Dublin, 1907.
Arthur Vicars was 45 years old in July 1907, just a few weeks from his birthday. His entire life at the time was wrapped up in his job as Ulster King of Arms. This put him in charge of the rules and regulations regarding heraldry and family trees—a very important position in early-20th-century Ireland: He was the arbiter of inheritance. “Most land, power, and wealth were vested in the hands of the aristocracy,” says William Derham, a curator at Dublin Castle, “and the question of who was the legitimate heir to an estate and a title carried with it the question of who would inherit a great deal of money,” in addition to a seat in Parliament. Vicars, from his spacious office in Dublin Castle, was well paid, well respected, and passionate about heraldic history and genealogy.
His job also included guarding what would become known as the Irish Crown Jewels, consisting of a heavily jeweled star, badge, and collars. The star, an eight-pointed wonder about four inches across, featured dozens of pristine Brazilian diamonds, described that year as being “of the purest water,” meaning the highest quality known. That star surrounded both a shamrock made of emeralds and a cross of rubies. The badge was similar: diamonds, emeralds, and rubies, set in silver. The value of the pair, according to a police notice, was, in today’s money, somewhere north of £3 million, or $4.5 million. Vicars did not particularly like this part of his job, but if being in charge of these jewels would allow him to continue his heraldry research, he would put up with it.
The jewels mostly stayed locked in a safe at a jeweler’s, in Dublin. That jeweler had been the official watchmaker for Queen Victoria, and valued security tremendously, to the point of counting the spoons they had provided to the royals, to ensure none had been pilfered. If the King, Queen, or their representatives visited Ireland and had call to wear the jewels, they would be moved to a safe that sat in Dublin Castle, an ancient complex that then served as the seat of the government in Ireland for the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Dublin Castle was full of military and police agents, as it was the headquarters of the Dublin Metropolitan Police, and the safe in which the jewels were kept had only two keys. Vicars, almost universally described as a pedant and nitpicker, wore one on a chain around his neck or in his pocket at all times. The other he hid in his home in Dublin. The castle, and especially Bedford Tower, where the jewel safe was located, was considered one of the most impregnable, well-defended, and heavily observed buildings on the island. From The New York Times, in 1907: “Bedford Tower is the one building in the castle into which the most enterprising burglar would find it hopeless to effect an entrance unobserved.” And the jewels weren’t even taken out of the safe very often.
The summer of 1907 had been a busy summer for the Irish aristocracy and government, which were often one and the same. The Irish International Exhibition, a grand world’s fair, had opened in May and was scheduled to run through November. The massive event featured a Japanese tea garden and an entire Somali village among hundreds of exhibits, and drew around 2.5 million visitors during its run.
King Edward VII, Queen Alexandra, and Princess Victoria were due to visit on July 10, to make an appearance at the exhibition and perform some various royal duties. The political relationship between Ireland and Great Britain was fraught, with a rising tide of Irish nationalism competing with unionists who wanted to remain loyal to the Crown. There had already been debate about how Irish—or British—the International Exhibition should be. (There were separate pavilions for Ireland and Great Britain; the Irish War of Independence would erupt just over a decade later.) On top of that, the king’s nephew, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Prussia, had just months before endured a massive political scandal. King Edward was sensitive to controversy. He needed this visit to go smoothly.
It did not go smoothly....
....MUCH MORE
I wonder if David Keohane has looked into this.
