Boudica
2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: British History 1500 and before (including Roman Britain); Historical figures
Boudica (also spelled Boudicca, formerly better known as Boadicea) (d. 60/61) was a queen of the Brythonic Celtic Iceni people of Norfolk in Eastern Britain who led a major uprising of the tribes against the occupying forces of the Roman Empire.
Her husband, Prasutagus, the Icenian king, who had ruled as a nominally independent ally of Rome, had left his kingdom jointly to his daughters and the Roman Emperor in his will, but when he died his will was ignored, possibly because the Romans, unlike the Britons, did not recognise daughters as heirs. The kingdom was annexed as if conquered, Boudica was flogged and her daughters raped, and Roman financiers called in their loans.
In 60 or 61, while the Roman governor, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, was leading a campaign on the island of Anglesey in north Wales, Boudica led the Iceni, along with the Trinovantes and others, in revolt. They destroyed Camulodunum ( Colchester), formerly the capital of the Trinovantes but now a colonia (a settlement for discharged Roman soldiers) and the site of a temple to the former emperor Claudius, built and maintained at local expense, and routed a Roman legion, the IX Hispana, sent to relieve the settlement.
On hearing the news, Suetonius hurried to Londinium (London), the twenty-year-old commercial settlement which was the rebels' next target, but concluding he did not have the numbers to defend it, evacuated and abandoned it. It was burnt to the ground, as was Verulamium ( St Albans). An estimated 70,000-80,000 people were killed in the three cities. Suetonius, meanwhile, regrouped his forces in the West Midlands, and despite being heavily outnumbered, defeated Boudica in the Battle of Watling Street. The crisis had led the emperor Nero to consider withdrawing Roman forces from the island, but Suetonius's victory secured Roman control of the province.
The chronicles of these events, as recorded by the historians Tacitus and Cassius Dio, were rediscovered during the Renaissance and led to a resurgence of Boudica's legendary fame during the Victorian era, when Queen Victoria was portrayed as her "namesake". Boudica has since remained an important cultural symbol in the United Kingdom.
History
Boudica's name
Until the late 20th century, Boudica was known as Boadicea, which is probably derived from a mistranscription when a manuscript of Tacitus was copied in the Middle Ages. Her name takes many forms in various manuscripts – Boadicea and Boudicea in Tacitus; Βουδουικα, Βουνδουικα, and Βοδουικα in Dio – but was almost certainly originally Boudicca or Boudica, derived from the Celtic word *bouda, victory (proto-celtic *boudīko "victorious") (cf. Irish bua, Buaidheach, Welsh buddug). The name is attested in inscriptions as "Boudica" in Lusitania, "Boudiga" in Bordeaux and "Bodicca" in Britain.
Based on later development of Welsh and Irish, Kenneth Jackson concludes that the correct spelling of the name is Boudica, pronounced /bɒʊˈdiːka:/, although it is mispronounced by many as /ˈbuːdɪkə/.
Background
Tacitus and Dio agree that Boudica was of royal descent. Dio says that she was "possessed of greater intelligence than often belongs to women", that she was tall, had long red hair down to her hips, a harsh voice and a piercing glare, and habitually wore a large golden necklace (perhaps a torc), a many-coloured tunic and a thick cloak fastened by a brooch.
Her husband, Prasutagus, was the king of Iceni, who inhabited roughly what is now Norfolk. They were initially not part of the territory under direct Roman control, having voluntarily allied themselves to Rome following Claudius's conquest of 43. They were protective of their independence and had revolted in 47 when the then- governor, Publius Ostorius Scapula, threatened to disarm them. Prasutagus lived a long life of conspicuous wealth, and, hoping to preserve his line, made the Roman emperor co-heir to his kingdom along with his two daughters.
