The Jewels in the Crown
The story of the Crown Jewels by Paul James
PROTECTED by six-inchthick steel doors, displayed behind bombproof glass, watched by over 100 security cameras and guarded by Yeomen Warders and the British Army is England’s most valuable collection of jewels. They are quite literally priceless and cannot be insured, but a conservative estimate puts their worth at more than £5 billion.
Gathered by monarchs across the centuries, today the Crown Jewels are kept in the Waterloo Block at the Tower of London. A former army barracks, the building is as secure as any bank vault. Displayed against a black background to bring out the lustre of gold, the glint of silver and the sparkle of diamonds, the breathtaking Crown Jewels, prior to the pandemic, were seen by some 2.5 million visitors a year.
The royal regalia is not just a collection of crowns, orbs and sceptres, but a variety of items of cultural, religious and ceremonial significance, from altar candlesticks to jewelled swords, an elaborately decorated golden punch bowl weighing 248 kg (39 stone) and even state trumpets. Surprisingly, there are 142 separate pieces in the Crown Jewel collection, decorated with nearly 24,000 precious and semiprecious stones. The Imperial State Crown alone contains 2,868 diamonds, including the 105.6-carat Koh-i-Noor, one of the largest cut diamonds in the world.
Although a popular tourist attraction, the Crown Jewels are more than a glittering exhibition. This irreplaceable assortment of treasure is not only a major part of our royal heritage, but England is the only country in the world to have a set of Crown Jewels in use. Not just for coronations, items are used at the
State Opening of Parliament, royal baptisms and weddings, during a lying-in-state, at certain church services, and for the annual distribution of the Royal Maundy.
Three maces are on permanent loan to the Palace of Westminster; one is on display in the House of Commons during debates, visible during Prime Minister’s Question Time.
In recent decades, Queen Elizabeth II and King ‘Aho’eitu Tupou VI of Tonga have become the only two anointed monarchs to wear crowns. In a rare televised conversation for a BBC documentary to mark the 65th anniversary of her own Coronation, Queen Elizabeth spoke about the weight of wearing a crown, remarking that the head must be held high “otherwise your neck would break”.
The origin of Crown Jewels is lost in the mists of time, but for thousands of years rulers have worn a form of crown as a symbol of power and majesty. The earliest existing crown is believed to be one discovered in 1961 in a cave in Israel. Made of copper, it dates from between 4500 BC to 3600 BC. The oldest known English crown was found in the tomb of an Iron Age ruler in Deal, Kent, in 1988. Now known as “The Mill Hill Warrior”, his bronze crown and other ceremonial jewels date from around 200 BC, a time when the country was divided into small tribal areas, each with its own ruler.
There is a religious significance, too, and crowns are mentioned many times in the Bible, from the crown of Aaron in Exodus to the Crown of Thorns in the New Testament. The English coronation service is very much a Christian ceremony, with references to Zadok the Priest and Nathan the Prophet. The monarch is anointed with holy oil, Bishop-like vestments are worn, and for many centuries there was a firm belief in the Divine Right of Kings – that the monarch had been chosen by God.
The English Crown Jewels were established long before the Norman Conquest. King Egbert is said to have been crowned at Winchester in c.802 AD and, although there is no record of what the earliest English kings used, we know that by the time of Edward the Confessor’s Coronation in 1043 he had a jewelled crown, a sceptre and a ring containing a large sapphire. When he was canonised a century later it was felt that his regalia should be considered sacred and used for future coronations.
This continued until the Civil Wars (1642-51), when much of the regalia was destroyed or broken up. After the Restoration, some of the jewels and a few original 12th-century pieces were returned to the monarch. King Charles II had a new set of regalia created for his Coronation in 1661, some items based on the original designs. So, the
St Edward’s Crown that we know so well today is almost certainly a near replica of the crown worn by Edward the Confessor. In the Imperial State Crown, seen at the State Opening of Parliament, is the very sapphire that was in Edward the Confessor’s coronation ring.
The Crown Jewels have not always been as well cared for as they are today. Monarchs sold or pawned pieces whenever they needed money to pay for wars. King John notoriously lost some of the Crown Jewels in the Wash in 1216 while travelling, when carts carrying his baggage were caught by the tide.
