Boudicca: The Original Queen Bitch

     Boudicca’s statue, erected in 1902, stands across from the House of Parliament in London.  The image of the Iceni warrior queen, flanked by her two daughters, is a daily reminder to Britons of the ancient struggle between right and wrong, between freedom and oppression, between good and evil.  There has been much speculation about Queen Boudicca, as little is known to be accurate, but one thing is for sure:  she is a heroine, a fierce female leader who would stop at nothing to free the Celts from the authority of the Roman Empire.

 

     Boudicca’s revolt against the Romans ended in the defeat of her forces, and, probably, her suicide.  Can losing the greatest battle of one’s life still qualify one as a hero?  Does a hero take their own life, under any circumstances?  These are questions that have been asked of many leaders, ancient and modern, and I believe the answer is an unequivocal yes.  A hero is simply an individual who stands up for what is right, and does not compromise their principles, even if it means sacrificing their own life.  Facing obvious defeat, in some cases, they still press on to prove they are true to the cause.  Realizing that the end has come, seeing the destruction or failure of their fight, committing suicide is seen as noble and appropriate.  Using these criteria, Queen Boudicca was definitely a heroine to the Celtic people, and an inspiration to many in the modern era.

    

     Julius Caesar invaded what is now Great Britain in BC 55, and again the following year.  Six Celtic tribes, including the Iceni, submitted to Roman power at that time.  Upon departing the island, Caesar left the tribes to themselves, so he could focus on suppressing a potential uprising in Gaul.  The tribes began formal trade and relations with Roman Gaul that would have successfully and peacefully Latinized them, and would have made future occupation by Rome easy.  Caesar never returned to the British Isles, and the Celts were free of Roman influence on their own land for almost a century (members.tripod.com).

 

     Emperor Claudius invaded Britain once again, in AD 43.  At the time, the Celtic peoples had no centralized government.  There were many tribes, each with their own leaders and laws, and they often went to war with each other.  The Iceni tribe, of which Boudicca was a member, was ruled by Antedios when Roman forces entered their territory.  There was no formal armed resistance to Roman forces, and Antedios was recognized by Rome as being the official Iceni leader.  He was made a “client-king” of the Empire, meaning that he would serve Rome, but would be permitted to continue as ruler of the Iceni.  Rome gave the client-kings military protection, funding, education, employment, as well as slavery, serfdom, and suzerainty (members.tripod.com). 

 

     The Iceni were a prosperous, civilized tribe who lived in Norfolk and Suffolk in eastern Britain.  Trade flourished, as they controlled profitable sea routes along the coast, including the gold route which began in Ireland.  Diodurus Siculus wrote of the Iceni in the first century:

 

          They accumulate large quantities of gold and make use of it

          for personal adornment, not only the women but also the men…

          They wear a striking kind of clothing–tunics dyed and stained

          in various colours, and trousers…Their armour includes man-

          sized shields, decorated in individual pattern (mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk).

 

Frank Delaney described the Iceni as “a peacock people”, and called them “economically successful, enterprising and proud” (mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk).  These statements provide a picture of a cultured, sophisticated people, not dirty barbarians who were eager to risk their desperate lives to go to war for no good reason save a love of fighting.

 

     Boudicca was born into aristocracy around AD 30, and her birth name has been disputed for centuries.  She may have been called Boudiga by her followers, after the Celtic goddess of victory, which led to the Latinized Boadicea Victoria.  Boudicca married King Prasutagus in AD 48, and had two daughters.  When the King died circa AD 60, he willed half of his estate to his teenaged daughters, and the other half to Rome, now controlled by the Emperor Nero.

 

     It was, however, illegal under Roman law to will personal wealth to anyone other than the Emperor.  Prasutagus felt his decision would appease the Romans and keep his own kingdom and family in good standing.  Instead, Roman Procurator Decianus Catus and his soldiers came to collect all of the late King’s inheritance, enslaving many Iceni citizens, forcing others from their land, destroying their homes.  When Queen Boudicca protested, she was publicly flogged and her daughters were raped. 

 

     Boudicca was a powerful female, something the Romans could not accept.  Roman women were not citizens, whereas Celtic women were the equals of men, and often fought alongside them during war.  By publicly punishing the Queen for her insolence, and sexually assaulting her daughters, Rome was clearly trying to make an example of her.  Women should be kept in their place, the Romans thought, but Boudicca and her Celtic followers disagreed about where that place should be, and would show the Romans a thing or two about the power of female dominance. 

