B

oadicea.  The Iceni queen is shrouded in mystery, described as a virago – tall, headstrong - a passionate woman with long red waving hair, sworn to serve the battle-thirsty goddess Andraste.  And yet she remains unknown in history until a terrible disaster befalls her family.  The Romans, once allies, become the enemy.  What incident could provoke the widow of a loyal native king to blood vengeance?

 

Imagine: It is 60 A.D. in Britain and the Iron Age has just come to an end.  Green hills, forests, fields, horses, farms and enclosed settlements dot the island landscape.  Since Rome’s invasion in 43 A.D., native Britons had either been forced into slavery or Roman submission – except for the few tribes that openly supported Emperor Claudius.  This allowed the tribal leaders to keep their personal kingdoms with all of the benefits of a royal Roman citizen.  For sixteen years wealthy Prasutagus, king of the Iceni tribe, kept his people safe from war and in fact furthered his tribe’s status by following Rome.  Rome’s strategy for conquering a nation brilliantly relied on including the willing leaders in the new regime –less warfare, less conflict, as the emperor took charge.

Upon his death, Prasutagus bequeathed his land and holdings to both his wife, Boadicea, to hold for their daughters, and to the Roman Empire.  We can only suppose that he was trying to protect his family as well as appease the new law, where everything belonged to the emperor.  Overzealous Roman officials stormed the Iceni settlement to stake their claim.  When Boadicea and her clan protested, the Roman soldiers publicly flogged Boadicea as if she weren’t a noble citizen, and then violently raped her daughters.  Boadicea vowed vengeance and the other tribes, seeing that the Roman’s weren’t honoring their promises to the native people, eagerly joined Boadicea in her rebellion.  The native belief that women could fight and be in power clashed loudly with the Roman belief that women should stay home and spin.

Historical writers either show sympathy, or shame.  According to Tacitus, a Roman writer from the second century, Boadicea and her savage army attacked Roman forts populated with retired soldiers and their families, showing no mercy to women or children.  He seems to sympathize with the wrong done to her family, even as he tells of her supposed viciousness.  He writes that only Suetonius, just returned from the Isle of Mona with his superior army, can stop the barbaric acts of violence against innocent Roman citizens.  Roman strategy overcame native patriotism and Suetonius won.  Tacitus writes that once Boadicea was beaten back and wounded, she poisoned herself rather than submit.

Cassius Dio, a hundred and fifty years later, has a stronger opinion.  He describes Boadicea as tall, terrifying and fierce, with hair to her hips.  She wields a spear and wears a golden necklace.  Dio writes a speech that was supposedly given by Boadicea to incite her army to furor - in all probability this is inaccurate, yet it reflects the opinion of the time.  Romans didn’t value the equality of women in warfare or government.  Despite the empathetic writings of Tacitus decades earlier, Dio views Boadicea as a rebel against the rightful power of Rome – a barbarian warrior-queen.

By the sixth century, the British monk Gildas describes Boadicea as a treacherous lioness, suggesting that she was still a known figure after the fall of the Western Roman Empire.  More of a boogie man than a heroine.  Not much is known of the Dark Ages.  With the discovery of classical texts in the eleventh century, Boadicea’s story was dusted off and re-filed – again, with harsh censure.  It’s not until Tacitus’s work was printed in Italy in the later fifteenth, early sixteenth century, that Boadicea’s defense of her family and land against Rome is brought to light in a new way.  The sixteenth century saw a national identity crisis.  Britain searched for its roots in the classical texts of Tacitus and Dio.  What the scholars found was a heroine, of sorts, who was brave, yet savage.  Maternal, but vicious.  Boadicea was complicated.  What kind of courageous woman would rally after being beaten down, and avenge herself on the world’s greatest known army?  But according to the texts, Boadicea was so…bloodthirsty. How could she be the feminine ideal?

At this time, Elizabeth, daughter of Henry the VIII, was queen – a female royal who would never act so violently.  But Boadicea was strong – a leader with her roots in British soil.  So, in order to make Boadicea fit the political bill, writers created an image that suited their purposes.  Elizabeth claimed to be a direct descendent of the ancient Britons, making Boadicea the perfect patron, as she also had fought valiantly to keep intruders from England’s shores.  The Queen brought Boadicea into popularity.  Both were native British queens willing to do anything for their country.