It was normal Roman practice to allow allied kingdoms their independence only for the lifetime of their client king, who would agree to leave his kingdom to Rome in his will: the provinces of Bithynia and Galatia, for example, were incorporated into the Empire in just this way. Roman law also allowed inheritance only through the male line. So when Prasutagus died his attempts to preserve his line were ignored and his kingdom was annexed as if it had been conquered. Lands and property were confiscated and nobles treated like slaves. According to Tacitus, Boudica was flogged and her daughters raped. Dio Cassius says that Roman financiers, including Seneca the Younger, chose this point to call in their loans. Tacitus does not mention this, but does single out the procurator, Catus Decianus, for criticism for his "avarice". Prasutagus, it seems, had lived well on borrowed Roman money, and on his death his subjects had become liable for the debt.
Boudica's uprising
In 60 or 61, while the current governor, Gaius Suetonius Paulinus, was leading a campaign against the island of Mona (modern Anglesey) in north Wales, which was a refuge for British rebels and a stronghold of the druids, the Iceni conspired with their neighbours the Trinovantes, amongst others, to revolt. Boudica was chosen as their leader. According to Tacitus, they drew inspiration from the example of Arminius, the prince of the Cherusci who had driven the Romans out of Germany in AD 9, and their own ancestors who had driven Julius Caesar from Britain. Dio says that at the outset Boudica employed a form of divination, releasing a hare from the folds of her dress and interpreting the direction it ran, and invoked Andraste, a British goddess of victory. It is perhaps significant that Boudica's own name means "victory" (see above).
The rebels' first target was Camulodunum ( Colchester), the former Trinovantian capital and now a Roman colonia. The Roman veterans who had been settled there mistreated the locals, and a temple to the former emperor Claudius had been erected there at local expense, making the city a focus for resentment. Its inhabitants sought reinforcements from the procurator, Catus Decianus, but he sent only two hundred auxiliary troops. Boudica's army fell on the poorly defended city and destroyed it, besieging the last defenders in the temple for two days before it fell. The future governor Quintus Petillius Cerialis, then commanding the Legio IX Hispana, attempted to relieve the city, but his forces were routed. His infantry was wiped out: only the commander and some of his cavalry escaped. Catus Decianus fled to Gaul.
When news of the rebellion reached him, Suetonius hurried along Watling Street through hostile territory to Londinium (London). Londinium was a relatively new town, founded after the conquest of 43, but had grown to be a thriving commercial centre with a population of travellers, traders, and probably Roman officials. Suetonius considered giving battle there, but considering his lack of numbers and chastened by Petillius's defeat, decided to sacrifice the city to save the province. Londinium was abandoned to the rebels, who burnt it down, slaughtering anyone who had not evacuated with Suetonius. Archaeology shows a thick red layer of burnt debris covering coins and pottery dating before 60 within the bounds of the Roman city. Verulamium ( St Albans) was next to be destroyed.
In the three cities destroyed, between seventy and eighty thousand people are said to have been killed. Tacitus says the Britons had no interest in taking or selling prisoners, only in slaughter by gibbet, fire or cross. Dio's account gives more prurient detail: that the noblest women were impaled on spikes and had their breasts cut off and sewn to their mouths, "to the accompaniment of sacrifices, banquets, and wanton behaviour" in sacred places, particularly the groves of Andraste.
Romans rally
Suetonius regrouped with the XIV Gemina, some vexillationes (detachments) of the XX Valeria Victrix, and any available auxiliaries. The prefect of Legio II Augusta, Poenius Postumus, ignored the call, but nonetheless the governor was able to call on almost ten thousand men. He took a stand at an unidentified location, probably in the West Midlands somewhere along the Roman road now known as Watling Street, in a defile with a wood behind him. But his men were heavily outnumbered. Dio says that, even if they were lined up one deep, they would not have extended the length of Boudica's line: by now the rebel forces numbered 230,000.
Boudica exhorted her troops from her chariot, her daughters beside her. Tacitus gives her a short speech in which she presents herself not as an aristocrat avenging her lost wealth, but as an ordinary person, avenging her lost freedom, her battered body and the abused chastity of her daughters. Their cause was just, and the gods were on their side; the one legion that had dared to face them had been destroyed. She, a woman, was resolved to win or die; if the men wanted to live in slavery, that was their choice.