    

     Omens of Roman defeat began to appear both in Rome and Britain.  The statue of Victory in Camulodunum (Colchester), a symbol of the Roman Empire, fell to the ground with no provocation, its back turned as if running from the enemy; human bodies began to wash upon the shores of the island, and the waters had become blood -red; in Rome, voices could be heard screaming in the Senate; the image of a colony in ruins appeared on the water.  The great battle for Celtic independence was about to commence, and Boudicca’s charisma and anger fueled the masses.

 

     Dio Cassius, from whom we get much of our history of Boudicca, though he was Roman and lived a century after Boudicca’s demise, illustrates the image of the Warrior Queen Boudicca preparing for battle:

 

          She was huge of frame, terrifying of aspect, and with a harsh

          voice.  A great mass of bright red hair fell to her knees: she wore

          a twisted torc, and a tunic of many colours, over which was a

          thick mantle, fastened by a brooch.  Now she grasped a spear,

          to strike fear into all who watched her (mysite.wanadoo-members.co.uk).

 

 

Surely, the thought of being defeated at the hands of a woman would be enough to make the average Roman cringe. 

 

     The exact numbers are unknown, but Boudicca is believed to have amassed an army of tens of thousands, rounding up the Iceni as well as other tribes like the Trinovantes.  The site of the first siege was Camulodunum (Colchester), where there was a colony of retired Roman officers and their families.  The men were unprepared for battle against such a force as Boudicca’s army of rebels.  They were easily defeated after only a few days of battle, as were the IX Legion Hispana, dispatched from the north to aid the veterans.     

 

     70,000 lives were lost at this battle.  But Boudicca was not satisfied just to have slaughtered all of Camulodunum’s inhabitants; she burned it to the ground, and then moved on to Londinium (London).

 

     Roman Governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, who had been fighting in the north Welsh territory, heard about the rebellion, and the Boudiccan advance toward Londinium.  Londinium was a town of business, not an important military post, and he quickly realized that it could not be defended, nor was it worth being defended against, the forces of Boudicca.  Tacitus explains the scene in his Annals:

 

          …[H]e resolved to quit the station, and, by giving up one post,

          secure the rest of the province.  Neither supplications, nor the

          tears of the inhabitants could induce him to change his plans…

          All who chose to follow his banners were taken under his pro-

          tection.  Of all who…thought proper to remain behind, not one

          escaped the rage of the Barbarians (athenapub.com).

 

     Boudicca’s army subjected the people of Londinium to atrocities that shocked even the Romans.  Women were not spared; in fact, they seemed to have been targeted by Boudicca’s revenge.  Noblewomen were hung, their breasts were sliced off and sewn to their mouths.  Then they were impaled on skewers that ran the length of their bodies.  These do not appear to be the acts of a hero, especially a heroine like Boudicca who has been held up as a symbol of feminism and female superiority.  But many feel that such acts of horror may have been sacrifices to the Celtic patron goddess Andrasta, goddess of warriors, victory, battles and ravens.  Andrasta is known as “the invincible one”, and “she who has not fallen”.  Boudicca is said to have released a hare onto the field of her last battle, the hare being the symbol of Andrasta. 

    

 

     Londinium was burned so severely by Boudicca’s forces that its remains melted into a layer of clay ten inches thick, which can be seen just fifteen feet below the streets of present-day London.

 

     The rebels were now headed toward Verulamium (St. Albans), a city smaller than the tiny Camulodunum, and populated by Britons sympathetic to Rome.  Most citizens of Veralamium, having received word of Boudicca’s designs on their hometown, evacuated.  Boudicca killed those who remained, and turned the city into ashes.

 

     In the meantime, Paulinus was strategizing.  He had given up Londinium and Verulamium to focus on putting together a superior Roman army that would, for once and for all, suppress this Queen and her mass of Barbarians.   Paulinus knew that the Celts far outnumbered his troops, but he also realized that he had organization and armour on his side.  He found a spot in the midlands, likely near Watling Street, where the terrain would protect his men.  The soldiers in the rear were near the woods, and the flanks were close to defiles, meaning the Roman forces could not be surprise-attacked from any side.  They were ready to meet Boudicca head on.

 

     The tactics of the Celts, on the other hand, were far less organized.  Boastful of their recent victories, they sought to scare the enemy through wild screaming and motions, blowing trumpets to distract the Romans, and painting their faces and bodies with blue designs.  “They formed no regular line of battle,” Tacitus, tells us, as their forces were groups of varying size and leadership, not really fighting as a unified force. 

