Boudica was the queen of a British tribe in the first century AD. When the invading Romans turned ugly, she didn’t take it lying down. Instead she stood up to the mighty Roman Army.
BASHING BOUDICA
Boudica was the wife of King Prasutagus of the Iceni tribe in eastern England. Prasutagus got on well with the Romans, but when he died, in about AD 60, the Romans took the opportunity to grab the Iceni lands for themselves and treated the Iceni people very badly indeed. Boudica herself was publicly whipped and beaten, and her daughters were attacked too. Despite the fact that the Romans were hugely powerful and ran most of the country, she decided to do something about it. She raised an army from her own tribe and a neighbouring one, the Trinovantes, and led them in a revolt against the Romans.
BOUDICA BASHES BACK
Boudica headed for the Roman colony of Colchester, leading her army from her war chariot. Boudica’s army destroyed Colchester and defeated the Roman troops sent to fight them. Next Boudica marched on to the trading settlement of London. The Roman governor, Suetonius was in Wales when he heard about Boudica’s revolt. He took his troops to London, but decided to evacuate the settlement rather than stay and fight the fierce warrior queen. Boudica’s army smashed and burned as much as they could of London, then headed for St Albans, a bit further north, where they did exactly the same thing.
THE BATTLE OF WATLING STREET
While Boudica was busy in St Albans, Suetonius gathered his troops. Boudica led her army to meet them. The two sides met somewhere in the West Midlands along the Roman road that’s now called Watling Street. The Romans began their assault on the approaching British by launching thousands of javelins at them. Then they advanced, pushing Boudica’s army back so that they became hemmed in by the chariots they’d left in a line at the edge of the battlefield. Thousands were killed.
BOUDICA’S END
Legend has it that Boudica refused to be captured by the Romans. Instead, she chose death, and poisoned herself and her daughters using a toxic plant called hemlock.