However, the unmaneuverability of the British forces, combined with lack of open-field tactics to command these numbers, put them at a disadvantage to the Romans, who were skilled at open combat due to their superior equipment and discipline, and the narrowness of the field meant that Boudica could only put forth as many troops as the Romans could at a given time. First, the Romans stood their ground and used waves of javelins to kill thousands of Britons who were rushing toward the Roman lines. The Roman soldiers, who had now used up their javelins, were then able to engage Boudica's second wave in the open. As the Romans advanced in a wedge formation, the Britons attempted to flee, but were impeded by the presence of their own families, whom they had stationed in a ring of wagons at the edge of the battlefield, and were slaughtered. Tacitus reports that "according to one report almost eighty thousand Britons fell" compared with only four hundred Romans. According to Tacitus, Boudica poisoned herself; Dio says she fell sick and died, and was given a lavish burial.
Postumus, on hearing of the Roman victory, fell on his sword. Catus Decianus, who had fled to Gaul, was replaced by Gaius Julius Alpinus Classicianus. Suetonius conducted punitive operations, but criticism by Classicianus led to an investigation headed by Nero's freedman Polyclitus. Suetonius was removed as governor, replaced by the more conciliatory Publius Petronius Turpilianus. The historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus tells us the crisis had almost persuaded Nero to abandon Britain.
Location of her defeat
The location of Boudica's defeat is unknown. Most historians favour a site in the West Midlands, somewhere along the Roman road now known as Watling Street. Kevin K. Carroll suggests a site close to High Cross in Leicestershire, on the junction of Watling Street and the Fosse Way, which would have allowed the Legio II Augusta, based at Exeter, to rendezvous with the rest of Suetonius's forces. Manduessedum ( Mancetter), near the modern day town of Atherstone in Warwickshire, has also been suggested. More recently a new discovery of Roman artifacts in Kings Norton close to Metchley Camp has suggested another possibility.
Cultural impact
History and literature
By the Middle Ages Boudica was forgotten. She makes no appearance in Bede, the Historia Brittonum, the Mabinogion or Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain. But the rediscovery of the works of Tacitus during the Renaissance allowed Polydore Virgil to reintroduce her into British history as "Voadicea" in 1534. Raphael Holinshed also included her story in his Chronicles (1577), based on Tacitus and Dio, and inspired Shakespeare's younger contemporaries Francis Beaumont and John Fletcher to write a play, Bonduca, in 1610. William Cowper wrote a popular poem, Boadicea, an ode, in 1782.
It was in the Victorian era that Boudica's fame took on legendary proportions as Queen Victoria was seen to be Boudica's "namesake". Victoria's Poet Laureate, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, wrote a poem, Boadicea, and ships were named after her. A great bronze statue of Boudica in her war chariot (furnished with scythes after Persian fashion), together with her daughters, was commissioned by Prince Albert and executed by Thomas Thornycroft. It was completed in 1905 and stands next to Westminster Bridge and the Houses of Parliament, with the following lines from Cowper's poem, referring to the British Empire:
- Regions Caesar never knew
Thy posterity shall sway.
Ironically, the great anti-imperialist rebel was now identified with the head of the British Empire.
Fiction
Boudica's story is the subject of several novels:
- Mary Mackie 'The People of the Horse' (W H Allen 1987, ISBN 0-491-03307-9)
- J. F. Broxholme (a pseudonym of Duncan Kyle), The War Queen (1967, ISBN 0-09-001160-0)
- Rosemary Sutcliff, Song for a Dark Queen, a 1978 historical novel for children,
- Manda Scott's series of novels, Dreaming the Eagle (2003), Dreaming the Bull (2004), Dreaming the Hound (2005) and Dreaming the Serpent Spear (2006)
- Joyce Doré's Hemlock, (2002, ISBN 1-898030-19-7) in which Boudica and her two daughters are taken to Rome, before Nero, who makes her drink hemlock. Doré claims to be a psychic and to have based the book on her conversations with the historical characters.