Boadicea defies a simple classification.  One writer, Petruccio Ubaldini, goes so far as to separate Boadicea into two different characters – Voadicea is good and just, and has reason to go after the Romans, while Bunduica is a barbarian out for her own gain.  John Speed, from the “History of Great Britaine”, depicts Boadicea in a sixteenth century style skirt and vest, but with tattoos on her exposed arms and legs.  Again, trying to blend a barbaric figure with a heroic one. During the seventeenth century, John Fletcher writes a play that shows Boadicea as a less sympathetic figure, and one of ‘gee, look what happens when a woman is in charge.’  “Bonduca” especially shows the negative connotation of Boadicea taking on the Romans - he shows her as rash and incompetent, and only when the British join with the Romans are they a happy people.

 

 

 

 

However, pamphlet writer Esther Sowerman includes Boadicea as an example of feminine virtue.  At one point in the mid seventeenth century it was suggested that Stonehenge might be the burial site of Boadicea, and this idea was brought up again at the end of the eighteenth century. Each generation of writers has been drawn to the mystique of Boadicea –some disclaimed the classical texts, while others adjusted Boadicea to fit the current political climate.  Charles Hopkins, in 1697, wrote a play titled “Boadicea, Queen of Britain” where she is portrayed in a more loving way as Hopkins lightened the violence while upping Boadicea’s maternal role.  But in 1753, Richard Glover’s play blames the entire rebellion on Boadicea’s gender as he airs his views on female leadership.  Despite all of the controversy, Boadicea as a patriotic symbol of Britain grew.  In 1782, William Cowper wrote a poem, “Boadicea: an Ode”, where she becomes a symbol of sacrifice for the good of Imperial Britain.  Not all people approved of her actions. In 1864, Alfred Tennyson published “Boadicea”, showing her to be violent and mad.  The late nineteenth century saw a sculpture of Boadicea in a chariot, with her two daughters, that still stands today, designed by Thomas Thornycroft.  At that same time, Marie Trevelyan (Emma Mary Thomas) wrote “Britain’s Greatness Foretold: The Story of Boadicea”, which brought heroic and patriotic ideals into yet another century.  By the twentieth century, children learned about Boadicea in school – connecting the old native queen to the current queen Victoria.  Both names mean victory.  This generation also turned toward archeological details, focusing more on how Boadicea really might have lived.  She became less of a fairy tale, yet she was still a figure of great national importance. It’s no surprise that the Suffragettes claimed her as one of their own.  In 1949, C.H. Abrahall published “Boadicea, Queen of the Iceni,” where at the end of the book fellow Britons promise her that her death for freedom won’t be in vain.  In 1975, James Scott’s view of Boadicea is again filled with contradictions of violence versus patriotism, the feminine versus the masculine.  He sees her ancient actions as anti-British, for wanting to keep Britain as a barbarian nation instead of properly Romanized. During Margaret Thatcher’s term as the first female Prime Minister in the nineteen eighties, England’s writers were quick to draw a commonality between Boadicea of ancient power and the current woman in a powerful role.

Now, in the twenty first century, Boadicea remains an enduring fascination.  Whether you agree with her actions or not, she is a figure that rallies the underdog.  A warrior determined to find justice, and who can’t appreciate that?  Internet, television, movies, songs, plays, comic books and novels…her message of fighting for right goes beyond Britain and speaks to the world.

Author’s note: The telling of history is subjective.  History evolves as more facts are found, truth changes with evidence.  Boadicea’s name has many spellings, the most popular being the one I’ve chosen to use, although some scholars say that Boudica is actually the correct version. 

You decide which you prefer – who knows, it could change againJ

 

 

Boadicea and her Daughters

1905 illustration by A. S. Forrest

 

 

Bibliography:

1. Boudica, Iron Age Warrior Queen by Richard Hingley and Christina Unwin
2. The Legacy of Boadicea by Jodi Mikalachki
3. Find other references throughout the article

 

 

Traci E. Hall writes for Young Adult as Traci Hall.  The Rhiannon Godfrey series begins with Her Wiccan, Wiccan Ways and the second book is Something Wiccan This Way Comes. The third book is Wiccan Cool.  She has co-authored a non-fiction book entitled Adoption is Forever.  Writing as Traci E. Hall, her medieval romances include Love’s Magic followed by Beauty's Curse and her latest, Boadicea’s Legacy (a paranormal medieval romance) is available June 2010.  Visit Traci at www.traciehall.com.

 

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