21st February: Boadicea

In 1988 The grave of Boadicea, the warrior queen who fought the Romans in Britain nearly 2,000 years ago, was located by archaeologists under Platform 8 at King’s Cross railway station, London.

1. Who was she? Boadicea was queen of the British Celtic Iceni tribe who led an uprising against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire.
2. The spelling of her name varies. She has been known as Voadicia, Bunduca, Boudica, Boudiga and Bodicca. Tacitus, the main source of contemporary information about her, spelled it Boudicca; the most common spelling in the 19th century was Boadicea. Her name probably derives from the Celtic word for Victory. After centuries of obscurity in which she wasn't mentioned in histories of Britain at all, she was re-discovered in the 19th century and became a popular figure. Possibly the fact that the nearest modern equivalent of her name (in meaning anyway) is "Victoria".
3. Boadicea was married to Prasutagus, the king of the Iceni, based in Norfolk, who was actually allied with Rome and allowed to rule his kingdom independently.
4. So why the rebellion? Prasutagus left his kingdom jointly to his daughters and the Roman emperor in his will, probably to protect their interests and also those of his queen. However, when Prasutagus died, the Romans disregarded his wishes entirely. They seized the kingdom, had Boadicea flogged and raped her daughters (presumably when they tried to resist the invaders).
5. Queen Boadicea was justifiably furious about all this. In AD 60 or 61, when the Roman governor Gaius Suetonius Paulinus was away fighting Druids on the island of Anglesey, the Iceni and their neighbours, the Trinovantes, decided to revolt. They chose Boadicea as their leader and marched on the Roman city of Camulodunum (now Colchester) and destroyed it. Word reached Suetonius that the rebels had set their sights on Londinium (now London) next, and so he left the Druids alone and returned home. He soon worked out that the rebel army was so big that the Romans had no chance of winning, so the city was evacuated. The rebels arrived, burned the city down and slaughtered anyone who hadn't fled. The rebels went on to destroy Verulamium (now St Albans). An estimated 70,000–80,000 lives were lost in the conflict.
6. Boadicea was looking unstoppable, but she was defeated in the Battle of Watling Street. Nobody knows exactly where this was, but some likely locations have been put forward - High Cross in Leicestershire, on the junction of Watling Street and the Fosse Way, Manduessedum (Mancetter), near Atherstone in Warwickshire, "The Rampart" near Messing in Essex, Kings Norton close to Metchley Camp, the Cuttle Mill area of Paulerspury in Northamptonshire, Arbury Bank, Hertfordshire and Church Stowe, Northamptonshire.
7. Boadicea's ultimate fate is also unknown. Some accounts claim she committed suicide, others tell a less dramatic story that she got sick and died. Everything we know about Boadicea comes from accounts written by Romans, as there was no native British literature or written history from the time.
8. What was she like? Contemporary writings by Tacitus and Dio suggest she was of royal descent in her own right, and was "possessed of greater intelligence than often belongs to women." She was described as an imposing figure - tall, with long "tawny" (light brown with a reddish tinge) hair reaching below her waist. She had a harsh voice and a piercing glare. She wore colourful clothes and a large necklace or torc around her neck, with a thick cloak fastened by a brooch.
9. According to Tacitus, she would exhort her troops from her chariot, her daughters beside her. She presented herself not as an aristocrat angry at losing her wealth, but as an ordinary woman whose motivation was revenge at losing her freedom, and the mistreatment of herself and her daughters. She was resolved to win or die.
10. Boadicea was largely forgotten during the middle ages, but the imagination of the Victorians was captured by her. Victoria's Poet Laureate, Alfred Lord Tennyson, wrote a poem, "Boadicea", and several ships were named after her. A statue of Boudica with her daughters in her war chariot by Thomas Thornycroft was erected on a plinth on the Victoria Embankment next to Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament. Even now, she is remembered - in 2002 she was number 35 in the BBC's poll of the 100 Greatest Britons.