- Alan Gold's Warrior Queen (2005)
Boudica is referred to in other works of fiction, including:
- In Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre (1847), Mr. Rochester asks Jane if the wedding carriage will be suitable to make the future Lady Rochester look like Queen Boadicea.
- The Harry Turtledove novel, Ruled Britannia, features a world where the Spanish Armada succeeded in taking over England. Ten years after the fact, Shakespeare is recruited by a band of rebels to write a play that would stir the English to rebel against Spain. The subject of the play is Boudica.
- In Alice Borchardt's Tales of Guinevere series, Guinevere is a direct descendent, on her mother's side, of Boudica.
- Commodore Jack Aubrey commands a frigate named Boadicea in The Mauritius Command, a book in Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey–Maturin series.
Films and television
Fictionalisations
Boudica has been the subject of two feature films, 1928's Boadicea, starring Phyllis Nielson-Terry, and 2003's Boudica (Warrior Queen in the USA), a UK TV film written by Andrew Davies and starring Alex Kingston as Boudica. A new film is planned for release in 2008 entitled Warrior, written by Brian Klugman and Lee Sternthal, directed by Gavin O'Connor, and produced by Mel Gibson. A British TV series, Warrior Queen, was made by Thames Television in 1978 starring Sian Phillips as Boudica and Nigel Hawthorne as Catus Decianus.
Boudica was a character in an episode of the third season of Xena: Warrior Princess, called The Deliverer, where she was played by Jennifer Ward-Lealand.
Documentaries
Boudica and her revolt have been the subject of numerous documentaries, including:
- Warrior Women episode 5, Discovery Channel, hosted by Lucy Lawless
- History Bites: "Xena's Evil Sister".
- Warrior Queen Boudica (2006), History International Channel
- Battlefield Britain (2004) BBC
Comics
The Sláine series in the British comic 2000 AD included two runs, entitled "Demon Killer" and "Queen of Witches" (1993-1994), written by Pat Mills and illustrated by Glenn Fabry and Dermot Power, which featured a free interpretation of Boudica's story.
The 1990s comic book series Witchblade saw Boudicca as one of the original wielders of the Witchblade.
In the 1990s, DC Comics' Green Lantern Corps included a member named Boodikka, portrayed as a fierce female warrior.
In Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell's graphic novel From Hell, William Gull considers Boudica's defeat as the final defeat of female power by patriarchy.
Music
The Irish singer/songwriter Enya produced a song called "Boadicea" on her 1992 album The Celts. This track was first sampled by Scarface as the intro to his 1993 release The World is Yours. Later, it was most famously sampled by the rap group The Fugees for their single "Ready or Not" (from 1996's The Score), and most recently by Mario Winans (featuring Sean "P. Diddy" Combs) on his song "I Don't Wanna Know" (2004). The track was also used in the soundtrack of the film Sleepwalkers.
The famous Netherlandian soprano singer/songwriter Petra Berger produced an[other] song called "Boadicea" (written by G.Romita) on her 2001 album "Eternal Woman".
Scottish singer/songwriter Steve McDonald composed a biographical song called "Boadicea" on his 1997 album Stone of Destiny, detailing her life and tragic death.
British rock band The Libertines refer to "Queen Boadicea" in their song "The Good Old Days", indicating a belief that her spirit still lives on in Britons today.
The British metal band Bal-Sagoth have written a song entitled "Blood Slakes the Sand at the Circus Maximus" (found on the band's album Battle Magic) which features an Iceni Warrior of Boudica's uprising being captured and brought back to Rome. Her name (always spelled "Boudicca") returns in the song "When Rides the Scion of the Storms" of the same album.
Faith and the Muse produced a song, "Boudiccea" for their most recent album, Burning Season. The song suggests that Boudiccea may have committed suicide by falling on her sword.
The Song, "Boadicea" appears on the album "Eternal Women", which is a compilation of songs to 11 famous women by Dutch Singer, Petra Berger.