Edward Jones sat on the throne, slept in one of the Palace beds, sneaked into young Victoria's apartments, read her letters and even hid beneath her sofa.
A British boy has been revealed to have been the first celebrity stalker after he repeatedly broke into Buckingham Palace and stole queen Victoria's bloomers.
Edward Jones was just 14-years of age when he first broke into the palace, and he did so three times between 1838 and 1841, getting within yards of the newly crowned monarch before he was caught.
Jones sat on the throne, slept in one of the Palace beds, sneaked into young Victoria's apartments, read her letters and even hid beneath her sofa.
Once, he was nabbed trying to get out of the queen's dressing room window with a pair of her knickers tucked into his trousers.
Victoria, 19 at the time of the first break-in, wrote about the incident in her journal.
"Supposing he had come into the bedroom, how frightened I should have been," the Sun quoted her as having written.
Jones was acquitted in open court of theft at his first trial. But for his subsequent break-ins he was tried in secret to avoid embarrassing the Royals.
He was twice sentenced to hard labour. But each time he was freed he sneaked back to the palace. Finally the government transported him to Australia to keep him away from the queen and husband Prince Albert.
The story of the stalker, who was known to the police as the Boy Jones, has been pieced together from old newspaper reports by lecturer Dr Jan Bondeson.
"The amazing thing is how close he got to the queen and the extraordinary lengths taken to get rid of him," he said.
"They were worried about what Boy Jones might tell people. No one knew what he had seen or heard in the palace," he stated.
Cardiff University's Dr Bondeson, whose book 'Queen Victoria's Stalker' is now on sale, said the story is little known because of the veil of secrecy thrown over the affair.
"The Boy Jones was the first known celebrity stalker in history. If he'd shown signs of madness they would have locked him up, but he was fully lucid," he said.
"He was undesirable so they just stuck him on a ship to Australia and got rid of him," he added.
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