Queen Boudicca Leader of the Briton Resistance
Boudicca is also known as Boadicea. Little is known of her early life. She was the wife of Prasutagus, the king of the Iceni, a tribe of Britons in the present-day county of Norfolk and in parts of adjoining counties in eastern England. She had at least two daughters.
In 43 C.E. the Iceni had surrendered their kingdom to the conquering Romans and the rule of Emperor Claudius. Prasutagus had been allowed to rule as a client-king of the Romans. Upon his death in 60 C.E. he left half his property to the Roman emperor Nero and half to his daughters.
According to the Roman writer Tacitus, Queen Boudicca's revolt of 60—61 C.E. started as a protest against the arrogance of the legionary veterans in the new colonia at Camulodunum.The corrupt procurator of the province seems to have attempted to encroach on the queen's prerogatives and those of other noble Iceni. Moreover the legionary veterans were not kept under adequate control and committed various acts of repression that inflamed the Iceni. Finally Boudicca was beaten publicly and her daughters were raped.The Roman writer Dio Cassius maintains, however, that the real cause of the revolt was the calling in of large loans made to the province by the Roman philosopher Seneca, which caused financial hardship among the Iceni.
In any case the Romans underestimated the leadership capabilities of Queen Boudicca. She led a rebellion in which the Iceni destroyed a number of Roman-held towns in the region, reportedly wiping out the populations and dismantling the houses stone by stone. She also defeated the Ninth Legion in battle, the largest such action taken by Britons. The Iceni continued pillaging Roman settlements for nearly two years until the Roman governor Suetonius Paulinus raised an army and defeated the Iceni in a battle, the site of which is not known. It is thought that soon after this defeat in 61 C.E. Queen Boudicca took her own life by poison rather than be taken prisoner.
Queen Boudicca is a British icon of national resistance. During theVictorian age a number of different painters and sculptors honored her. She has been cited as a feminist heroine in numerous texts. A statue of her stands on the Westminster Bridge in London. One theory holds that her body lies under London's King's Cross underground station.
From her Chariot, Queen Boudicca of the Iceni rallies Britons before a battle with the Romans, in this late-19th-century painting. (Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division [LC-USZ62-122138])
that Togidubnus's towns of Calleva and Noviomagus were untouched may be evidence that his armies protected them. More compelling are that even after such a devastating rebellion, much of southeastern Britain remained in the hands of British kings and few Roman forts were built in the region. Togidubnus's realm was expanded after the rebellion, possibly as a reward for his aid. His territory may now have included the area of Aquae Sulis or Bath; at this time a new and unusual temple to Neptune and Minerva was constructed at Bath, at vast expense, to house the sacred spring of the British goddess Sul.
Post a comment