As successive monarchs had additional items made, in 1255 it was decided that the jewels should be kept safely in one place when not in use. They were handed over to the Abbot of Westminster and stored in a Jewel House, known as the Pyx Chamber, in the undercroft of Westminster Abbey.
During the reign of King Edward I (1272-1307) a wool merchant named Richard de Podelicote stole items from the Jewel House, which must have been in collaboration with the monks guarding it. An investigation in the summer of 1303 revealed that around £100,000 worth of jewels, coins and gold plate from the Jewel House were being openly sold across London. Most were recovered and in a subsequent trial the Abbott and 48 monks were found guilty and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment. Richard de Podelicote was hanged for his part in the theft.
It was decided that the Crown
Jewels would be safer at the Tower of London, the strongest fortress in England. They were transferred to the White Tower and stored in a small room with no windows and one door, guarded by soldiers. As the number of Crown Jewels increased with each reign, by the time of Elizabeth I the chamber proved to be too small. In 1597 a specially designed Jewel
House was built next to the White Tower and here the Crown Jewels remained until Charles I lost his head in 1649. Under Oliver Cromwell, the crowns and sceptres were deemed unnecessary, the Jewel House was abandoned and demolished. The Crown Jewels were dismantled, sold off or melted down.
Following the Restoration, King Charles II’s new Crown Jewels needed a secure home and the Martin Tower on the northeast side of the Tower of London became the Jewel House because of its thick walls. They had obviously reduced in number, so no soldiers or Yeomen were considered necessary to guard them.
Instead, the 77-year-old Assistant Keeper of the Jewel House, Talbot Edwards, was put in charge. He lived on the first floor with his family, while the Jewels were stored on the ground floor below. They were displayed in a recess with a cross-wired door rather like a chicken coop.
One perk of Edwards’s job was that he could charge visitors a fee to view the regalia and keep the money. An elderly man, a door made of chicken wire, and no guards meant that it was only a matter of time before somebody would try and steal the Crown Jewels. Enter Colonel Blood.
Irishman Thomas Blood was an adventurer, a former soldier who called himself “Colonel”, a religious Nonconformist, political activist, and all-round rogue. He went to see the jewels disguised as a clergyman with an actress, Jenny Blaine, playing the part of his wife. During their visit, “Mrs Blood” felt faint. Talbot
Edwards rushed out to get her some brandy, guiding her upstairs to his own quarters, where Mrs Edwards looked after her. This left Colonel Blood alone with the jewels long enough to work out which pieces could be easily stolen. Taking nothing that day, he returned later with a gift of gloves for Mrs Edwards. The fake clergyman visited many more times, befriending the Edwards family. Blood told them over dinner that he had a rich nephew who might make a suitable husband for their daughter.
Edwards was happy and did not seem to think it odd when Blood arranged a first meeting with the nephew at 7 am. On 9 May, 1671, when there were few people about, Blood came to the Tower with three friends, telling Edwards that they were waiting for the nephew to arrive. He asked if two of his friends could have a look at the Crown Jewels.
The third friend remained outside as a lookout, while Edwards took the others into the Jewel House, probably pocketing a fee for his trouble. Once inside, a cloak was thrown over his head and a piece of wood was jammed into his mouth, but he managed to shout for help. He was then knocked on the head with a wooden mallet and stabbed in the stomach. Talbot Edwards realised the seriousness of the situation and pretended to be dead.
Colonel Blood grabbed the State Crown and hit it with the wooden mallet to flatten it. One of his accomplices hid the orb inside his breeches, while the other began filing the sceptre in half to make it easier to conceal. Before they could escape, Edwards’s son returned home unexpectedly. The lookout warned Colonel Blood that they were about to be discovered, and the thieves fled with the crown and orb, leaving the partly severed sceptre behind.
Alone in the Jewel House, Talbot Edwards shouted that the jewels had been stolen and Blood and his friends were chased by those who lived and worked at the Tower. Colonel Blood and one other man were captured.
Audacious to the last, Blood refused to confess, insisting that he would speak to the King, but nobody else. In an extraordinary turn of events, Charles II agreed to meet him.
