Warrior Queen

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6626, 12 August 1931, Page 10

Warrior Queen

WHO: BOADICEA. Where: England. When: First Century,

Why famous: A British warrior queen of the ago of the Homan Emperor Kero. Her story carries us far back into the misty reaches of history, to a period when Britain was untamed wilderness and her barbarous tribes only partially subdued by Jirm Roman rule. Bp in the fen country, not far from the east coast mud in approximately the position of the present shires of Norfolk and Suffolk, Brasutagus, the husband of Boadicea (lier name, to be strictly accurate, should be spelled Boudicea), was king of the tribe called Iccni. This tribe had not only resisted the coming of the Roman forces, but had made certain conciliatory terms whereby their tribal independence was insured under Roman suzerainty. This was excellent so long as the king reigned; but he left no male heir, only a will which portioned out his possessions—one-half to his daughters, one-half to the Emperor Nero. By such fair measures did Prasutagus think to perpetutate the peaceful status quo. Roman officials, however, were not above temptations of this sort. Claiming to act for the Emperor, they quietly seized the entire property of the late king, and, when fellow tribesmen of Prasutages protested, Boadicea and her daughters were treated with the most savage brutality. At that the entire tribe rose to arms; neither was that tribe alone in its rebellion against the Roman yoke of taxation and conscription. The torch, lit by the lceni, was carried in a wild blaze from one tribe to another, until half of all Britain roused to combat the foreign oppression. The then governor of Britain, Suetonius was absent with his army in Wales; but he returned in haste to London, which he intended to make his headquarters during the revolt, because its situation provided ready communication with the Continent. The tribesmen, realising the importance of London, advanced upon it in such numbers that the governor was speedily forced to abandon a defenceless town. Thereupon the Iccni destroyed the town and wiped out such of the population as remained; and similar disasters overtook Vcrulamium and other Romanised towns.

It is easy to sec how the Britains believed their freedom was won from the Roman bondage; but the courso of history was not so simply turned aside. Suetonius with his legions one day met the British forces in the open held. Historians cannot agree as to where the battle took place, same saying it was at Loudon, some at Chester. It is perhaps safer to assume that it was along the strip of Roman road, called Watling Street, which ran between the two mentioned towns. In any case, the strife was desperate. Many thousands of Britons fell and in the end the Roman legions triumphed. Boadicea, brokenhearted, took her own life. Nevertheless, after this mighty uprising, which had been kindled by wrongs clone this British queen, the Roman rule was modified, and quiet was restored to Britain,