Boudica
As we head towards our exit from the EU I thought it would be a good idea to remember some of those who put the great in Great Britain. Take Boudica (also written as Boadicea) for example.
At the age of 18, Boudica married Prasutagas, king of the Iceni tribe of modern-day East Anglia. When the Romans conquered southern England in A.D. 43, most Celtic tribes were forced to submit, but the Romans let Prasutagas continue in power as a forced ally of the Empire. When he died without a male heir in A.D. 60, the Romans annexed his kingdom and confiscated his family’s land and property. Clearly the Romans didn’t respect gender equality or women’s rights, because when Queen Boudica objected to this, the Romans publicly flogged Boudica and raped her two daughters.
Well, that didn’t go down too well with the Brits, and the Romans and their pro-Roman friends paid a heavy price. Boudica led a rebellion of the Iceni and members of other tribes resentful of Roman rule. The rebels made short work of the Roman Ninth Legion, and went on to destroy Camulodunum [modern day Colchester], then the capital of Roman Britain, massacring its inhabitants. They went on to give similar treatment to London and Verulamium [modern St. Albans]. The Roman scholar Tacitus claimed that Boudica’s forces had killed some 70,000 Romans and pro-Roman Britons.
Sadly this attempt by the Brits to break free from Roman rule ended badly for us when the Roman provincial governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus rushed back from chasing hairy Welshmen and defeated the Brits somewhere north of London. Boudica and her daughters apparently killed themselves by taking poison in order to avoid capture.
Despite this unhappy ending, we Brits are never slow to turn defeat into a victory celebration [remember Dunkirk] and so Boudica is celebrated today as a national heroine and an embodiment of the struggle for justice and independence.
Boudica
As we head towards our exit from the EU I thought it would be a good idea to remember some of those who put the great in Great Britain. Take Boudica (also written as Boadicea) for example.
At the age of 18, Boudica married Prasutagas, king of the Iceni tribe of modern-day East Anglia. When the Romans conquered southern England in A.D. 43, most Celtic tribes were forced to submit, but the Romans let Prasutagas continue in power as a forced ally of the Empire. When he died without a male heir in A.D. 60, the Romans annexed his kingdom and confiscated his family’s land and property. Clearly the Romans didn’t respect gender equality or women’s rights, because when Queen Boudica objected to this, the Romans publicly flogged Boudica and raped her two daughters.
Well, that didn’t go down too well with the Brits, and the Romans and their pro-Roman friends paid a heavy price. Boudica led a rebellion of the Iceni and members of other tribes resentful of Roman rule. The rebels made short work of the Roman Ninth Legion, and went on to destroy Camulodunum [modern day Colchester], then the capital of Roman Britain, massacring its inhabitants. They went on to give similar treatment to London and Verulamium [modern St. Albans]. The Roman scholar Tacitus claimed that Boudica’s forces had killed some 70,000 Romans and pro-Roman Britons.
Sadly this attempt by the Brits to break free from Roman rule ended badly for us when the Roman provincial governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus rushed back from chasing hairy Welshmen and defeated the Brits somewhere north of London. Boudica and her daughters apparently killed themselves by taking poison in order to avoid capture.
Despite this unhappy ending, we Brits are never slow to turn defeat into a victory celebration [remember Dunkirk] and so Boudica is celebrated today as a national heroine and an embodiment of the struggle for justice and independence.