During the audience, Blood told how he had once been given the job of shooting the monarch in Battersea Park, but in the end could not go through with it. And how, if Blood were executed for his crime, hundreds of people would take revenge and the King’s life would be in great danger. Blood persuaded the King that if he were pardoned, he would be loyal. There was great shock when the King
duly pardoned Blood and his associates. Thomas Blood was given the job of bodyguard to the King and granted land worth £500 a year. It is not known why Charles II was so lenient, but possibly he had a use for Blood politically. As far as we know, Blood stayed loyal to the King, although remained a rogue.
The State Crown suffered through the theft and had to be virtually reconstructed. Although some people returned diamonds and pearls scattered as the gang tried to escape, some stones disappeared forever.
A new Jewel House was built on the western side of the Martin Tower, guarded by soldiers and Yeomen Warders. The Crown Jewels were displayed in an iron cage, lit by lanterns so that they sparkled, and they could be viewed at set times by the public. They remained accessible until 1815 when a woman grabbed the Crown, attempting to destroy it. After this, the public were very much kept behind a rail.
Whilst theft was now unlikely, the Jewels were still vulnerable as they were close to the Armoury, which had a furnace and in 1843 the Armoury caught fire and was razed to the ground. A new Imperial State Crown and ring made for Queen Victoria’s Coronation were in danger of being destroyed by the heat. Soldiers and Yeomen guarding the Jewel House grabbed the crowns and other items, piling them in a heap on the parade ground. It was a miracle that none of the Crown Jewels were lost or permanently damaged.
Following this near disaster, the Wakefield Tower, with its eight-footthick walls and one entrance, became the next Jewel House for over 150 years. The renowned firm of Chubb, locksmiths and safe-makers, created an octagonal steel casement to house the Crown Jewels, which was considered completely burglar proof.
Although there have been no attempts to steal the Crown Jewels since 1671, in the 20th century the Tower of London became a target during the two World Wars. At least four bombs were dropped on the
Tower during World War I. The
Keeper of the Jewel House, Sir George Younghusband, reported one casualty: a pigeon, which he thought had a weak heart and died of shock! Further bombs fell during the Blitz of World
War II causing more extensive damage.
During both World Wars the Keeper of the Jewel House, in consultation with the Monarch, decided that the Crown Jewels should be removed for safekeeping. Where they were taken was not disclosed at the time.
In 1919 it was revealed that the Crown Jewels had travelled by royal car to Windsor Castle, where they remained hidden in the cellars until the war was over. At the orders of King George VI, the same protection was given to the jewels during WWII. Sixty feet beneath Windsor Castle was considered to be the safest place for them and two special chambers were constructed, protected by steel doors.
A trap door giving access to the secret chamber still exists. Recently discovered letters written by Sir Owen Morshead, Royal Librarian at Windsor from 1926-1958, confirm that many of the most important stones, such as the Black Prince’s Ruby and Edward the Confessor’s sapphire in the Imperial State Crown, were prised from their settings and placed in a biscuit tin, buried in the ground. Filmed with the crown in 2017, the Queen admitted that she had not known about the biscuit tin, laughing that it was lucky that Sir Owen had remembered where it was buried.
In 1945 the Crown Jewels were returned to the Wakefield Tower and in 1967 a new Jewel House was built in a wing of the Waterloo Barracks that could cater for triple the number of visitors, with space on the ground floor to display everything from armour to the large collection of gold plate, the main coronation regalia being housed in a vault deep underground.
As the 1990s approached, the Historic Royal Palaces Agency, now in charge of the Jewel House, realised that the Crown Jewels deserved to be seen in a better setting. Some £10 million was spent redesigning the Jewel House, which saw the crowns and regalia brought on to the ground floor. There was space for up to
20,000 visitors a day, and at particularly busy periods a moving walkway guided tourists past the display with no bottlenecks. On 24 March, 1994 the revamped Jewel House was opened by the Queen.
Finally, the Princess Royal reopened the Jewel House on 29 March, 2012 following a further £2.5 million refurbishment, which included placing the regalia in the order that it is used in the Coronation. Videos are shown, music is played, and visitors can be immersed in the regal splendour of England’s unique treasure.
Paul James starts a new series next issue looking at each piece in the collection. For Paul’s A Royal History of England book, see page 25.