his breast." Edwards, however, by his own account, was not yet intimidated, but "strained him-self to make the greater noise;" in consequence, they gave him "nine or ten strokes more with the mallet on his head (for so many bruises were found upon the skull), and stabbed him into the belly." This ferocious treatment occasioned the old man, "now almost eighty years of age," to swoon; and he lay some time in so senseless a condition that one of the miscreants said, "He's dead, I'll warrant him." Edwards, who had come a little to himself, heard his words, and conceiving it best to be thought so, "lay quietly." The rich prize was now within the villains' grasp, and one of them, named Parrot, "put the globe (orb) into his breeches, Blood held the crown under his cloak," and the third was proceeding to file the sceptre in two, in order that it might be put into a bag, "because too long to carry," when their proceedings were interrupted by the unexpected arrival of a son of Mr. Edwards from Flanders, who, having first spoken to the person who stood on the watch at the door, went upstairs to salute his relations. Seizing the opportunity, the ruffians instantly "hasted away" with the crown and orb, leaving the sceptre unfiled.