In 1671 Thomas Blood attempted to steal the Crown Jewels from the Martin Tower. So audacious was the attempt that King Charles gave him a royal pardon.
You can read his story in a swashbuckling adventure due out in the summer of 2009.
In this tale of ‘Piracy’ Peter Blood and his crew use the Island of Flores in the Azores as their base. I am placing a link here to confirm the history of this beautiful island.
In the new novel you will meet O’Carroll an Irish Swordsman and here is an excerpt where Michael learns the truth about his friend ‘Captain Blood’.
We had stopped and he wheeled his mount around and bade me to do the same. I looked back at the way we had came, I could see the village of Swords in the far distance. The wind suddenly died, we watched a sparrow attempting to flee from a sparrow hawk, but there could only be one outcome. The hawk landed and whilst looking unafraid of the two horsemen watching it, the beautiful bird of prey began its first meal of the day.
“You were fortunate to have Peter with you in that rat hole. He is astute and I trust him also, and one day you will remember this conversation and those words I just uttered – you, Michael, are just starting a journey, and your lessons from me begin now. You are to become that hawk Michael.”
For one second I realised that somehow this man had orchestrated the events we had just witnessed. A cold tingle went through my body; I could feel my bones and mind as if no flesh and blood were part of me. He pointed back along the way we had ridden; before he could begin, I asked the question that had weighed upon my mind.
“Could Peter be Thomas Blood? If so he’s been lying to us.”
O’Carroll laughed, “Thomas Blood was Irish, the daft bugger lost his lands and tried to sack Dublin Castle with some of his supporters. He was raised in England, and when he tried to steal the Crown Jewels from the Martin Tower, the King was so amused by his audacity that he pardoned him. Now, some say that from that day onwards he served the King, now if you put all the facts together, then you have your pirate. No, he’s not lying, he’s most likely bending the truth, besides which, I like him!”
“But surely Sir, if I recall correctly ‘Captain Blood’ died in 1680, in fact I recall reading that because of a public outcry his body was exhumed to prove that he really was dead!”
“It suited the King that he should be ‘known to be dead’, dead men make excellent spies. James Scott was not the only man to have a doppelganger.”
“Samuel Pepys!” I exclaimed. “Of course, that’s how he got his ship! He wrote to Prince William, he wrote to Pepys, I’d wager that King Charles himself changed his identity, he was serving Pepys in Oleron, gaining information on the French for William – why the crafty old sod!”
“Aye, Michael, you have fathomed it out. If Jeffreys had known that he had the self styled Captain Thomas Blood on trial in the Assize, then you and he would have been horsed together! But with no Irish accent and forged papers, and then conveniently placed on board a Royal Navy ship to be ‘deported’ then I surmise that he is ‘stealing to order’ under the safe eyes of both Prince William and Pepys.”
“No wonder he could get letters out, my word, talk about resourceful!”
O’Carroll laughed again. “Now, let us forget our friend and deal with matters to hand. See those trees Michael? (pointing) What are they?”
There’s a wee bit more about Captain Blood here;
Wikipedia tends to agree that Rafael Sabatini did also base his character on Thomas Blood.
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