Bonekickers

The history behind ‘The Eternal Fire’: Queen Boudicca

By Dr. Mark Horton

Queen Boudicca was ruler of the Iceni, an Iron Age tribe that lived in East Anglia, who led one of the most threatening uprisings against Roman rule in Britain.

Since the Roman invasion in 43 AD, this area of Britain had been relatively peaceful, and the Iceni were considered to be clients, and allowed to look after their own affairs. However with the death of Boudicca’s husband, Prasutagus in 60 AD, the Romans annexed the kingdom; Boudicca was flogged and her daughters raped. The governor Suetonius Paulinus, and most of the legions were away in north Wales, and Boudicca was able to raise a successful revolt against Roman rule, and gather an army to march on Camulodunum (Colchester) defeating the Roman army in battle and, wiping out much of the ninth legion. Suetonius hurried back from Wales, but was unable to save Londinium (London) and Verulamium (St Albans), which were destroyed and many of the residents massacred. A final battle took place near to Watling Street, probably close to its intersection with the Fosse Way in the Midlands, but the British were no match for the well organised Roman army, and a rout took place. The Roman historian Tacitus states that 80,000 Britons were killed, against 400 Roman dead.

There remains some doubt as to how Boudicca actually died. Tacitus states she poisoned herself, but the other source for the revolt, Cassis Dio, recorded that she fell sick and died, and was given a lavish burial. It is possible that she survived the defeat of the ‘Battle of Watling Street’ and that Tacitus was simply supplying, in his history a heroic end to the warrior queen.

There is considerable archaeological evidence for the times of Boudicca. Testimony for the revolt comes from extensive burning deposits in the three cities that she sacked to show that the destruction was on the scale suggested by the Roman historians. Descriptions of Boudicca mention the very long red hair, but also her golden torc and examples of these have been found in East Anglia - at Snettisham, and most recently at Sedgeford, which it has been claimed, belonged to her tribe and was buried for safety during the revolt. Some of the objects of the time, associated with high-status Celtic women have been preserved in richly furnished graves, of which the most famous is at Birdlip in Gloucestershire, 30 miles north west of Bath and dating to around 50 AD and which included stone beads, brooches, two bronze bowls as well as a very ornate mirror.