Boudicca, The Warrior Queen
In 43 AD some parts of Britain, mostly southern Britian was conquered by Rome under the orders of Emperor Claudius, the invasion was conducted by Comander Aulus Plautus. At the time most people in Britain were Celtic and lived in tribes or Kingdoms, there were around 27 major tribes in Celtic Britain (I have attached a picture of some British tribes bellow). When invading Britain the romans were pretty ruthless they destroyed towns, cities and kingdoms. They murdered and raped people as they pleased in order to show their dominance and strike fear into the Celts. However they did not destroy every kingdom Britain, instead they created the concept of ‘Client Kings’. A Client King is occurs when the King of a tribe agrees to follow Roman law and other rules such as paying certain taxes to the Roman Empire, in return the Romans do not invade their kingdom, a Client King was described as a ‘Friend’ to the Roman Empire. One example of the ‘Client King’ was Prasutagus the King of the Iceni tribe which was roughly over modern day Norfolk and surrounding areas. The Iceni tribe worked relatively well with the Romans and Prasutagus was a unproblematic Client King. In 60AD Prasutagus died and left half of his property to his daughters and half to the Roman Empire, the Romans decided not to follow his wishes, instead they took everything he had along with publicly beating his wife Boudicca and raping his two daughters, some accounts say his daughters were raped by slaves as this was degraded them further. However, they messed with the wrong woman, Boudicca had always been anti-roman, and this attack pushed her over the edge. Boudicca raised an army with men and some women from the Iceni tribe known as the ‘Britons’ they were soon joined by a neighbouring tribe the Trinovantes. Boudicca was a confident and powerful leader, she was tough with her soldiers but an excellent motivator, she fought in every battle and would travel to them on a chariot with her daughters.
Their first attack was on a Roman city called Camulodunum which was the capital of Roman Britain, it was around modern day Colchester. Camulodumnum had previously been a military base, held many important speeches, and had a huge temple and statue built to commemorate the Emperor Claudius. This was where the Britons first attacked, they were merciless, they burned the city to the ground, behead the statue of Claudius and killed as many people as possible. The anger they felt against the Romans reflected in their violence, as the Romans were not prepared for the attack the Britons a huge upper hand. The Romans were angry about Camulodumnum but were not intimidated by the Britons, they knew they were more skilled and better equipped, they sent the Ninth Legion which had around 2,000 soldiers and 500 auxiliary soldiers to stop Britons in their tracks. However the Ninth Legion were ambushed by the Britons and were hugely outnumbered the battle ended in a shocking defeat and the Britons continued on their rampage of Roman cities. Led by Boudicca the Britons set their sights on Lundinum (modern day London) this was a vital city in Roman Britain as it was a huge trading port for both people and goods. Again they destroyed the city burning it down and killing its people, once the city was mostly ashes they moved on to a town called Verulamium. It’s not known exactly why they targeted Verulamium as most of its inhabitants were Celts and it wasn’t a roman settlement, Verulamium was a ‘municipium’, which is a town or city that governs itself under roman law but it not roman, nonetheless they burned it down. After they had finished with Verulamium they headed Northwest, but this time were met with a prepared Roman army of around 10,000 men and auxiliary soldiers. The Britons were confident, they hugely outnumbered the romans with around 100,000 soldiers and had already destroyed two of their major cities, some soldiers even brought their families to watch the battle. In a pre-battle speech Boudicca said ‘On this spot we must either conquer or die with glory. There is no alternative’. This time the skill of the Roman military showed through and Boudicca’s army was destroyed in just a day, the Romans had an estimated 400 deaths whilst the Briton’s had over 80,000. We don’t know how Boudicca died, some accounts say she killed herself whilst others say she became ill. Where she was buried is also unknown, there are a number of theories some say under Stonehenge and others say under Charing Cross Station in London.
Some of My Views:
Throughout every account of Boudicca it is constantly mentioned that she is a woman, which seems really obvious but actually is kind of disappointing, it just highlights the fact that her skills as a warrior and leader are less important then her gender. It was, and is, unusual for a woman to be a leader let alone a warrior. At times Boudicca would use this to her advantage saying things like, ‘ That is what I, a woman will do; you men can live on in slavery if you want’, she used the humiliation that a woman may be a stronger fighter then a man to encourage them to carry on. Whilst it also served to humiliate the Romans, with one Roman historian saying, ‘All this ruin was brought upon the Romans by a woman, a fact which is in itself caused the greatest shame’.
Another thing to note is that in almost all the resources I used, her appearance was the first thing mentioned. Even in 60 A.D. a women’s appearance was more important than her skills. This is made worse by the fact that the descriptions we have of Boudica (mostly written by Romans) were used to make her seem unattractive, such has having hair to her hips, wearing bright clothes and having ‘unfeminine qualities’. It suggests that if she was 'unattractive' then it was less humiliating that she destroyed two of the their biggest cities and beat one of their legions despite them having some of the most equipped and well trained soldiers in the world.
The majority of information we have about Boudicca and these battles is from two Roman historians named Cassius Dio who was born in 155 A.D. around 90 years after the battle’s and Publius Tactius who was born in 55 A.D. Neither were involved in the battles or even entered England where the battles took place, they also may have been biased towards the Romans.
Definitions from Oxford Languages dictionary:
Commemorate
This means to ‘recall or show respect for something or someone’
Legion
A large Roman military unit from non-roman tribes.
Auxiliary Soldier
A soldier from a non-roman tribe
Boudicca
Book- The History of Britian Volume 1 foundation by Peter Ackroyd
History UK, Boudica:
History BBC, Boudicca:
Historynet, Boudica: Celtic War Queen Who Challenged Rome:
Ancient History Encyclopedia, Boudicca:
Roman Lincolnshire Revealed, The Ninth Legion, the Boudican revolt and the founding of the Lincoln fortress:
Live Science, Boudicca: Warrior Queen of the Iceni, by Owen Jarus:
National Geographic, Big, Bad Boudica united thousands of ancient Britons against Rome, by Richard Hingley:
History Hit. ’10 facts about queen Boudicca’, by Tristan Hughes:
Other:
Cassius Dio: Roman History:
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Municipium:
Encyclopedia Britannica, Prasutagus:
Oxford Reference, Client Kings:
Durham University, A study of the client kings in the early Roman Period, thesis by Everatt J.D:
Invasion of Britian in A.D. 43- An Alternative Stratergy for Auluus Plautius:
The Ninth Legion, the Boudican revolt and founding of the Lincoln fortress:
Image of Boudicca found on Google Images, BBC.com
Image of Tribes found on Google Images, from Chris Rudd:
Kommentare