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| The great anti Roman champion was Boudicca, commonly remembered as Boadicea. She was queen of the Iceni in Norfolk. Her husband, Prasutagus, had tried to retain some independence by staying on good terms with Rome as a client king. But when he died, the Romans took charge and plundered the royal possessions. They regarded these as including the queen and her daughters. Boudicca was flogged and her daughters raped. |
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She appealed to her people to take revenge. After delivering
a warlike speech she sought an omen by releasing a hare. It ran in an auspicious
direction and the Britons cheered. She thanked the goddess Adrastt, bestower
of victory, and launched a revolt.
The Trinovantes, her neighbours to the south, joined in. The Romans had been converting their capital, Camulodunum, into a town on their own lines, Colchester. Their retired soldiers were to form the dominant population. As it happened, they were nervous because of omens they had noticed themselves, such as the collapse of a statue of Victory. A combined force of Iceni and Trinovantes under Boudicca's leadership destroyed the Place, and marched on to destroy the new cities of London and Verulamium (St Albans). Wild revels, massacres, and human sacrifice marked each success. |
| At last the romans recovered and defeated Boudicca's
army. She may have taken poison, however this is only speculation, as it
seems that this finale to the queen's legend was added to glorify her...no
proof has ever been found of the method, or whereabouts of her death...
No one knows the heroic queen's grave. Stonehenge itself was once claimed as her monument. Some say that she lies under a mound in Parliament Hill Fields in Hampstead; others, that she is under Platform 10 at King's Cross Station. Her ghost, however, haunts the earthwork of Amesbury Banks in Epping Forest, and in 1950 she was seen driving her chariot out of the mist near Cammeringham in lincolnshire. |
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