Boudicca - Warrior Queen of the Iceni
Posted: Friday, July 21, 2006
by Joe Knight
Boudicca - Warrior Queen of the Iceni
about 1100 words
In 60 A.D., Britain (known as Britannia), like much of the known world, was under the control of the Romans. Caesar had invaded Britannia twice, once in 55 B.C., and again in 54 B.C., and it was during the second invasion that Caesar had established control over the region. The Iceni, who ruled in what is now Norfolk, were one of the six tribes that comprised the conquered land. After his conquest, Caesar left and never returned. For almost one-hundred years, the tribes lived in peaceful coexistence with each other.
In 43 A.D., the emperor Claudius, looking for ways to boost his reputation with his people and his military, sent 60,000 troops to Britannia to colonize the island. The Iceni king, Prasutagus, was allowed to keep his crown under the condition that he would be subservient to Rome. Prasutagus was married to Boudicca (also spelled Boudica and Boadicea), a tall, red-haired woman with a commanding presence, who bore two daughters. The Roman historian Cassius Dio wrote about her about 150 years after the battle:
"She was very tall and her aspect was terrifying, for her eyes flashed fiercely and her voice was harsh. A mass of red hair fell down to her hips, and around her neck was a twisted gold necklace."
Boudicca was witness to the heavy taxes and humiliation of her people by the now-emperor Nero like most of Roman subjects, the Iceni chaffed under Roman rule.
About 60 A.D., Prasutagus died, leaving his two teenaged daughters and Queen Boudicca to rule the Iceni. In his will, Prasutagus left his holdings to his daughters and to the emperor Nero, assuming that he could trust the Empire to protect his family’s holdings however, the chief financial administrator of Rome, Decianus, dispatched his representatives to Britannia to seize Prasutagus’ holdings. They plundered Boudicca’s treasury and annexed her lands. Boudicca and her daughters suffered grave humiliation under the Roman soldiers.
Boudicca had enough...she was now determined to take on Nero and his legions and eliminate them from Britannia. Legend tells that all the Celtic tribes of southeast Britannia came to join her, ready to die for a queen that was fierce enough to take on the Roman Empire. Setting out in 61 A.D., Boudicca and 100,000 of her fellow Britons descended upon the Roman town of Camulodunum (today’s Colchester), a city of retired Roman officers and their families. Boudicca burned it to the ground. The battle lasted several days, giving time for messengers to flee and warn the residents of Londinium (today’s London), A Legion of Roman solders, led by Petilius Cerialis, was dispatched from his camp which was about 80 to the north of Camulodunum however, they were ambushed by a detachment of rebels waiting for them north of Camulodunum. Every infantryman was killed, but Petilius escaped back to his northern camp. With Camulodunum in flames, the rebels marched toward to Londinium about 50 miles to the south west.
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Londinium had been founded only about ten years before the rebellion, and had a population of 10,000-to-30,000 residents. When news of the destruction of Camulodunum reached Londinium, people begged the governor Suetonius Paulinus for protection however, Paulinus realized that he lacked sufficient troops to defend the city, so he retreated, leaving the remaining citizens to suffer the wrath of Boudicca.
Boudicca and her followers burst into Londinium and incinerated it...the fire was so hot that it melted the remains into a layer of red clay only 25 centimeters thick (today, archeologists call this layer the Boudican Destruction Layer). The city was totally destroyed.
While Londinium was burning, Suetonius Paulinus regrouped with only 10,000 Roman troops. Paulinus decided to make his stand at the Roman fort on Watling Street, a major Roman road from Londinium. They took their position on a slope facing a plain from which Paulinus knew Boudicca would attack. The Roman historian Tacticus Paulinus gave the following impassioned speech to raise the moral of his soldiers:
"There you see more women than warriors. Unwarlike, unarmed, they will give way the moment they have recognized that sword and the courage of their conquerors, which have so often routed them. Even among many legions, it is a few who really decide the battle, and it will enhance their glory that a small force should earn the renown of an entire army."
Boudicca also gave a speech to her army prior to battle:
"It is not as a woman descended from noble ancestry, but as one of the people that I am avenging lost freedom, my scourged body, the outraged chastity of my daughters. Roman lust has gone so far that not our very person, nor even age or virginity, are left unpolluted. But heaven is on the side of a righteous vengeance a legion that had dared to fight has perished the rest are hiding themselves in their camp, or are thinking anxiously of flight. They will not sustain even the din and the shout of so many thousands, much less our charge and our blows. If you weigh well the strength of the armies, and the causes of the war, you will see that, in this battle, you must conquer or die. This is a woman’s resolve as for men, they may live and be slaves."
The Britons then charged. Following typical Roman battle tactics, the Roman soldiers threw their javelins down the hill into the mob of charging barbarians, then the Roman infantry charged. The charge forced the Britons back to their supply wagons. The Roman cavalry then split in two, once group attacking each side of the clustered Britons. Then the slaughter began. The Romans killed every man, woman and child that they could see. In the end, some 80,000 Britons had been killed, while the Romans lost only 400 soldiers.
Legend has it that Boudicca survived the battle, and fled back to her Iceni homeland. It is said that she committed suicide, perhaps by drinking poison.
The consequences of the defeat of Boudicca and her army were staggering. Because the rebels
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had joined in the battle against the Romans, hoping to capture Roman grain stores, crops were
not planted for the upcoming winter, leaving many to starve. The Roman’s also laid waste to any usable farmland and crops, and killed many surviving Iceni.
Today Boudicca is remembered as the Warrior Queen of the Iceni. A statue was erected in London in her honor along the River Thames.
Bio: Joe Knight is a writer in Fresno, California
this helped me with my school project alot ty
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