I have always loved female heroes – so much, that as a child
I became inadvertently sexist in my choice of reading materials. If there was
not an immediately obvious strong female lead, I quickly lost interest in the book.
This means I was slow on the uptake for Harry Potter and did not appreciate
Lord of the Rings until I was seventeen. But warrior queens, girls who played
with swords and did archery, girls who disguised as boys to go fight – I
couldn’t get enough. To be real, I still eat that stuff up. Given my prejudices
and my adolescent pride in my Celtic heritage, it should be no surprise that I
loved Boadicea – the leader of the Iceni tribe, who led a revolt against the
Romans. (Oh, those pesky Romans.)
 |
| A statue of Boadicea in London - a town she is famous for burning down. |
Like anyone whose claim to fame is resisting a foreign invader (see last
week’s post on Nzinga), there is quite a lot of mythologizing about her.
So, let’s start with the backdrop.
Between 55 and 54 BCE, Julius Caesar had begun incursions into Britain,
kicking off centuries of Roman attempts to control the Isle of Britain. The
Britain that Rome encountered was not a unified state – or even a couple of
unified states. It was home to numerous Celtic tribes that often warred with
each other, and seldom united in the face of a common enemy (such as Rome).
Although Boadicea is usually portrayed as a heroic defender of
Britishness or Celticness from the pesky Romans, her beef with them started as
a property dispute – that escalated quickly. Her husband, King of the Iceni
Tribe, had left his kingdom to his daughters, ceremonially also naming the
Roman Emperor as one of his heirs. The Romans misinterpreted this gesture as
permission to annex the kingdom, which they duly did.
When Boadicea protested the (probably willful) misinterpretation of her
husband’s will, the Roman’s responded by flogging her and raping her daughters.
(Like I said, it escalated quickly.) Boadicea was not the only Celt who had a
bone to pick with the Romans, so she conspired with some of the neighboring
tribes and in 60 CE started a revolt against the Romans. It was especially
successful or long-lasting – but it caused a
lot of damage. In the words of historian Peter Salway, “She swept through
southern Britain, burning Colchester, London, and Verulamium (near St. Albans),
torturing every Roman or Roman sympathizer she could catch, and inflicting devastating
defeats on the few Roman units that had been left in that part of the country.”
(And people call women the “gentle” sex.)
It is not exactly clear how Boadicea died, because Roman historians who
reported on the revolt disagree. Tacitus – who clearly admired Boadicea –
claimed that she poisoned herself when it became clear that the Romans were
closing in while Dio claims that she conveniently got sick and died.
Although Boadicea is a subject of fascination for many - and has been the
subject of numerous poems, songs, stories, paintings, statues, even a videogame
character in Civilization II,
Civilization IV, and Civilization V – there is very little reliable information about her. I could
easily spend a full blog post pontificating about this fascination and the
myths that surround her, but I will let you look into that yourself. For now,
enjoy this charming pop song about her exploits.
The Oxford History of Britain, 2010. Edited by Kenneth O.
Morgan. The relevant chapter on Roman Britain was written by Peter Salway
No comments:
Post a Comment