The Jewel House: An Account of the Many Romances Connected with the Royal Regalia / Together with Sir Gilbert Talbot's Account of Colonel Blood's Plot

by G. J. Younghusband

THE JEWEL HOUSE

CHAPTER I
THE JEWEL HOUSE

When kings began to reign—The Crown of the King of the Ammonites—A Crown weighing 125 lbs.—The Treasure House of Kings—Egbert the first King of England—His regalia—King Alfred’s Crown—Edward the Confessor’s Crown and Staff and Ring—The Crown Jewels first placed in Westminster Abbey—Henry III removes them to the Tower of London—The Jewel Chamber in the White Tower—The Jewel House in the reign of Queen Elizabeth—The Martin Tower turned into the Jewel House by Charles II—The word “Bolleyn” on the wall—Northumberland and Heriot prisoners there—A slender guard and the result—Colonel Blood fails in his attempt on the Crown—Northumberland’s ghost—Narrow escape from fire of the Jewel House—Removal of Crown Jewels to the Wakefield Tower—Its former history—Origin of name—The murder of Henry VI in this tower—The young Princes buried in the basement—The lesson from St. Patrick’s Jewels—King Edward VII makes the Jewels secure—The tantalized burglar—The German lady and the Kaiser’s hopes—The Jewels in the Great War—Their narrow escapes—Their removal till the end of the War—Return to the Tower—Their wonderful adventures as recorded.

WHEN Kings first began to reign on earth they wore on their heads and carried in their hands the emblems of royalty. To give them dignity, the seats they occupied were raised and glorified and became thrones. Thousands of years ago the crown became the mark of sovereignty, for did not Saul fight his last battle wearing his crown, and with the bracelet on his arm? Whilst the prophet Samuel in his book records that the crown of the King of the Ammonites, taken in battle by King David, was of pure gold, studded with precious stones. The prophet also commits himself so far as to add that this crown weighed one talent. Perhaps in this detail we may make allowance for Eastern hyperbole, a talent being equivalent to 125 lb., or the weight of two fair-sized portmanteaux. It is not reasonable to assume that even the most muscular King would with equanimity thus handicap himself whilst waging war. The throne of Solomon has become historic, made, we are told, of ivory overlaid with gold with a lion standing on each side, and twelve lions guarding the sides of each of the six steps that led up to it. As the value and number of kingly emblems increased, it became necessary to deposit them when not in use in a place of security strongly guarded, which came to be known as the Treasure House of the King. In ancient days it was not unusual to place the Regalia in some holy place, such as a church or cathedral, where the sanctity of the building was held to be an additional safeguard; but more usually it would be kept with the King in his castle.

Egbert, the first King of England, was crowned nearly eleven hundred years ago, in A.D. 827, and King George V, the present King of England, is his direct descendant. The English monarchy is the oldest in Europe, and the English Royal Family had a longer pedigree than that of any European potentate, even before the Great War. The kingly emblems in King Egbert’s days were few and of no great value, probably nothing more than a crown and a sceptre. The crown of King Alfred was made of gold wire, and was, when broken up and melted down by the Commonwealth, valued only at £238 10s. 0d. Edward the Confessor, besides a crown, had a staff or long sceptre, a replica of which is now amongst the Crown Jewels. He also had a Coronation ring set with a large and very fine sapphire, which same sapphire may be seen in the cross paté on top of King George V’s State Crown.

As the Crown Jewels increased in number and value, the King ceased to carry them about with him on all occasions, and they were handed over to the safe keeping of the Abbot and monks of Westminster. In Westminster Abbey can still be pointed out the Chapel of the Pix, where the regal emblems were kept. It is not improbable that Edward the Confessor inaugurated this manner of safeguarding the Regalia when not in use, and his successors for two hundred years followed his example. But though Westminster Abbey proved a sure sanctuary against robbers and marauders from the outer world, unfortunately within the sacred walls were those inured to sanctity, and who were by no means indisposed to profit in so obvious and mundane a matter as disposing of the Crown Jewels. Probably the Treasure Chamber was rarely inspected or visited, and as the monks themselves were the guardians, inconvenient inquiries might easily be disposed of, unless and until certain portions of the Regalia were required for the King’s personal use. It was doubtless some such demand which led to the discovery that the Treasure Chamber had been broken into and some of the Regalia had disappeared.

The chief regal emblems, such as the Crown and Sceptre, had been transferred to the Tower by Henry III, but the lesser yet very valuable pieces of plate were still at Westminster. The theft was brought home to a monk named Alexandre de Pershore, who had sold the plate to a travelling merchant named Richard de Podelicote. As a result the Abbot Wenlock and forty-eight monks were tried and sentenced to two years’ imprisonment in the Tower. This was in the reign of Edward I, and as a result the King decided that Westminster Abbey was not altogether a safe place for any portion of so valuable a collection of plate and jewelry, and ordered it all to be transferred to the Tower of London. An official Keeper of the Regalia, whose duty it was to guard and have sole custody of the Jewels, had already been appointed by Henry III, and henceforth a divided control ceased.

From that day, some seven hundred years ago, the grey old walls of the Tower of London have been the outer casing of the casket which has contained the Crown Jewels of thirty-two Kings and Queens of England. The Jewels were probably first placed in the White Tower, that being the central keep of the Tower of London, itself then, and for many centuries after, the strongest fortress in England. On the north side of the crypt of St. John’s Chapel, which is in the White Tower, there is a small chamber with only one entrance and with no windows. This chamber, which some erroneous person for long marked as the cell of Sir Walter Raleigh,[^[1]] would in those days have been an ideal place for the safe storage of the Regalia. It is not only an inner sanctuary, but also it was guarded without all round by soldiers and by battlements. A monk might pilfer the plate, but he had to get it past the soldiers and out of the fortress to profit by his prowess. In this sanctuary, in the crypt of St. John’s Chapel, the royal emblems and plate may well have remained for several reigns, and perhaps some centuries, but as the Regalia increased in quantity these restricted quarters would have been found too small to conveniently and suitably house them. Thus we find in an accurate survey of the Tower of London, made in 1597, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, that a special Jewel House had been built outside of and adjoining the south face of the White Tower. This Jewel House was a long low building with a flat, castellated roof, whilst at the western end was a tall turret. There were two entrances, one through the turret and one in the middle of the south wall. The building was evidently one of two storeys, as two tiers of windows are shown, with two lights on each floor.