 

     Strangely enough, the Celts, expecting victory over the Roman oppressors, invited their families to watch the battle, bringing their wagons right to the edge of the field to give everyone a good view of the slaughter that was about to occur.  Some scholars believe that this may have been a subtle tactic to prevent the Romans from advancing past the battlefield, as women, children, livestock and property would be killed if they were to push forth. 

 

     The Romans expertly planned their intial battle stance.  The legionnaires stood in the center, flanked by auxiliary forces.  The cavalry stood firm on either side of the auxiliaries.  The idea was to form a wedge and move on the Celts in a precise fashion.  As Boudicca’s warriors began to throw their javelins, the Romans remained still–for the moment.  The Romans wanted to let the tribes exhaust themselves first, and then attack them ferociously.  The weaponry of the Romans, short swords and heavy shields, also gave them an advantage over the Celts, who fought with long swords and small, round shields (Santosuosso 137).

 

     The presence of so many noncombatants on the side of the Britons, combined with their lack of organization and inferior weapons, made it easy for the Romans to trap the soldiers and slaughter them all.  Boudicca’s rebellion had, in this final battle, failed; only 400 Romans died, and an equal amount suffered injury, compared to 80,000 British casualties (Santosuosso 137).      

 

     The only choice Queen Boudicca saw for herself was suicide.  After witnessing the brutalities of war, and the defeat of her Celtic warriors, the noblest choice, the only logical choice for her, was suicide.  I look at this as a classic “captain going down with the ship” mentality.  If  you can not lead your people to victory in the face of oppression, what other choice is there?  She was not a coward who tried to live in anonymity, and she did not wish to be subject to the wrath of the Romans, or to her fellow Celts whom she felt she had let down.  She did all she could do, and when that failed, she took her life.

 

     A great famine overtook the land after the defeat at the hands of the Roman Empire, as the warrior Celts had not planted their crops before heading out to battle, planning instead to capture Roman grains after their victory.  In addition, the Romans build drainage systems to pull water away from the soil, so the few farmers who had fertile land could not grow food.  Sanctuaries were desecrated, family treasures were looted, and weapons were taken from the Britons.  These were obviously measures of revenge ordered by Paulinus, but they resulted in a loss of tax revenue due the Roman Empire, and he was soon replaced as governor by Petronius Turpilianius, who ruled with a looser, and more humane, grip on the Britons.

    

     The legend of Boudicca has survived nearly 2,000 years, despite her defeat and eventual suicide.  The idea of Queen Boudicca as a heroine cannot be denied.  She may have been a Druid priestess, as some claim, explaining how she was able to muster such a large following and be so thorough in her destruction of three cities.  But this again begs the question, Can a true hero be capable of such destructive and cruel behaviour?  Can Boudicca be held up as a symbol of female leadership when she was responsible for the deaths of so many Romans, as well as so many of her fellow Celts?  Why should we admire a woman who massacred innocent people and burned their cities to the ground?

 

     One thing we can do is to look at her in the context of the times and the oppression the Britons faced.  The Romans were raping, pillaging and killing Britons.  Boudicca’s daughters were the rightful heiresses to the King’s estate, but they were ravaged by the Romans, and the Queen was publicly brutalized.  The Iceni had been cooperative up till then, as they had a prosperous lifestyle, and no reason to be belligerent.  Boudicca did what she had to do to remove the undesireable element–the Roman Empire–from her land, to reestablish the quality of life they had enjoyed for many years.  To fight a brutal force like the Romans, one can’t use sugar and spice and everything nice.  Boudicca believed in fighting fire with fire, and eye for an eye, so she had to one-up the Roman atrocities to prove her point.  And though her people suffered great losses and were bested by the Roman army, the final result was the removal of the provacateur Paulinus, and a ten-year halt to Roman miltarism.  Sometimes great losses are necessary to achieve a minor victory.

 

     There are many examples of heroes who have suffered defeat, but that does not diminish their stature, that does not negate the inspiration and the leadership they provided.  Standing up for what’s right, and not bowing down to anyone to make your life easier, these are what makes a hero.  Queen Boudicca was a fierce leader, a remarkable woman, and a heroine for all people fighting to keep their land and their freedom.

 

     Many stories have been told about Queen Boudicca, and her legend lives on the poems, novels, songs, and films.  We can never know the truth about her life and death, but we can look to her as a source of inspiration.  Anyone who ever felt wronged or subjugated can use Boudicca as an example of tremendous inner strength and determination.  Sure, she ultimately lost the battle, but the important thing is that she did what was right.  Queen Boudicca is a heroine, plain and simple. 

 

 

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