25. Britain’s Most Roguish Colonel
Anglo-Irish officer Colonel Thomas Blood (1618 – 1680), of County Clare, was an audacious crook who became famous as “The Man Who Stole the Crown Jewels”. The son of a prosperous blacksmith, Blood came from a good family – his grandfather lived in a castle, and was a Member of Parliament.
Blood’s adventurous career started during the English Civil War, when he left for England in 1642 to fight for king Charles I. However, when it became clear that the royalists would lose, Blood switched to the king’s Parliamentarian enemies. Charles I was defeated and beheaded. In the new regime, Blood was rewarded with a big estate, and was made a justice of the peace.