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Sarai Ruiz
Mrs. Bergen, Mrs. Downer, Mrs. Ibrahim
English 10-7, Latin II-4, History T/TH
10 November 2010
Queen Boudicca
Queen Boudicca an aggressive, powerful, and fearless women, are the qualities that
Queen Boudicca will be remembered, who almost took the Romans out of Britain. Queen
Boudicca is remembered to this day for all the accomplishments she made while fighting in
battle with the Romans when the Romans invaded Britain, as well as her beauty and luscious
long hair, how Prasutagus king of Iceni and husband of Boudicca kept his way of reigning Iceni
and his death, and Queen Boudicca attacks against the Romans big cities. The actions that
Queen Boudicca made and takes place during this time made her a great Queen.
Queen Boudicca was born in Britain, in 25 A.D. Not many things are known about her
youth, but it was known that she had long luscious red hair down to her hips, she was tall, had a
harsh voice and a shrill glare. It was also known that she had many young men chasing after her
because she was so beautiful, “Boudicca of the red hair stood on her chariot platform, her
daughters by her side” (Trow 1). Her hair was so red you can see it from long distances, when
the sun hit her hair. It also was said that the Romans brutally beat her, “A third had ripped her
tunic, taunting her in the guttering firelight, fondling her breast for a moment before throwing
her forward to be hauled upright unto her knees” (Trow 2). No one really knew how she looked,
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if she was fat or skinny. But everyone knew about her red hair, her red hair was like satin, and
red for royal colors. “Her arm wrenched outwards, her long unbraided hair thrown over her
face so that her back was bare” (Trow 2). Queen Boudicca had one of a kind hair, there was
nothing like her long red hair, and made her a beautiful and distinguishable from all other
woman of her time.
In 55 B.C. the Romans invaded Britain during the reign of Julius Caesar. The Romans
were a very powerful empire, and at the time the Roman empire was still growing and
becoming a large and more influential, “The emperor Claudius went back to Rome at summer’s
end, leaving him orders for Dun Camulus to be rebuilt as a roman city, and giving it all the
special rights of a colony, a place for his Red Crest to settle on the lands when their years with
the eagles were over” (Sutcliff 39). The Romans were going from land to land, from empire to
empire conquering everything that got in their way, “And then in high summer, we heard that
the Emperor of the roman people had come himself, and with him many more Red Crests, and
magic waranimals, many times bigger than the biggest horse that was ever foaled, whose voice
was bellowing of many war thorns, whose hide was tough enough to turn a spear, and who
made the earth shudder when they charged, scattering and trampling on all that came their
way” (Sutcliff 35). Some of the animals that the Romans used during the invasion were
elephants, larger than any other animal they had seen, so strong that they could kill hundreds
of people at once. The power was so great, that they used elephants in battle, like Hannibal.
The Romans said that the elephants were larger than any other animal they had seen, so strong
that they could kill hundreds of people at once. The people of the lands that the Roman’s had
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conquered did not like the Roman’s. The people didn’t like the Romans because they treated
them wrong and made them as slaves. Both sides thought differently about each other.
At the time when Rome had conjured Britain, they also conquered Iceni, ruled by
Prasutagus. Prasutagus kept ruling his country with one condition, being that he would have to
pay them in order for them not to cause trouble, “King Prasutagus was a “dient king” of the
Romans; he was allowed to keep his kingdom as long, as he maintained a pro-Roman stance ,
and paid his dues to his conquerors” (Collingridge 170). While Prasutagus was still ruling he also
had to be respectful to the Romans because they were the new rulers of Iceni, even though
they weren’t present. Prautagus still kept some of his laws, but it was mainly the Romans who
chose what went in what went out. Prasutagus did not keep Iceni for a long time because in 60
A.D. he died. Prasutagus had left Boudicca, his wife, Comorra and Tasca, his daughters a will,
saying that when he died they would be well taken care of and they got to keep the lands that
belonged to them. The Romans knew that there was something wrong with this picture,
because they were under Rome’s law, “As a client king, it was likely that Prasutagus was
considered to be a full Roman citizen; he was certainly sufficiently romanized to have left a will
when he died which laid out his wishes for his land and his family” (Collingridge 170). Rome saw
the will of Prasutagus but did not grant his wishes, because he was under their command,
making him nothing. Having an “alliance” with the Romans was substandard, because the
Romans were just waiting for the death of Prasutagus. The Romans knew what they were going
to do after Prasutagus, because although he had children, he did not have a male heir that
would take command and be strong, making King Prasutagus paying his way to death.
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After Prasutagus death Boudicca and her daughters were mistreated severely. Boudicca
was whipped in the back and her daughters were raped right in front of her eyes. Enraged at
what she had seen, Boudicca grew great anger and resentment towards the Romans’. Every
person in Iceni had heard of what had happened to them, so they wanted to help out and bring
support to the family, “As the news spread of Boudicca’s flogging and the princess’s rape, The
Iceni tribespeople left their fields and homesteads and began to gather together en masse near
the royal residence” (Collingridge 184). In 60 A.D Boudicca attacked Colchester without the
Romans knowing so she destroyed it, “But two thousand years ago, Colchester was the capitalthe most important site of early Roman Britain and the nerve centre of foreign occupation”
(Collingridge 188). After destroying Colchester, she went and burned to the ground the twenty
year old settlement in London, “Londinium also offered a suitable location from which the new
Roman overloads could administer both the north and the south of the new province”
(Collingridge 211). After the battle in London she traveled to St. Albans killing an estimated
seventy to eighty thousand people including Roman soldiers. Boudicca knew she was not going
to stop with her cruelty, until someone stopped her, because she wanted the Romans to feel
the same thing she did, when they took everything away from her. Boudicca also knew if she
destroyed these cities they would affect Rome in the worst possible way. The last of Boudicca’s
attacks was in Mancetter, where she was defeated and heavily outnumbered by the Roman
forces led by governor Gaiuis Suetonius Paulines. Boudicca was not captured at the batlle, but
she knew if found she would be killed, so she committed suicide in 62 B.C. because she did not
want to die by the hands of the Romans. Boudicca accomplished many things and almost fled
the romans out of Britain, making her a very courageous woman.
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Boudicca’s life was extraordinary for what she did to one of the greatest and most
powerfulness empires in the world. Great impact to because she was a woman and women
were considered insignificant back in those days. She also was very confident and had no fear if
she were to die in her journey. Her beauty shows that we still have evidence of how she looked,
the invasion of the Romans, Prasutagus’s reign and death, and Boudiccas attack towards the
cities that were most important to Rome while they were spreading their empire in Britain,
made her great and well known for fighting.
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Cassius Dio: Histories, Book 62. (Boudica the Life of Britain’s Legendary Warrior Queen)
Collingridge, Vanessa.” Boudica the Life of Britain’s Legendary Warrior Queen.” New York: The
Overlook Press
Sutcliff, Rosemary. “Song for a Dark Queen (Sutcliff 40).” New York: Thomas Y. Crowell
Trow, M.J. “Boudicca the Warrior Queen.” London: Jacket Illustration
Fraser, Antonia. “The Warrior Queens.” New York: The New York Times Book Review