Queen Boudicca

As Leader of the Iceni Tribe, Queen Boudicca ruled the territory of East Anglia. With her tall stature, strong will and a fierce glance in her eye, she was a rich and powerful Celtic Queen. Boudicca was the wife of a highly influential and authoritative King, Prasutagus, and together they had two daughters.

Due to the formidable Roman army, the South of England was a dangerous place to live. Therefore, King Prasutagus made an agreement with them to keep the peace, this agreement gave the Romans permission to live on their land without any ramification.

For nearly 20 years, The Romans lived in Boudicca’s land and her people were allowed to keep their homes, but Boudicca didn’t trust them and felt that they took too much from her citizens. The relationship between Boudicca and the Romans was strained but she was very conscious that, in order to remove the Romans from her land, she would have to start a war. As a resilient leader, she knew that this would hurt her people and therefore chose not to cause a conflict at that time.

Sadly, this did not last! After King Prasutagus died, the Covetous Romans belligerently demanded Boudicca’s land for taxes. Desperate to retain power over her land, she refused their advances and prohibited them from disadvantaging her people. The Roman Army weren’t happy, and this led to devastating consequences for Boudicca. The Romans tied her and her daughters to a pole, where they were beaten as a warning to make her do as she was told.

Boudicca was furious, she did not want to listen to their demands and to protect her people she decided that she was going to fight back.

The beatings were a warning to Boudicca to do as she was told nevertheless Boudicca did not want to do this. She was a good queen and she decided to fight back. Angrily, she built her own army and prepared to march them on to the Roman city at Camulodunum (Colchester).

With great determination, Boudicca led her army into battle, the Roman’s actions had riled her and under no circumstance was she willing to let them take control of her land and her people. Boudicca was successful and the battle was won by the Celtic tribe.

After seeing her great achievement, more tribes joined Boudicca and her army quickly began to expand. With Boudicca at their helm, the tribes became a mighty army and marched on to Londinium (London) and Verulamium (St Albans), ready to attack when their governor Suetonius Paullinus was called away. Confident in their abilities, she ordered her expanding army to kill every Roman that they saw, causing terror and driving them from the land for good. The tribes did as they were commanded and the cities were burnt to the ground, killing many Romans in the process. Feeling more confident than ever, Boudicca sent for her army’s families to come and watch them defeat the Romans, she was a proud queen and wanted everyone to know of their accomplishments.

After hearing of the terror brought down on the Romans, Paullinus rallied more troops and called for as many soldiers as possible to join his ranks. Although the Roman army grew, it could still not match the numbers of the Iceni tribe, the Celts had agreed with Boudicca and it had not been hard for her to assemble an army that was around 20 times bigger than that of the Romans.

Sadly, Boudicca had not considered the capability of the Romans or the high intensity training that they had undergone when becoming soldiers and although they were small in size, they had superior weapons and a wealth of training that the Celts did not have. The Celts had long, unwieldy swords and wore no body armour, while the Romans were well protected and had short, lethal knives and eventually Boudicca’s army was defeated in the Battle of Watling Street in 61 AD (The battle is thought to have been in the Midlands, near Watling Street, a great Roman road).

To avoid the humiliation of capture, Boudicca fled the battlefield and it is thought that she poisoned herself. However, she died a heroine in the eyes of the British people. The Romans had been shocked by the size and scale of the rebellion and she had shown how women could be brave leaders of men. Although the Romans were victorious, they had learnt their lesson. In the years that followed, they were more careful and respectful in the way they ruled.

BOUDICA WARRIOR QUEEN OF THE ICENI A POEM FOR KIDS BY JON BRATTON AND PAUL PERRO This is a tale of Boudica. The Iceni Warrior Queen, One of the most fearsome women There has ever been.

She wore colourful clothes and she Was tall and strong and loud. She had a mane of long red hair. You’d spot her in a crowd.

She and her husband the King ruled A place where Norfolk is today. The king made a deal with the Romans And paid them to stay away.

When the king died though Things did not go as planned. The Romans decided to claim All the king’s wealth and land.

They came and stole from the Britons Who were angry at being cheated. What’s more the Romans were violent - The queen and her daughters mistreated.

Queen Boudica was quite outraged; She had never been angrier. She summoned all of the tribes to A place now called East Anglia.

"We can't let them do this to us!" She said, "It isn’t right. Let's get an army together And let’s give the Romans a fight!"

So all of the tribes joined forces, They were led by the red-haired Queen It was the biggest army that Britain had ever seen.

Boudica’s army marched around And they attacked town after town. Wherever they found Romans lived They burned their houses down.

In the end though the Britons lost, And the Romans were the winners. The Romans were well-trained soldiers, And the Britons, just beginners.

And Boudicca's massive army Suffered its final defeat Well beaten by the Romans at The Battle of Watling Street.

Yes Boudica lost in the end, The Romans won, it's true, But Boudica had scared them And taught them a lesson or two. Yes they regretted they’d crossed her, They paid a price for being mean To the Britons, and the princesses, And the mighty Warrior Queen.